Bumblefoot- natural remedies, prevention?

[Chantilly Lace]

Poor Picaso has a slight case of bumblefoot. It is just like a callous with a bit of redness, on the bottom of both feet. My vet suggested applying pure aloe vera twice a day, but so far it is not getting much better. She did not seem that concerned, but I know that this can go from a small thing to a big thing pretty quickly. He is a large bird and I think that because he is so heavy, it makes it harder for him to heal. I was hoping someone had some natural remedies before I have to opt for antibiotics.

Also, I don't know what else I can do to prevent this from happening again? He has lots of different perches, cotton rope perches, mulberry, apple, willow, dragonwood, and I have even wrapped some of his favorite spots in vet wrap and fleece to help ease the pressure. I don't have any sandpaper perches or anything like that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Gen120]

Poor Picaso! Does he have a favorite perch that he sits on constantly or anything? Cause my conure, Jasper started getting a little pressure sore on the bottom of his foot so I took his fav. perch out (it was a sandy perch) and he got better. We've had chickens with bumblefoot (they came to us with that, we bought them from some other people) and all we did was put vasaline on their feet, rubbed it into their scales and that helped cure it. I think we might have changed the perches around too.

 

[Chantilly Lace]

Yes, he does have a favorite perch, but it is rope. It is weird to me that rope would cause an irritation, but I think it what happened is that while I was on a trip last month, Picaso destroyed his rope perch so the pet sitter took it out. He must have found a different favorite perch that hurt his feet, I just don't know which one it was! As soon as I got home, I gave him a new rope perch, so now he spends most of his time there. Do you think rope could cause bumblefoot? I found some posts saying that vitamin E can help, so I will add that to the aloe and hopefully that will help. I know I caught this very early, so that is good.

 

[JLcribber]

Perches that are symmetrically round like dowels are not very good for their feet. If you look at a natural tree branch you will see that they are not nice and round. If they stand on a natural branch they can change pressure points on their feet just by moving slightly and sitting on another spot on the branch.

A round perch does not let them do that. The pressure is always on the same spot. It also helps if the perch is larger rather than smaller. That allows them to use more of their foot to stand on it which helps distribute their weight over their entire foot instead of concentrating the weight on just a spot or two.

 

[Bokkapooh]

How smooth are all his other perches? If possible get perches with good amount of bark or shape to them. Cactus, bottlebrush, ropes, etc. Anything with a lot of texture. Also when you observe him perching, watch his feet, is he clasping onto the perch very tightly? And like what John said, make sure his perches are larger than smaller. When they are too small, regardless of type of perch, they'll clasp onto it very tightly. Like wearing a too small of shoe, it'll hurt their feet.

 

[MommyBird]

They have several recommendations here
Bumble Foot: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment Options as well as Prevention
I know arnica gel works wonders on bruises for me, I don't know about for bumblefoot as I think the main goal is to take care of the infection. I think holistic treatments to increase the ability of immune system would be best along with dietary changes.

 

[JLcribber]

You may also want to provide some "flat" surfaces as a change of pace.

 

[Chantilly Lace]

Just a quick update! I started using some vitamin A on his feet twice a day, and after only 2 days it is looking almost 90% better. The vitamin E worked much better than the aloe. We also added a flat perch for him, and 2 much larger diameter perches, and a few small ones as well. Hopefully that prevents this from happening again.