Really nasty ear infection in a silkie hen ~GRAPHIC pics~

[Funky Feathers]

The other day I noticed this ugly, nasty "plug" in my Silkie's ear. Ewww. Poor baby. She must have had an ear infection going on for a long time. She is getting better now. But this is what it looked like:



















So I carefully pulled this thing off/out. It left a gaping hole in her ear. I flushed & cleaned it out as best I could.









This is what the plug looks like








I clean it out every night with a warm peroxide/water solution, then pack the hole with neosporin. I put 100mg of Amoxicilling in her drinking water, along with vitamins. She is perking up well. This is what it looks like now





And this is her feeling better.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Glad I found this thread! (Hi @casportpony !)

I'm helping out at a bird rehab center and someone brought in a chicken with a similar situation.
How long does it take for the stretched out tissue to close back up?

Here are some photos:
Before (right)


After (right)


Before (left)


After (left)


Plug that came out of right ear:

 

[Funky Feathers]

New pics:

 

[Lilyput]

I would flush the ear with the peroxide and put on the antibiotic cream. This will also help flush out any remaining "cheese". My chicken's infection looked like a wad of cheddar cheese. Once a chicken has this infection it will come back again in the future if they are under any kind of stress. Mine recovered and just had a mild on recently.

 

[Falland]

My husband and I adopted a 2 hens and 2 roosters. Within the first week we discovered they all had some kind of illness. The two roosters have mites and lice. And one rooster had a rather advanced ear infection. We're first time chicken owners and were very uncertain about doing anything 'surgical'. But today, after gathering all that was needed, we took out the horrible stuff in his ear. He's been isolated in a warmer room and hope that here he will make a full recovery soon. The gunk is about 1.5 cm. It felt epic to remove it. He was very calm and only made a little noise during the whole ordeal.
Thanks so much for this thread. We read about your experience and also from others threads on BYC regarding ear infection. Your pictures were gruesome but it gave us some expectations of what to expect.

 

[Angie16hearts]

How are they now? I had a cockerel who ended up with a raging ear infection! I couldn't find the right mess in town. So I went with amoxicillin started with big dose! Then went back to get more from the feed store. None of us new if it would work. Even peeps at the feed store. We ended up 7 days of mess. Day 3 I was able to just pull it out on its own almost. He knew we were helping so he was a good boy. We also stuffed his ear full for about 9 days with neospirin. He's perfect now! The pills were 32 cents. Just FYI pretty cheap ! Here's what came out of olive

ontent/type/61/id/7216081/width/200/height/400[/IMG]this was before we pulled the yuky infection out.

this was after. His ear was still pretty open. After a couple days it closed . Me he's free ranging not aware he's a cockerel getting beat up by the hens. He's super sweet to! He's the first cockerel that will let us hold him. Eats out of our hand ect... I did hatch him so he's been spoiled. Good luck to you! And your flock! Glad you got infection out!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello again,
@Wyorp Rock , sorry for the slow reply.
For the first ear, I gently pried the pus-scab (eew) and that big chunk just popped out. But in the second one, the pus-scab had hardened with some feathers stuck in it so my more experienced supervisor softened it with warm water and gently pulled it apart and out of the ear with blunt tweezers.

Do any of you have a feeling about the possible source of this type of infection?
I ask because this hen was initially seen by a vet who warned that she should be kept in quarantine, as she was possibly infectious.
(However, this same vet did not even suggest trying to remove the big gobs of pus in her ears, so they may not be too chicken-aware).
@casportpony , do you have any thoughts about the possibility that this could be related to a contagious ailment???

Thank you all for any thoughts!

There's no way to know the cause, but a few things can cause ear infections - mites/lice, insects/insect bites (ticks), pecking wound/injury, getting something in the ear canal (debris/dirt) and respiratory illness are usually the main causes. Since it was in both ears I would lean toward respiratory illness or possibly mites/lice if she had any critters on her when you got her.

It's always a good idea to keep even a seemingly "healthy" bird quarantined for about 3wks if they are going to be added to an existing flock. This gives you time to observe them for anyhealth issues.

If the ear infection was caused by respiratory illness she would be considered a carrier even though she has recovered and shows no symptoms of illness. Without testing, there's really no way to know if she has anything or not.

Just my thoughts

 

[casportpony]

Hello again,
@Wyorp Rock , sorry for the slow reply.
For the first ear, I gently pried the pus-scab (eew) and that big chunk just popped out. But in the second one, the pus-scab had hardened with some feathers stuck in it so my more experienced supervisor softened it with warm water and gently pulled it apart and out of the ear with blunt tweezers.

Do any of you have a feeling about the possible source of this type of infection?
I ask because this hen was initially seen by a vet who warned that she should be kept in quarantine, as she was possibly infectious.
(However, this same vet did not even suggest trying to remove the big gobs of pus in her ears, so they may not be too chicken-aware).
@casportpony , do you have any thoughts about the possibility that this could be related to a contagious ailment???

Thank you all for any thoughts!

My best guess is that it was from a respiratory infection, and most avian respiratory infections are highly contagious. Are you still in California? I ask because the CAHFS labs offer very low cost testing for such things.
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cahfs/local_resources/pdfs/fee lists/Poultry_fee_list_040116.pdf

 

[casportpony]

Thank you both for the responses! I'm glad she is in quarantine.
I'm not in CA, but thank you for that link @casportpony , it's very useful.

What type of testing would have to be done to determine the source of the respiratory infection?
I'm wondering if there is some kind of sample I could take to the vet without having to bring in the hen herself. (Looking at that link makes it seem unlikely...)

They can test for almost all respiratory diseases with a vile of blood I think, so a vet or tech is needed.

 

[casportpony]

State labs:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahln/downloads/all_nahln_lab_list.pdf