Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: happychickens on January 12, 2008, 13:39
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Today I have checked my chickens and eric (she!) has a swollen left side of her face, cannot see any bites etc, have washed the area with salted water but am at a loss - any ideas. Thanks :?
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Is her eye open ?
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Her eye was open just the surrounding area of her eye and that side of her head was swollen, bathed it but this morning it seems her whole head has swollen slightly - the only thing I can say is that for a few weeks beforehand she had a very small white spot on her upper eyelid which has now been replaced by a red bump - should she be seperated from the group? I have no idea what it could be after trawling sites and books. Any advice gratefully received :wink:
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Could it be something like an abscess?
I'd take her to the vet, she might need antibiotics?
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Seems exceptionally small for an abscess even for a chicken if no ideas then will see if it goes down at all today and if not go to vets in the morning - the only problem we have is the vets are lovely but when its not their speciality they are never much help with what it could be either. Thanks
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Maybe not an abscess but perhaps a small infection?
Our tom cat had an abscess on his face, and as far as I can remember they swell up very quickly, and your original post was a few days ago, so perhaps it isn't an abscess.
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Maybe infection - just cannot see what has caused it as no apparent bites or mites etc??!!
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Charlotte my duck had an infected eye and was given an injection and some cream cost me 35.00 but I have some cream left in case it reocurrs. (within use by date of course) It cleared up in no time at all with some TLC.
It all depends on if she is a pet or food bird as to what action you take its not cheap to go to the vets but its your choice really as to kill or cure :(
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I have no problem about going to vets, yes it is expensive but as her whole head has swollen slightly will keep an eye on it until tomorrow, if no change will take her in the morning, she is slightly more quite than usual but we all are when we are out of sorts poor thing. Thanks for the help :)
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Hello happychickens! Could do with a little more information
Has your hen got any other symptoms -like is that side of her face hot compared to the other? This could indicate a local infection likely cause trauma by pecking or catching on something sharp whilst foraging.
Chickens are also prone to upper rispiratory infections -mycoplasma being the most common particulary in young birds. Odd that only one eye affected. Is your hen eating/drinking pooing as normal? Does she appear hunched with fluffed feathers? Can hear any wheezing sounds. Look closely at her beak and you will see if she is gasping at all.
With either of these symtoms I would take to a vet and ask for antibiotics.
In the meantime a good all round tonic is apple cider vinegar (from feed stores) and pop some crushed garlic in their water. Hope this helps! :lol:
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Pardon my spelling but doesn't Coryza symptoms include swollen eye and face?
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Sorry I've not been back to this topic
yes it does FC
Merck Veterinary Manual says:
Infectious coryza is an acute respiratory disease of chickens characterized by nasal discharge, sneezing, and swelling of the face under the eyes.
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Yep - infectious coryza is another upper respiratory tract infection - this infects the sinuses cavity under the eyes -and there is sometimes cheesy gunk if you look at the backof the throat - I have seen this not very nice :? Just a bit surprised if just one eye is infected though. I think Tylan is usually prescribed but would have to check.Def one for the vet!!!
