Badly infected upper beak. Advice please!

[thechicksitter]

We've been dealing with this issue for about three weeks now. I've scoured the internet and I've posted online but I'm still unsure of what else I can do for this poor bird.

Three out of nine birds have had the same lump appear in the same location on the upper beak. I thought it may be fowl pox, but none of them have any other symptoms. No scabs or bumps of any other kind. The lump appeared suddenly and looked like this

(sorry they're not focused. She won't stay still)
Within a couple days it grew considerably. It looks vascular and pink, and it occasionally bleeds and cracks.

It's wasn't yellow and didn't seem like an obvious infection. Another hen had a lump pop up almost overnight in the same spot. It was yellow and it looked like an infection.

And then one more pullet had a minor lump appear. The inside of all the birds' mouths appear normal. No respiratory symptoms or discharge or any other symptoms.

I treated everyone with 7 days of duramycin and treated the lumps with iodine and antibiotic ointment. (Without pain relief) It seemed to help considerably and the second and third hen are almost all better. It halted the growth on my white bird, but in the last two days, it started growing again and is considerably larger.

The other birds don't seem to be messing with it, but it's getting large enough that I'm worried that her nostrils will become blocked. And it occasionally bleeds.
Someone suggested that I cut it out, but I read that there are a ton of nerve endings in that part of the beak and I'm not sure that I wouldn't make it worse. I finally found a vet that works on poultry, but it's quite a drive.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? How did you treat it?

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you seeing any rooster comb growth near the sores? It can be hard to tell from pictures if they are combs or sores. Can you look around at feeders, waterers, or any sharp fencing that could be causing these sores or abscesses on the beaks? That can be common, but I have also seen some pictures of beak sores that may be a papilloma virus, and those can sometimes fall off. If they seem infected, you can lance them and squeeze out any yellow pus. I am leaning more toward sharp objects causing this, but I may be wrong.

 

[thechicksitter]

I thought about an injury too. I went ahead and removed the hole feeders and they have a new coop now without a hardwire front for them to scratch against.

I'm not sure of the initial cause but the fact that it keeps growing so fast is worrying me.

As far as the comb, it's right above the lump. This growth popped up right at the junction where the comb meets the beak and it's been pushing into both as it expands. If I remove this growth, there going to be a pretty large hole there. I'm leaning towards trying it though.

I've found a few threads where people had bumps in the same location, but none of them were this large and non of them looked vascular. And no one ever found out what is was from as far as I could tell. I'll look into the papilloma virus. That's one thing I haven't come across in my research. Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

Instead of removing lumps, I would lance one or two, and squeeze to see what comes out. Pus in chickens can be light to medium yellow and solid. If you get just blood, it could be something different.

 

[thechicksitter]

Well there's only the one, large, growing lump above the beak. I can try lancing it though. It's already cracking and splitting horizontally down the middle as it's been expanding.

 

[thechicksitter]

I think I'm going to try and lance it today. Any advice before I try? Everything is sterile.