White Lump on Bumblefoot - Advice Needed

[Themellowyellows]

Yay! Glad to know she is healing!

 

[ThatOnePotato]

Bumblefoot requires not just cleaning, but removal of the black scab after soaking. Often the soaking softens the scab enough that you can just scrape it off with a thumbnail and the pus kernel comes with it. If not, you will need to use a sharp tool to dig out the waxy pus kernel.

This is necessary because the staph bacteria is trapped under the pus and the foot will not heal unless the pus is removed. The pus is solid not runny, so when you get the solid yellow pus kernel removed, all that's left is thin, stringy fatty stuff called serum. Flush the wound well with soap and water, dry, and use a triple antibiotic ointment to treat the raw wound.

It's best to bandage it. Use a gauze pad over the wound and then take elastic bandage (Vetrap can be found at the feed store in the horse supplies in glorious colors) and starting halfway up the shank, wind downward and around the foot pad and then back up the shank to where you started, ending at the back of the leg so she can't peck it loose. Press firmly to make the end adhere and not flap loose.

Take care not to stretch the elastic bandage too tight or the circulation can be cut off. Remove the bandage in two or three days to check on the healing. If another black scab is forming, it means you didn't get all the pus. So soak and repeat the above procedure. If you see a tissue thin tan scab forming, that's healthy and the wound is healing.

My pekin just got bumblefoot either last night or this morning but I'm wondering if i should just soak the foot in the Epsom salt bath and wait to see if it goes away on its own or remove it right now. any advice?

 

[azygous]

You may be seeing a bruise or a cut. It may not be infected yet, so technically it isn't bumblefoot until it's infected with staph bacteria. So yes, soaking can help. Then dry the foot and put an antibiotic ointment on it.