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Just as you reach total panic stage everything has gone back to normal, their is very minor swelling I can see on the original side today, it must have been some kind of infection because for a day her whole head and crop became more swollen, then this morning has gone back to 99% normal! All I can say is that I have another chicken that has problems internally and sometimes require antibiotics for her when she has a certain bad smell about her, last night my swollen headed one had a similar smell, but not nearly as bad, this morning nothing so I am putting it down to a 48hour infection that luckily for her seems to have gone, but will be keeping a close eye on her for the next few days. Thanks for the advice given. :)
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Oh HC that's good news :D
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Don't they get you going. I think they do it on purpose :roll:
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phew :wink: nice one :)
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I was looking around at swollen eye for Bantam - chickens and found
your website such that it seems no one has recognized the potential for such birds as pidgeons to transfer fungus to other birds such as domesticated chickensSuch that as I have used many people's information in caring for this Bantam I decided I should inform the same websites of what I have recently discovered as an educated and trained but not certified lab person and licensed cosmetologist who is trained in diseases of the nail and nail bed such that I recognized that this is probably a fungus getting into the respiratory system from pidgeons or other birds that can be I believe sporulated and ingested later on to cause disease in the birds. Where I was being trained in St. Petersburg Florida they had developed their own system for checking old buildings for this very pathogenic when inspired in large amounts for some small amounts for other pidgeon fungus on old buildings before they were acquired for rennovations and use for businesses. If the pidgeon droppings were negative there was not any more need for the expensive procedures to clean up the buildings which were done in full covered gear that also had breathing protection by Smith Kline and Beecham. Personally I am very
impressed by the mycologist who designed the bird seed agar to check for bird pidgeon dropping fungus along with the procedures for treatment. Also the fact this cute slightly chubby young woman climbed all over buildings collecting pidgeon droppings in full gear and loved it. A rather adventurous soul which I would never have thought this of a highly trained Mycologist with a Masters degree.For this reason and others I probably finally figured that this type of disease is often fatal because it requires special medium to detect it.Tea tree oil and other various African oils that I have have helped this bird immensely recently such that it is sad I did not know sooner so it did not suffer so much for so long that it is probably not likely it will survive healing up but one never knows. My guess is this is a fungal infection of the sinuses quite possibly when the immune system is under distress from various things like over crowding, poor nutrition because they are omnivores and an all corn wheat scratch diet is inadequate obviously if they are caged as mine favor bugs and yard plants more than anything else.
I have had this swollen eye problem for about a year with a very nice Bantam I have it just lingers. Recently after trying all suggested I took it
off antibiotics and began just washing out its eyes which seemed to help greatly then it began having problems standing up straight so I began varying the diet to include vitamins and occassionally potassium in case washing the eye made it loose potassium which helped a little bit. While handling the Bantam that never seems to die eventually it scratched at the side of a couple of my nail beds and it got infected so I tried various things to find that problem for myself - iodine helped along with tea tree oil mixed with camphophenique suggesting thus that this is not a parasite and not a bacteria or virus but quite possibly a fungus as it has affected my nail beds. Medicine for Fungus can be very deadly or cause cancer but many natural products help kill fungal growths. Since I have been putting these ointments and oils into the ear opening this Bantam has begun walking upright and keeping its head upright along with drinking water and feeding itself. When I did not feed the Bantam prior to this it would climb it's cage for me to feed it so I have continued to care for it because obviously it wants to live. I suppose putting it out of its misery would have been more humane but it still acts like it desires to live. My guess is the bird got ahold of some fungus from a pidgeon that got into the yard that is common for them to contract after getting very cold from going up into a tree in my backyard over my porch near my bedroom window that I would check on them or talk to them out of occassionally on a cold rainy night where I could not reach it to bring it in. As often inner ear infections I have had have been helped by ear drops I used this first on the bantam with great success and when I ran out I puchased in the Afro American section for hair and skin that tends to be dry various natural oils with antibiotic capabilities that I have used on my very dry skin in the past such that I knew about its existance for use on dry skin and hair. I am very glad my black friends told me about these products such that I have used them with great success in the past for myself and now for my little bantam who use to talk to me until he got a headcold he never recovered from.Fungus is very difficult to cure so make sure you keep old moldy food out of their containers especially if your birds are inbred and less resistant to disease.
As this is a very tiny white Bantam my guess is there is some inbreeding from this bantam that did not exist in my others who experienced similar things and did not get this sickly.
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I think the infection you are talking about is aspergillosis which is a fungus that can affect chickens causing usually respiratory problems. Eye infections can occur but more rarely and as you say treatment can be difficult if not impossible and culling is often used not just to end the distress of the individual but also protect the flock from further exposure. Pigeons are apparently not that commonly infected. They are however very common carriers of Chlamydophila psittaci which causes Psitticosis in birds and humans. This is a bacteria (although also has viral qualities) and can also be difficult to treat. This usually causes respiratory disease and both asperillosis and psitticosis (also known as pigeon fanciers lung) can affect humans so be careful about close contact. Also please be careful about giving your banty too much potassium, it can lead to cardiac arrest in excess - its part of the lethal injection!
There is loads of info about these on some of the sites Aunty Sally has recommended in the part such as The Poultry site and the Merck Vets Manual.