Chicken swollen face, eye closed shut! Help!

[6sablehens]

Hi,
yesterday I noticed that one side of my Silver Laced Wyandotte cockerel’s face was swollen, it’s eye closed shut. Loud breathing last night and blocked nose. No difference in behaviour.
Today the eye is slightly opened. Nose a bit more clear & breathing sounds fine.

Right side of face

Photos of left, swollen side of face

Front view

View from above

I’m worried it’s a respiratory infection and could spread to the rest of the flock. Chicken Coryza? Injury? Opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[azygous]

Yes, a respiratory infection is a possibility. It could also be a simple sinus infection. If you have any antibiotic eye drops, use them in her eye, or put in a little antibiotic ointment. If the condition clears up by tonight, you'll know that's what it is.

If no improvement, I would then assume it's respiratory and start her on antibiotics (Tylan). If this is what it is, the flock likely has already been exposed.

 

[Eggcessive]

There is some drainage in the swollen eye, and is the material on the beak, dried mucus? Does it smell bad? I would get some injectable Tylan50 at your feed store, plus a few syringes with 18 or 20 gauge needles. Give the Tylan orally (remove the needle) and give her 0.2 ml per pound 2-3 times a day for 3 to 5 days. A 5 pound hen would get about 1 ml and a 7 pounder would bet 1.4 ml. Terramycin eye ointment can be used in the eye if there is gunk or crusty drainage. Clean the eye before using the ointment.

 

[6sablehens]

Thank you so much for your replies! Our chickens have mycoplasma in our flock (fairly minor), and once one of my chickens didn’t develop immunity to it like the others did (as we found out at an avian vet). Antibiotics were prescribed and she was fine.
However, we recently got four new chickens from a different breeder, two hens, and two chicks for my broody hen. On the way home I noticed one of the hens was sneezing & had mucus on it’s beak. This continued but apart from sneezing the chicken seemed fairly healthy. This was the only symptom, I assumed maybe it had mycoplasma and the stress was making it come out / show.
Out of the two chicks, a Dorking & a Wyandotte (the same one in my post on this thread), I noticed the Wyandotte sneezing and making loud wheezing sounds as it got older, and now, half of it’s face is swollen. I immediately thought of a disease called Chicken Coryza, and I am hoping it is just something like a sinus infection, maybe resulting from the mycoplasma?
But is it possible it had a disease like Chicken Coryza all along?

 

[azygous]

Coryza has a very bad odor associated with it. If it doesn't smell, it's probably not Coryza.

 

[6sablehens]

Ok, thanks, will see if it does have a bad odour. Not sure how long it takes for the tell tale symptoms of Chicken Coryza to show. We have had the chicken for a while, which is why I’m wondering if the chicken could of had the disease when we got it, or if it only contracted the disease recently from something else, that’s if it has a disease, anyway.

 

[Eggcessive]

You might want to read up on respiratory diseases. Most of those diseases make carriers of the whole flock whether they become symptomatic or not. MG, coryza, ILT are soem of those diseases. Infectious bronchitis will make chickens from the flock carriers for up to a year. Chickens from these flocks should never attend shows. Here is a good link about common diseases:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Mr.Universe]

questions i have for the OP.

is mucous coming from only one nostril or both. i see some discharge and a slightly hazey pupil. inspect the waddle and comb for a bite mark. ive seen this before with spider bites, also closely inspect the back of the head and the neck for bites or bumps out of the norm

edit: in showing my girlfriend the picture she is lead to believe this may be a bee sting as well, it does happen every so often.

is there a benadryl type product for chickens? if so administer a small dose of that and see if conditions change. my expertise is in physical injurys not medical internal abnormalitys.

EDIT2: thanks to our community try this and see if conditions change

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/can-you-give-a-chicken-benadryl.579161/

 

[Mr.Universe]

curious to see how her little guys doing. and if she tried benadryl to reduce swelling

 

[SW31]

It looks the same response as we had. If it’s both sides of her face the vet said allergy but if it’s just one side then probably a sting. She gave her a cortisone injection and a cream for us to administer three times a day but I think the injection made the difference. By day three, she was back to normal. I posted details on this forum and several members thought it could have been a bee.