Pekin foot problems...help please!

[pumakat78]

My little Pekin girl is having some problems with her left foot. She was limping for about 3 days, and when we finally got her to let us look at her feet we found some callous type sores (best way for me to describe them). There's also some redness and slight peeling on the top of her left foot. Pics are below. She's pretty sensitive about us touching the left foot and won't spread it when we're holding her. It looks like there are a couple more starting on her right foot as well. As a result, we're worried that it's bumblefoot. Now it's been about 2 weeks since the sores first appeared, and while my hubby was checking her little feet the sores opened, so we put some Neosporin on them and have been rubbing bag balm on the rest of her feet since they were so dry.

Our little boy is fine, nothing on his feet at all. I do have some Clavamox that I got for my cats, but I have no clue as to the doseage for ducks and can't seem to find anything online about it. I also have water soluble Duramycin-10. We're having a difficult time finding a vet in the area as they all seem to consider ducks "exotic" birds and say they don't deal with them, grrrr....Any help would be appreciated.

top of her little foot


bottom of left foot




bottom of right foot

[TAWhatley]

I'm not sure what that is on the top of the foot, but the large calluses on the bottom are bumblefoot. There is pus/infection inside the calluses. Often these are caused by spending lots of time on hard surfaces like concrete but can also be caused by a small cut/nick that becomes infected. It can be very difficult to get rid of and it's quite painful for the duck. I would suggest soaking her feet in warm Epsom Salts water for 15 minutes or so twice a day and also starting her on a course of antibiotics. You can use the Clavamox. The Clavamox dose for a bird would be 125 mg/kg every 12 hours.

Terry

[ChickMom]

Yes, as Terry said, that is bumblefoot, poor thing. If you tell us where you are located, someone may know of a vet near you. Or look in the vet listings here on this site too.

My vet prescribes clavamox and baytril when I have a duck with bumblefoot. Clavamox is good and they take it twice a day for 2 weeks. Terry gave you the dosage. Can you weigh the duck? I do it by weighing a carrier, then putting the duck in the carrier and weighing it again. To turn pounds into kg you take the pounds in decimal form (like 4 pounds, 8 oz would be 4.5 pounds) and multiply by .455. The dosage is not exact as it's generally pretty hard to cut the pills into anything other than halves or quarters. You can get inexpensive pill cutters at Wal-Mart or pharmacies.

In addition to the soaks and the antibiotics, I also am very liberal with the neosporin. I have a big male muscovy right now who has a bumble on the bottom of his middle toe. I rub triple antibiotic ointment on it 2 or 3 times a day. I think it's soothing and it will help if there are any openings which there often are.

I can tell you from experience that it's very important to try to help them before the infection goes into the bone. Once it's in the bone, it can eat away the bone so the joints become too weak and it's heart breaking. At this point, treat all you can - and I so hope you can find a vet - and hopefully, you can kill that infection. I've had very good outcomes with early and concentrated treatment. Best of luck.

[pumakat78]

Thank you guys so very much! At least now we have a plan for action. We're in Santa Maria Ca. Any vets within a 50 mile radius that actually work with ducks would be fabulous if anyone knows of one. I've tried all the ones I could find and was told the same thing over and over, "Oh, you have an exotic bird. We don't deal with those. Try Dr. So and So." Amazingly enough, I even got that from the Humane Society here...they were the first ones I tried with no help at all by the end of the call...grrr.

We're still trying to figure out what caused it. There isn't a whole lot of concrete that they're on (mainly just the patio when they come on it), and like I've said my little boy is fine...just worrisome is all.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond. Hopefully we'll have some good news soon!

[ChickMom]

Sometimes it just happens. I've had ducks develop bumblefoot despite living in a pond and grassy yard!

Please check the lists mentioned in this post:
http://www.duckrescuenetwork.org/DRNBoard/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=478

I don't know my CA geography but I know someone in the Sacramento area also who has some good vets, also someone in San Jose. If either of those are near enough to help, let me know and I'll get the details for you. I see we have Roseville and Lake Forest vets in the lists noted above.

[pumakat78]

We're right smack in between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Both of those are so far of a drive, I'm afraid it would traumatize the duck (not to mention finding a duck friendly hotel... ). If there are any suggestions for this area, I'll be more than happy to jump on it. She's so shy in the first place...