Chicken With Huge, Mole-Like Growth On Her Cheek

[herminiehens]

We have a Silver-Laced Wyandotte that is about 2 or 3 years old, who seems to be fine and healthy except for a large, mole-like lump on her cheek. The best description that can be given is that it looks like chicken feces on her face, but it is definitely something growing out of her skin below her eye. We just noticed it about a week ago, and she is the only bird that has it. There is no bleeding or any other strange behavior. We do not know what caused it to appear. The bird has been eating and drinking normally. Her waste looks fine, to our knowledge. We have not administered any physical treatment so far, as we did not know what to do. We would like to be able to treat the bird ourselves, as she is not in critical condition. All of our chickens nest on straw and roost on a ladder in the barn.
Here is a picture of the hen:

 

[maxpedley]

Never seen anything like it before. If I were you I would take her to a vets. I don't think this kind of thing is treatable but I'm not sure.

 

[Eggcessive]

I'm a little baffled by the lesion on her face. It could be a tumor, fungus, or a respiratory disease, but I haven't seen one of those that looks the same. Does she have any sneeze, runny nose or eyes, eye bubbles, or bad smell about her head? Can you look inside her mouth and throat for any yellow or gray patches that may go along with this? Canker kind of resembles this in some cases, but I'm not sure about this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is some information about canker--the treatment is Flagyl (metronidazole or Fishzole) if it is that: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/154/trichomoniasis-canker-frounce

 

[herminiehens]

She hasn't had any additional symptoms, just the lesion. Thank you for the link, I took a look at it, but she hasn't had any of the other symptoms. Aside from her face, she seems to be acting normally. Thank you for your advice!

 

[Eggcessive]

How is your hen doing? Any change in her condition, or in the lesion on her face? This is an interesting case if you can update us.

 

[chickenchristin]

How did this go with your hen? One of mine has a large lesion that sort of looks like a bubble right where your's was. She seems to be okay except for that. Thanks!

 

[willysings]

Was wondering what you may have figured out on the lesion on your hen. We had a Jubilee Orpington rooster that had what appeared to be the same thing but it was growing out under the left side of his mouth toward the back. I attempted treating it with antibiotic creams to no avail. The growth was also growing into his skin under his throat and eventually ate into the ligaments under his tongue. We euthanized him but had found nothing on the condition until we saw your post.

 

[Mark Pitt]

I have a Buff Orpington with the same grape sized growth on her left cheek. Her eye is almost swollen closed after about one week. I have been putting DMSO on it 2 or 3 times a day, but have seen no improvement. Like this persons old story, she acts like this is not a problem, so I'm not going to take her out unless she starts seeming to be in pain. I'm only posting so people don't think this is unique. I will update how this goes so maybe others will benefit...

 

[Mark Pitt]

I had to put this chicken down I thawed some soldier flies and fed them to my 10 chickens and she ran around grabbing them but could not swallow even one. I then got a piece of bread and broke it up in tiny chunks and she couldn't get that down either. I knew she was losing a lot of weight and now I knew why. After she was dead I lanced the huge growth on her cheek and black goo came out (the opening if her beak had been looking black too). I've been watching the other chickens closely and none have anything unusual going on in the cheek area.