Are These Tumors On Her Head?

[Acre4Me]

Legbar that is nearly 5 months old. Had her since hatch, along with 24 other chicks in same batch (various breeds). She has had this growth for about 6 weeks. Now, it looks to be affecting the other side of her head.

At first, we though she was just pecked by other chickens, so we doctored it, held her in a cage for a day, sent her back out. This happened a couple of times. Now, for the past couple of weeks she goes into a cage at night so she can avoid roosting pecking order issues, and morning energy in the coop that could lead to pecking but still have flock time. We have been using sterile saline and Betadine (let it dry) then apply neosprin both morning and night. We added Gentian Violet to the mix recently as it is one of the ingredients in Blu-Kote and is a known microbe inhibitor. So, Gentian Violet applied in the morning (let it dry), then the Betadine/neosporin routine at night time.

Now her growth looks worse and does not appear to be a pecking issue/infection. Is this a tumor? Or is it something else? And yes, her one eye has always been deformed/cloudy since we got her, but she gets around OK, so we weren't concerned.

Pictures from 2 weeks ago, and pictures taken today - they are dated.

Two weeks ago:

Today:

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

That does look like tumors.
@Texas Kiki @casportpony @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous @Hen Pen Jem

 

[Kiki]

Poor thing.
Have you lost and birds recently?

Any other birds have weird eyes?

Anyone walking off?

 

[Acre4Me]

Poor thing.
Have you lost and birds recently?

Any other birds have weird eyes?

Anyone walking off?

No lost (dead) birds. Everyone is healthy. No other weird eyes either.

Not sure about “walking off” - do you mean some kind of gait or mobility issue?

 

[Kiki]

No lost (dead) birds. Everyone is healthy. No other weird eyes either.

Not sure about “walking off” - do you mean some kind of gait or mobility issue?

Yes...limping or walking funny.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yes...limping or walking funny.

In the past couple of weeks she walks funny to me, but only one foot does this weird over-flexion of the joints. For example, I could spread my hand/fingers out and my hand would be flat still. I could over-flex them, or spread them out more and now my hand would be curved a bit, and no longer flat. She does this with one foot and is a bit stiff when she walks. But it gets better as she walks around the run. Kid swears she’s only stiff for a short time when she’s removed from the cage to the run. Her foot does curl up/grasp things still.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is the OP’s earlier thread about the lesion on the ear:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/face-injury-not-an-emergency-looking-for-insight.1330107/

I am going to tag @azygous and @casportpony to look at these lesions to see if they look like tumors. A couple of viruses—Lymphiod Leukosis and Mareks disease can cause tumors around the body.

I would also wonder if you lanced one of those, what you would get if it was squeezed a bit? I would see if there was pus inside or just blood.

 

[casportpony]

They do look like tumors to me

 

[azygous]

Yes, I agree. Those are most likely tumors, not cysts. If they are growing very fast, they may be malignant, meaning they could metastasize in other areas of the body. You'll know this is happening if she declines in health and becomes lethargic and loses weight.

I have a hen with a very similar tumor over her eye. It's been slowly growing for around six years, and it hasn't affected the hen's overall health. In fact, she's a healthy, sassy eleven years old.

On the other hand, I do have lymphoid leucosis in my flock, and I've lost chickens to fast growing tumors, all being inside the chicken.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yes, I agree. Those are most likely tumors, not cysts. If they are growing very fast, they may be malignant, meaning they could metastasize in other areas of the body. You'll know this is happening if she declines in health and becomes lethargic and loses weight.

I have a hen with a very similar tumor over her eye. It's been slowly growing for around six years, and it hasn't affected the hen's overall health. In fact, she's a healthy, sassy eleven years old.

On the other hand, I do have lymphoid leucosis in my flock, and I've lost chickens to fast growing tumors, all being inside the chicken.

Good to know. Yes, looking at the pics, this seems to be growing fast. I found an early pic from 6 weeks ago and it had just started to become evident, and was quite small- we mistook it for pecking issues. Then the two pics above from 2 weeks ago, and today. Poor girl!