Abby3465
In the Brooder
Hi all. I wanted to share some information with everyone from my vet and one of her colleagues. I know a lot of people lack veterinary care for their chickens so I thought this might be helpful to some. This is what's transpired over this last week.
First, my vet is not an avian vet and does not treat chickens. However, she is familiar with my current situation, as I called her about 14 days ago when I saw the first signs of trouble. Dreaded Bumblefoot. Her colleague is an Avian vet.
Now, we've been treating them with the most common suggestion for treatment. Epsom salt soaks, colloidal silver, drawing salve, and bandaging with vet wrap.
I need to explain a couple things before continuing. We have only lived at our current location for less than 3 years. There is only one vet in our area that will treat chickens. She's mainly a livestock vet but will see dogs, cats, chickens, etc. I've been on a waiting list with her since we moved to the area just to see our dogs. I don't see space opening anytime soon.
Because we can't find a vet in the area to see all of our animals, we still drive an hour and a half to see our vet where we used to live. She's an awesome lady that does what she does for the love of animals, not to get rich. We trust her judgement completely.
With that said, I was in her office earlier this week to get shots for one of the dogs. She asked how my 2 hens were doing. I told her the Orpington seems to be healing, although very slowly. The polish has gotten worse. She went from stage 1 to 3 in about 7 days! When she heard that, she asked if I had extra time to wait until she contacted her colleague for a possible treatment plan. Of course, I said yes.
Here's the reason for this post. I wanted to share with you what the (avian) vet told my vet. She said stop everything I'm doing. It probably isn't going to get better before it gets worse and will need surgery. Now I'm not trying to be an alarmist or to detract from others advise. I only want to share what this vet said was a proper course of treatment for Bumblefoot in her opinion. So here is is.
**10-20 minute foot soak in Iodine. It's got the antibacterial properties necessary for cleansing but will also soften the "plug".
**SSD Ointment applied at least once daily, twice a day is better. This is the "stuff". This is the actual medication that will cure the bumblefoot. More on this in a minute.
**Hydrocolloid Gel bandage, cut to size over the affected area. These are the same waterproof medicated pads used for blisters. They can be found at any drugstore/box store.
**Thin gauze pad over the entire area to protect from dirt and wrapped with vet wrap. Just f.y.i., she said avoid red vet wrap.
No one will leave it alone. smh. 
I know we all know that, I just thought is was funny and threw it in.
The SSD ointment is a tricky find. Most places will require a prescription for it, i.e. Chewy, Petsmart, even Amazon. I was not able to get a prescription from my vet or the avian vet because in order for them to write the prescription, they'd first need to see my hens. Again this would have been an hour and a half drive, one way. I wasn't willing to stress the girls out more than they already are with the daily plucking them from the flock for foot treatments.
A little birdie (my vet
) helped me with a solution though. There is a supplier in South Carolina called Performance Vet Supply. They consider SSD ointment an over the counter medication. It isn't expensive either. Around 8 dollars. Shipping is another story, depending on how fast you need it. SC to Fla in 3 days was 17 dollars.
Well that's it. I hope this information helps someone else that may be in a similar situation as we are with no vet care available.
First, my vet is not an avian vet and does not treat chickens. However, she is familiar with my current situation, as I called her about 14 days ago when I saw the first signs of trouble. Dreaded Bumblefoot. Her colleague is an Avian vet.
Now, we've been treating them with the most common suggestion for treatment. Epsom salt soaks, colloidal silver, drawing salve, and bandaging with vet wrap.
I need to explain a couple things before continuing. We have only lived at our current location for less than 3 years. There is only one vet in our area that will treat chickens. She's mainly a livestock vet but will see dogs, cats, chickens, etc. I've been on a waiting list with her since we moved to the area just to see our dogs. I don't see space opening anytime soon.
Because we can't find a vet in the area to see all of our animals, we still drive an hour and a half to see our vet where we used to live. She's an awesome lady that does what she does for the love of animals, not to get rich. We trust her judgement completely.
With that said, I was in her office earlier this week to get shots for one of the dogs. She asked how my 2 hens were doing. I told her the Orpington seems to be healing, although very slowly. The polish has gotten worse. She went from stage 1 to 3 in about 7 days! When she heard that, she asked if I had extra time to wait until she contacted her colleague for a possible treatment plan. Of course, I said yes.
Here's the reason for this post. I wanted to share with you what the (avian) vet told my vet. She said stop everything I'm doing. It probably isn't going to get better before it gets worse and will need surgery. Now I'm not trying to be an alarmist or to detract from others advise. I only want to share what this vet said was a proper course of treatment for Bumblefoot in her opinion. So here is is.
**10-20 minute foot soak in Iodine. It's got the antibacterial properties necessary for cleansing but will also soften the "plug".
**SSD Ointment applied at least once daily, twice a day is better. This is the "stuff". This is the actual medication that will cure the bumblefoot. More on this in a minute.
**Hydrocolloid Gel bandage, cut to size over the affected area. These are the same waterproof medicated pads used for blisters. They can be found at any drugstore/box store.
**Thin gauze pad over the entire area to protect from dirt and wrapped with vet wrap. Just f.y.i., she said avoid red vet wrap.
No one will leave it alone. smh. I know we all know that, I just thought is was funny and threw it in.The SSD ointment is a tricky find. Most places will require a prescription for it, i.e. Chewy, Petsmart, even Amazon. I was not able to get a prescription from my vet or the avian vet because in order for them to write the prescription, they'd first need to see my hens. Again this would have been an hour and a half drive, one way. I wasn't willing to stress the girls out more than they already are with the daily plucking them from the flock for foot treatments.
A little birdie (my vet
) helped me with a solution though. There is a supplier in South Carolina called Performance Vet Supply. They consider SSD ointment an over the counter medication. It isn't expensive either. Around 8 dollars. Shipping is another story, depending on how fast you need it. SC to Fla in 3 days was 17 dollars.Well that's it. I hope this information helps someone else that may be in a similar situation as we are with no vet care available.
Again I suppose it depends.
