Rooster with swollen ear, won't stop drinking

[Eggcessive]

Does he have a bad odor from his beak? It is possible that he has canker, but there can be yellow plaques from viruses, fungus, or bacteria as well. Canker smells bad from what others have said. It is treated with Fish Zole (Metronidazole) 250mg daily for 5
-7 days.
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/canker

 

[mountaingirl196]

He smells bad, but I figured that was from all of the wet feathers.

Will look into canker. Thanks for the link.

Edited after reading: We don't see a lot of wild doves around here, but plenty of starlings.

Am going to go grab my husband out of the greenhouse, he's been out there long enough.

Edited again: It is definitely one of the two (thrush or canker). Obstructive growth quite visible with a headlamp and somebody else holding the thread. Will keep doing some research to see if I can determine which it is.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Very minor noise when breathing, and not consistent. Occasional vocalizations.

My husband is still outside but I grabbed a headlamp and it does look like he has a deep obstruction of some sort. Looks like wet food, kind of an off-color yellow mass.

Good call.

Dr. Google is telling me that this may be thrush. Lovely, but if that's what it is he likely told me he was sick in plenty of time to treat it.

He smells bad, but I figured that was from all of the wet feathers.

Will look into canker. Thanks for the link.

Edited after reading: We don't see a lot of wild doves around here, but plenty of starlings.

Am going to go grab my husband out of the greenhouse, he's been out there long enough.

Edited again: It is definitely one of the two (thrush or canker). Obstructive growth quite visible with a headlamp and somebody else holding the thread. Will keep doing some research to see if I can determine which it is.

Great! I'm glad you investigated more! Keep us posted.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Wet fowl pox is also a possibility (?)

It could also just be a food/grass obstruction in the trachea.

I am wondering if the nasal discharge is just the sinus cavity irritated because he has been drinking so much water. The slight rattling could fit that too.

 

[mountaingirl196]

I think you're right about the water, Kathy.

I wandered through the forum and the interwebs and am pretty sure this is thrush, rather than canker. The two prescribed cures for this (nystatin and copper sulfate) aren't immediately available locally. An old thread here on BYC recommended using Listerine on a Q-tip to soften the fungus, and the vet agreed with me that the obstruction was to the point that I was going to need to go in with hemostats to try and remove as much of it as we could reach. The vet suggested using a swab with a very dilute bleach solution to wipe the fungus we couldn't remove in order to kill it. One of my local chicken friends mentioned to me that she did something similar with rabbits exhibiting thrush or other fungal infections.

Here is a research study on the efficacy of killing oral fungus with mouthwash.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834379/
We'd already started with the mouthwash by the time the vet called back, and per her suggestion switched from Q-tips to hemostats for removal of the obstruction. I was able to remove three marble-sized segments of fungus. There is clearly still fungus remaining, and we irrigated his mouth with mouthwash using a baby nasal syringe to reach as much of it as possible.

The patient was feeling very sorry for himself after all of this, but was up and drinking pretty quickly afterwards. The water seems to be going down his throat, by and large. AND he walked over and started eating!

I mixed up a scrambled egg with some plain Greek yogurt (another anti-fungal agent) and put it in there for him to snack on.

So, to wrap up what's happening to treat at this point:

ACV in water (one T/quart) as an antifungal, along with electrolytes to support compromised system.
Irrigation of mouth cavity with mouthwash (I'm using Listerine, Oral-B was tested and efficacious in the study). This is to both soften fungus and kill it. Care taken to ensure mouthwash was not aspirated.

Removal of fungal obstruction with hemostats.

Provision of plain Greek yogurt (another anti-fungal) as food.

Tomorrow morning we'll see if we can remove any further obstruction, and will swab what we can reach with a 50 ppm bleach solution (one capful of bleach to one gallon of water).

 

[Kathy Golla]

Sounds like you are on a good path.

Be aware of the amount of yogurt, dairy is not easily digested by poultry. It can cause gastro upset and diarrhea..which can back up to the crop...causing another set of problems.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I think you're right about the water, Kathy.

I wandered through the forum and the interwebs and am pretty sure this is thrush, rather than canker. The two prescribed cures for this (nystatin and copper sulfate) aren't immediately available locally. An old thread here on BYC recommended using Listerine on a Q-tip to soften the fungus, and the vet agreed with me that the obstruction was to the point that I was going to need to go in with hemostats to try and remove as much of it as we could reach. The vet suggested using a swab with a very dilute bleach solution to wipe the fungus we couldn't remove in order to kill it. One of my local chicken friends mentioned to me that she did something similar with rabbits exhibiting thrush or other fungal infections.

Here is a research study on the efficacy of killing oral fungus with mouthwash.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834379/
We'd already started with the mouthwash by the time the vet called back, and per her suggestion switched from Q-tips to hemostats for removal of the obstruction. I was able to remove three marble-sized segments of fungus. There is clearly still fungus remaining, and we irrigated his mouth with mouthwash using a baby nasal syringe to reach as much of it as possible.

The patient was feeling very sorry for himself after all of this, but was up and drinking pretty quickly afterwards. The water seems to be going down his throat, by and large. AND he walked over and started eating!

I mixed up a scrambled egg with some plain Greek yogurt (another anti-fungal agent) and put it in there for him to snack on.

So, to wrap up what's happening to treat at this point:

ACV in water (one T/quart) as an antifungal, along with electrolytes to support compromised system.
Irrigation of mouth cavity with mouthwash (I'm using Listerine, Oral-B was tested and efficacious in the study). This is to both soften fungus and kill it. Care taken to ensure mouthwash was not aspirated.

Removal of fungal obstruction with hemostats.

Provision of plain Greek yogurt (another anti-fungal) as food.

Tomorrow morning we'll see if we can remove any further obstruction, and will swab what we can reach with a 50 ppm bleach solution (one capful of bleach to one gallon of water).

Interesting!
Thank you for the update.
I will be interested to see how this goes. I hope he recovers quickly.

 

[Eggcessive]

If you have a vet locally, they can take (or you might collect it and take it in) to identify the yellow material. As said earlier, canker, a protozoan organism, smells bad. But fungus (thrush, candida,) virus (fowl pox,) or bacteria can cause yellow plaques in the airway as well. If you treat for fungus and do not see improvement, then consider treating for canker. Testing or identifying the organism under a microscope would save time and money for drugs. A small amount of plain yogurt with live cultures is good for probiotics, but there are better sources, such as Gro2Max granules or other probiotics for animals.

 

[mountaingirl196]

Great idea. Wish I'd thought to preserve a sample.

I"m about to pack up and go to a farmer's market... will treat our patient again this AM before I take off. He's still pretty much asleep just now but made it through the night OK.

What we've done should get him through until I'm back home, as long as my hand keeps the food and water in front of him. I'll cook him another egg this AM so he has something delicious after we treat him. I can't imagine the bleach solution will taste good. Yuck.

 

[Eggcessive]

Iodine or Betadine is also a good way to disinfect water.
http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/water.html
Acidifie copper sulfate (1/4 tsp per gallon of water) is sometimes use to help the spread of canker, and can be used 3 days per month for prevention.
https://www.jefferspet.com/products...w3eN4aOt6VEE7k3vjsNKvfaX1TVVA37BoCU_0QAvD_BwE