Baseball size black scabby thing on chest (Pics)

[Fancypants4569]

I tryed really hard to research this before asking, even remember reading a post from someone who had this, but no one knew what it was at the time I read it. His chicken had it on its back, and if I remember correctly it spread and he did loose his bird. I couldnt find his post either. But anyway, my daughter picked up one of our hens this evening and asked "Mom, whats this?" Its the size of a baseball, black,thick, scab of some sort on her chest. Its hard as a rock...can anyone here point me in the right direction in finding out what this might be? Wish the pics could be better, but it was just getting dark, and it doesnt help that she's a black australorp. Thank you for any and all imput!

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

is it actually a scab?
just looks like she has black skin

I would venture to say she has impacted crop
if it moves back and forth
so I would isolate her and watch her and poke around in it some

if it is impacted crop and hard she may need surgery

also you could take her to a vet

what is her manure like?
what is her eating habits?

does the hard thing get softer come morning?
Like it is the crop
that is the place for it.

observation and putting her on a soft feed for time she is isolated would help her

3 tbsp of dry feed crumbles
4 tbsp of milk
1 tbsp of yoguart
1 tbspoon of applesauce on top

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar per qt of water
would help her also

if it is a scab as you think it will need a vet as something has attacked her

please answer the questions

any questions email me

 

[Fancypants4569]

I know for definate that its not her crop. Its just to the side of her crop. It truly is a very thick, very large scab like something. She lives in a coop that has been Fort Knoxed because of a very bad skunk problem we had here. This is my first place pullet at fair and fair was a month ago and she was fine then. Im a farm girl and have seen and fixed alot of things, but this is the first time seeing something like this except the other post I read a long while back. He had posted pics of this very same thing on a lighter colored chicken and you could see it really well in his his pics. It is a Black Australorp whick does make it very hard to see in the pics. Wish I could remove some feather's to post better pics. Is there a way to maybe clip the feathers away so I can post better pics?

 

[Kittymomma]

Any chance it's lice? If it's a bunch of little scabs next to each other and not one big one....I'm thinking if she was at the fair it would be worth looking at.

 

[Fancypants4569]

Kittymama, Its one large solid mass covering her skin the size of a baseball...Im still searching thru all the posts to see if I can find something that is simular, but still think Im gonna call the vet tomorrow, will definatly post on this so maybe there will be a lil info on it if someone else experiences this

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Quote:
Thanks!

This will definately be a good thread to look back at, because the symptom is so unusual.

 

[Cetawin]

Well that is definitely not the crop but I have no clue what it is. If it were me, I would have tried a spitz bath of warm warm and epsom salt and see if it softened to remove it, so I could see the skin underneath and treat it like a bacterial infection with neosporin or something.

Glad you have a vet handy that you can contact. Keep us posted on this please. I sure hope it is nothing serious.