Chicken with lump by eye! please help!

[doodleflock]

our Easter egger chicken here has had this lump infection looking thing for about 1 or 2 weeks. she is still eating and drinking but has not been laying eggs. she seems slow and just not herself, she doesn't run to get treats like she usually would and she also is more hesitant when getting up and down from from roosting. she is at the top of the pecking and does not get picked on so she would not have gotten this from pecking. here tail is also much farther down than it normally is. we noticed something was way off when she kind of became more friendly in this last week, she does not run away right away when you walk right next to her, she just stands there and goes about her business, normally she is very skittish and will freak and run away when we get any where near here. she also has eaten treats out of our hands which again she is not normally that comfortable with us. Any advice for helping her, should we be putting antibiotic or something on the thing near her eye or is that even the problem?

 

[Fluffy_Feathers]

I've never dealt with this, but I'm wondering if this could possibly be an ear infection? Has there been any discharge? How has her balance been? How has her head been moving? Any scratching? You notice her being hesitant about hopping onto and off of the roost, as well as well as being slower, I'm thinking maybe that has something to do with her balance being off, along with possible pain... if it is an ear infection of course.

Here is an article I found on ear infections in chickens:
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/ear-infection

Hopefully someone will chime in with a second opinion.

 

[Kaddi143]

My Amaricana has this red bump near her eye and what looks like her comb has an injury and is torn at the top. Are these related or is the eye something and comb injury from Roo possibly? Please help asap my hand raised Old English Siver Duckwing was taken by a hawk two weeks ago and I couldn't bare another loss!

 

[All Ball]

My Amaricana has this red bump near her eye and what looks like her comb has an injury and is torn at the top. Are these related or is the eye something and comb injury from Roo possibly? Please help asap my hand raised Old English Siver Duckwing was taken by a hawk two weeks ago and I couldn't bare another loss!

I see no one has responded - if you look around at "similar threads" as I am, you'll see people asking about whether the bump is "rooted" or if you can move it around under the skin. Search around for "abscess" and "tumor." @azygous mentioned having a girl with a slow-growing benign tumor. However, since you are seeing an injury on the comb, sounds like you might have an infected injury (abscess) you could try to treat. If you search, you should be able to find directions but it might be a question of cutting into it and lancing it, and applying antibiotic cream.

 

[azygous]

If the eye bump is rock hard, it's a tumor. Many of these are benign. If the bump is very soft, it may be a little sinus infection. Putting Neosporin in the eye can help treat it.

Comb injuries are a dime a dozen, so common, just about all chickens have them. Grabbing the comb of a rival is the way chickens settle disputes. They heal very quickly and I've never heard of a minor comb injury getting infected.

As long as your hen is behaving normally, these two issues, related or not, shouldn't be of concern.