Bumblefoot Recovery day by day pictures

[Whitsr]

Thanks to everyone on this forum i'm treating my duck for what we suspect as bumblefoot. I've been treating her four days. I've taken a picture every day to see if there is noticeable improvement and I think there is! I thought it was interesting to see the difference, I think in another week she should be okay.

My treatment plan has been: epsom salt bath, vetracyn + antiseptic spray and a salve overnight with a wrapped foot. She's done the salve for two days now. Today i'm switching to the duravet salt poultice just because i ordered it and wanted to try. Today was also the first day she was out with the rest of the ducks too. Still a bit of a limp, but I'm glad to see the swelling decrease. No swimming today. Probably none tomorrow either.

Opinions on if i should remove the small dark scab on the sore? Or do I just leave it? It's so small and I caught it all early.

 

[CoriM]

Nice job! I think you're doing everything perfectly. I would just keep wrapping every night with the duravet epsom salt poultice. I bet in a few days it will be pretty great. Sometimes the scab goes away before the swelling.

 

[Whitsr]

Nice job! I think you're doing everything perfectly. I would just keep wrapping every night with the duravet epsom salt poultice. I bet in a few days it will be pretty great. Sometimes the scab goes away before the swelling.

I know it's only been a day, but had a small setback yesterday. I let her be with her flock, I think she walked too much because the swelling went up a bit. But, now it's back down. Far image on the right - no longer red, but the white part that is left of it seems very firm. Is that normal? It looks to be getting slightly smaller and flatter. Does the bone on the far right look swollen?

 

[CoriM]

As long as overall it's going in the right direction that's good. Maybe just wrap it and put ointment on overnight for a couple days. I have a duck who I have worked on off and on for over a month. I went on a trip and have left it alone for a week and a half now - there's no scab, but still a swelling, though not hard. I think as long as swelling is still reducing and it's not getting hard and inflamed again it's okay.

 

[Whitsr]

As long as overall it's going in the right direction that's good. Maybe just wrap it and put ointment on overnight for a couple days. I have a duck who I have worked on off and on for over a month. I went on a trip and have left it alone for a week and a half now - there's no scab, but still a swelling, though not hard. I think as long as swelling is still reducing and it's not getting hard and inflamed again it's okay.

Sorry for another question! I was able to get the scab to soak off today completely on its own. She keeps favoring the left foot, so it must still be painful to stand on the right, do you think I should take the plunge and cut open the large bump? I don't know if there's a hardened kernel or if it just needs to recede. After it soaked off, I added a small amount of drawing salve and neosporin, she's wrapped for the day..

The left foot (untreated) has a small spot with a dot i'm worried about on the far right - should i be treating this as well?

@Miss Lydia any thoughts on your end?

 

[CoriM]

No worries! I am no expert and you are the best judge but it takes experience to get the feel for when it might heal on its own and when you might need to cut into it again. Based on looks alone, I would probably take a little scalpel and make a tiny cut into the big one on the right. I would then look at the tissue, if there was whitish, yellowish gunky stuff, I would try to get that out, through possibly cutting (tiny, tiny cuts I'm talking about) scraping or squeezing. I would do the best I could, then neosporin, gauze and wrap. Then I would the next day try the epsom salt poultice again - the green goop, and keep that going for a few days to see if it stars shrinking again. When I was using the epsom salt poultice I would try to put it on twice a day with fresh wrappings for the first couple days, then if it seemed to be helping, just go to at night. The other foot you could probably catch just be scrubbing it with iodine on a toothbrush a couple times a day when you're attending to the other foot. It's such a hassle and sometimes when you cut into the bumble it bleeds so much you can't even really see. Or sometimes the tissue looks fine. You definitely learn by doing. And you can give your girl a treat of peas or meal worms after you're done working on her so she doesn't hate you. You're doing a great job!

 

[Whitsr]

No worries! I am no expert and you are the best judge but it takes experience to get the feel for when it might heal on its own and when you might need to cut into it again. Based on looks alone, I would probably take a little scalpel and make a tiny cut into the big one on the right. I would then look at the tissue, if there was whitish, yellowish gunky stuff, I would try to get that out, through possibly cutting (tiny, tiny cuts I'm talking about) scraping or squeezing. I would do the best I could, then neosporin, gauze and wrap. Then I would the next day try the epsom salt poultice again - the green goop, and keep that going for a few days to see if it stars shrinking again. When I was using the epsom salt poultice I would try to put it on twice a day with fresh wrappings for the first couple days, then if it seemed to be helping, just go to at night. The other foot you could probably catch just be scrubbing it with iodine on a toothbrush a couple times a day when you're attending to the other foot. It's such a hassle and sometimes when you cut into the bumble it bleeds so much you can't even really see. Or sometimes the tissue looks fine. You definitely learn by doing. And you can give your girl a treat of peas or meal worms after you're done working on her so she doesn't hate you. You're doing a great job!

Thank you for the advice. I agree learning through doing. I just changed out her foot wrap for the second time today. It already looked slightly smaller which I'm surprised by. I put the salve on the hole and Neosporin again. I'm going to check in the morning, if it's not smaller I'll do a super tiny cut but going to try and see if the salve and other things can draw anything up so I don't have to cut. Thank you as always!

 

[CoriM]

Sounds perfect!