Buff has a swollen white lobe

[sfinerghty]

Our buff seems to have a problem, the poor girl. Her lobe on one side is white, on the other it is whitish blue, swollen with spots. It has been white for the past couple of days but today it has blown up. She is still active and laying eggs, but this I very concerning. Any suggestions on what it is or if I can treat at home? Many thanks in advance

 

[Eggcessive]

Could she have been pecked on the earlobe? Does her ear smell bad? Sometimes they can get mites into the ears which can cause infection. Someone on here recently mentioned their chicken had ear mites, and they cleaned the ear out with hydrogen peroxide and applied neosporin ointment to the ear which cleared it up in a day or two. The ointment smothers mites. You might try very gently inserting a clean Q-tip into the ear (get help to hold her still) and inspecting the Q-tip for mites with a magnifying glass. Another thought would be to consider favus, a fungal infection that is powdery-looking, but it doesn't really look like that in the picture.

 

[sfinerghty]

Thank you for your help, I haven't seen her get pecked though perhaps she has. She just started laying, could that be a factor? I will check tonight for mites though she is the only one out of nine showing this issue. I appreciate the advise and the suggestions very much! Thanks!