Bumblefoot Mystery

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I had a couple hens get deep bumblefoot from puncture wounds in their feet. (We found the offending trim nail in a piece of wood they were roosting on). By the time we discovered it, the scab was mostly healed and not much bigger than a pin hole, and the infection was deep in the pad, and the hens were in discomfort.

One hen we ended up culling (for a variety of reasons). So, I took the opportunity to test my suspicion and used her foot for practice surgery. Sure enough, she had a tiny bit of infection packed way up into the pad of her foot. When I say “way up” I mean way farther than I wanted to stick a scalpel in my birds’ feet. I felt that the infection was too far out of my grasp to deal with, and I didn’t have the time for daily Epsom salt soaks for both hens for what would have probably taken a few weeks.

I got this awesome Epsom salt poultice that I found recommended on another post here at BYC.

I’m no expert but here’s what I did/am doing for my girls that seems to be working:

Since my girls didn’t have much of a scab, I cleaned the pad of the foot and applied this poultice, wrapped and left it on for 2 days. Repeated with fresh wrap & poultice every 2 days. When the scab started to look interested in coming off, I gave one more fresh wrap & poultice, this time wait only ONE day (scab is more moist and pliable) and then remove scab and as much infection as possible.

Then clean the wound however you typically would (I use saline flush, Vetrycin, & triple antibiotic ointment). Wrap. In 2 days clean, retreat with ointment, & wrap. 2 more days remove wrap.

This improved, but did not entirely eliminate the infection. So I monitored and repeated the process when either A- I noticed a decent scab beginning to form or B- I start to notice a limp.

I believe one hen is fully healed (after 2 rounds) but am still monitoring. The second hen needs additional treatment, but whereas she was limping initially, she isn’t currently. And her foot looks treatable now. The process could probably be sped up by being a little more aggressive with treatment but this was what worked/is working for my schedule.

Hope this info can be helpful!

 

[RubyLady]

(No photos, sorry. I'm not a phone person.)

Here's an update regarding treating bumble foot with Mupirocin and a toothbrush. All I do is clean the foot pad, brush a dab of Mupirocin in the scab area for one minute, put a dab of the Mupirocin on gauze and stick it to the scab/pad and vet-wrap the thing.

5 hens:
1. one with just a tiny scab,
2. one with both feet who we treated with Epsom salt soaks and digging out the core (not huge) and wrapping with polysporin and it came back
3. one with just one foot scabbed but the other foot has some slightly bulbous joints
4 & 5. Two more with just one foot affected and one was limping

After four treatments over 12 days, the fifth being Day 13:
#1 had lost the tiny scab and the thin not very replacement scab came off easily.
#4 & 5 the larger scabs pulled right off and pink healthy skin underneath
#2 one scab pulled off easily but a small core came with it. She bled slightly from inside. I packed it with mupirocin and wrapped. The other scab did not budge yet.
#3 the scab would not come off and the other foot looks about the same but I have been brushing ointment into that foot but not wrapping it.

So I think the Mupirocin and toothbrush is a clear winner (at least over stage 1 and 2 and heading into 3) over what I have tried in the past. Unfortunately, the ointment is prescription only so I have a call in to my vet to see if he can call in a scrip to someplace online as I only have enough left for one more treatment and need to have some shipped to me. But this sure beats dealing with soaking chicken feet and digging around and creating wounds and healing taking many more weeks. Thanks to the person who suggested it. I can't remember the name.

 

[pecky33]

Don’t forget that bumblefoot is EXTREMELY contagious to other birds and humans! It’s a staff infection! Make sure to treat it consistently and catch it as early as possible!
I had 2 chickens with bumblefoot that I had waited way too long, where it was swollen on the bottom AND in the toe webbing. We did an extensive treatment for several weeks and some kernels did come out, but the next day my chicken was lethargic and I had to put her down to get her out of suffering. The infection had gone internal.

 

[pecky33]

Good luck to all of you, though, I really hope your chickens make it through!

 

[pecky33]

Sounds like you’re doing a great job treating this. Keep up with it!