Urgent Bumblefoot swelling

[maybug]

Hello, I am new on this forum so I don't know if I'm doing stuff right but I am too distressed to read forum rules and tips and tricks so bear with me
I have a cockatiel, (s)he is soon to be 9 year old, had him for about 8 yrs. I will be saying "he" because they said it was a male in the shop but I'm not too sure because of some of his typical female behaviour (he hadn't laid eggs though).
To get to the point, he has bumblefoot and he has been on antibiotics and it got better, but in literally a day, his left foot got swelled up again, and he won't stand on it, probably hurts him, and when I called the vet she said it wasn't an emergency but I'll get some more medicine to manage pain and to keep up with the antibiotic she gave me. Do you have experience with the sudden swelling even when it was getting better? It's too sad for me to watch him be fine one day and the next day he is limping... Do you know if it's easier on his feet to be on a soft surface, like laying on my chest or a pillow, or is it easier on his feet to stand on some perch? I will write the backstory in the next comment

 

[maybug]

In October he had some weird poops with a lot of water aka urine, the vet gave me antibiotics (for kidneys) and it kind of got better, she said it might be actually kidneys because the poop looks normal, except he has polyuria, pees a lot and drinks a lot of water. Also another vet gave me some vitamins . But in the end it mostly fixed itself and we kind of put him on a diet in case it was a fat liver or something. (He is kind of a seed addict but everyday he has a fruit or vegetable or herbs along with seeds. We try our best.) The vet is in another town and the procedure of taking blood for analysis was risky so we didn't do it because the poop got better. We did do a thorough poop analysis for bacteria, fungi etc. but they didn't find anything. I said all this because idk if it's related.
Anyways in December I noticed he had some spots on legs and I thought he just scratched himself, but in late January when I came home from college I realized it must be bumblefoot because I heard of it.
So yes it is a problem that I'm in a different town because of college, but he grew up in my hometown and the best solution was for my family to take care of him because I'm in college the whole day, and in my hometown there is always someone from my family home and taking care of him. But that's why I kind of later realized that he had it, they don't have a trained eye as I do to spot something wrong.
He had those brown spots and his left leg swelled up. I went to the vet, got antibiotics, and some antibiotic cremes, and he took those and the feet got much better pretty fast, in 2 days his legs wasn't swelled anymore , in a week he didn't have the dark spots, and his legs weren't so warm (which happens because of infection and inflammation) and just looked better overall. He was done with them in 10 days. Now I have different antibiotics to give him, and he started taking those. So I was home, and suddenly this morning after he flied a little and sat on the door , I took him and put him on a chair, and he suddenly couldn't stand on that leg anymore.. and it swelled again! I don't know why, he was standing normally before that, but I'm not sure when the swelling happened, because it was after we got him out of the cage so idk if it was swollen in the cage already. And he is limping basically .. it was so sudden.. but looks like before when it swelled the first time. But now he is limping which he wasn't before. He is behaving normally. Is it possible he hurt himself when he flew on the door? (he didn't hit himself on it, he flies often on the upper part of the door I think you get it).. I called the vet as I already said, and I'm going to get some medicine vet told me about, for pain, and he is continuing his antibiotics and apparently it's possible that he has arthritis but.. it was too sudden idk what to think... I'm sending the pic of the leg that got swollen. I guess I just need reassurance and a second opinion from people that maybe had a similar experience..

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[maybug]

Bump.

That would honestly be the best case scenario! I'm just worried because it basically looks the same as the inflammation caused by bumblefoot on the same leg earlier but the condition was getting better and then this suddenly happens Thank you!

 

[Shezbug]

That would honestly be the best case scenario!

Bump was posted by Expressmailtome to bring your post back to the top of the whats new list so it is more likely to get an answer.

Many people who treat birds for bumblefoot do offer platform perches and make normal perches a bit softer for feet by padding them up with pill free fleece or vet wrap, they will need to cleaned well often as keeping germs to a minimum is extra important with bumblefoot.

 

[maybug]

Okay, thank you so much for info

 

[maybug]

Update if anyone stumbles upon this, it's bumblefoot again!! I noticed the brown scabs again and talked to the vet so we started antibiotics again.

 

[sunnysmom]

I am sorry your bird has bumblefoot again. What is his perching like?