Severe Bumblefoot in adopted pig

[Poppy Davis]

Hi all,

It's been a long time since I last posted on here! But you were all so helpful in the past so hoping that will be the case again.

I adopted two new female pigs to live with my lone boar two weeks ago (he is castrated - don't panic ). Before adopting them they let me know that one had been suffering with Bumblefoot, but they had tried everything at the vets with no luck so were just managing it. I've had experience with Bumblefoot before so wasn't too worried, however it is much worse than I was expecting and worse than anything that I have seen before. I'm worried that with the degree of swelling and deformity she may have some osteomyelitis going on.

I will be booking her in with my vet asap, but I'm not sure that they'll have any idea what to do, certainly not more than her previous vets.

She is currently overweight so I'm working on that, alongside keeping her nails short and supplementing vitamin C (40mg/day).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[sport_billy]

Are either of these vets local to you?

Vale Vet Referals
Rachael Mowbury
The Animal Hospital
Dursley
Gloucestershire
GL11 6AJ
01453547934

Kiri Brown and Hannah McNichols
Drove Veterinary Hospital
252 Croft Road,
Swindon
SN1 4RW
Tel: 01793 522483

 

[sport_billy]

Link to Guinea lynx also (the best medical website for piggies) Guinea Lynx :: Pododermatitis

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

One of my late piggies has suffered from severe bumble foot. We treated it for many many months. It got better then worse again.
Maybe you would like to look at the thread where I documented the process (and also vented my frustration a lot).

Thread 'Billie's paw'

Aug 21, 2021

At the moment the piggies really keep me busy. Unfortunatley, Billie has got a sore paw. And since things like these take a long time to heal (or to prevent them from getting worse), we are facing a marathon treatment.
Billie had a sore spot for quite a while but I always had the impression that it was a rather stable condition. Billie hated the cream being applied to her paw twice a day, but that seemed to work all right.

But then it got worse pretty quickly (or I missed something ) and when I noticed the extend I wasn't only shocked and blamed myself for missing this - it was also...

• Viennese Furbabies
• Replies: 373
• Forum: Health & Illness Support Corner

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Billie was put on baytril for life. We tried paw baths for quite a while. She had a bandaged paw for about a year. We also used different creams. Flammazine worked pretty good but in Billie's case every treatment only worked for some time. Then I had to change something. Like manouka honey or Bepanthen plus.
Pain medication is also important but in Billie's case it was because she suffered from severe arthritis, not so much because of her paw.
For her last months she was on fleece without a bandage and we stopped the paw soaks somewhere along the line because they didn't do any good any more.

 

[Merab]

Just offering support

 

[CTWC]

Oh the poor little love I have no experience but I know it can be a long haul to get them free from it but can be done with perseverance

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Aww. Poor little piggie. I adopted a guinea who came with severe bumblefoot. Your pic shows what her paw looked like for longish spells.

It was a very persistant problem so I feel for you and want to offer support. Various vets said: PTS. The previous owners had been told that too but Amelie was very brave and she enjoyed life. She outlived her Palace mates, tho they came with no specific health problems!

During her worst phases I was having pretty bad health problems myself and just couldn't continue so friends took Amelie for about 3 months and gave her at least daily if not twice daily paw baths in something called Retterspitz, diluted, and then bandaging the paw. Retterspitz is not the name of a plant, it's the name of the product range. Here's a bit about it:
The most important ingredient in the Retterspitz product range is thymol, a constituent of thyme essential oil which was first isolated by chemist Caspar Neumann in 1719. In scientific literature, thymol is described as having anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties.
Other typical Retterspitz ingredients include chamomile extract, peppermint, rosemary, eucalyptus and olive oil. But it's a pretty German thing and I have noticed that different countries have different ideas on how to treat and whether plant-based stuff really works etc! German people use Retterspitz too, basically it's used as a poultice so that's why you soak and then bandage or wrap.

This is what really seemed to work in Amelie's case, tho of course I used antibiotic ointment and painkiller as prescribed by the vet beforehand and I'd tried other ointments too, like manouka honey (Viennese Furbabies mentions this) and my friends continued with the painkiller. The puffiness in Amelie's paw never went away completely but the sores healed up, her paw was no longer hot to touch and the swelling certainly went down. She was a fighter, she kept going! She was also very sweet and quite tame for a piggie. She died at the age of six due to something else actually, having had bumblefoot to various degrees for about 3 years.

Wishing you all the best with your piggie as well as perseverance and stamina.

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

How is your piggy with Bumblefoot doing?