Chicken with possible head injury?

[uisceros]

Hi everyone,

I have a weird one - I have a teeny tiny kikiriki hen who is acting very oddly. It seems like she has a head injury, but I have no idea how.

She presented a little while ago with one squinty eye. I assumed she got something in it, or was being bullied, and made sure she ate and put some terramycin in her eye. She is in a flock of seramas (plus two d'uccles and two modern game bantams), so they're all a little bit bigger, but nothing major. She was definitely on the low end of the pecking order. I never saw blood though. I started bringing her in at night just to make sure she was okay, but decided that was probably not fostering friendships so I've been leaving her with the others at night.

The other day I noticed both eyes were squinty, and she was incredibly thin. I immediately took her inside assuming she was being bullied and not eating. Except I noticed she couldn't open her mouth very wide. She's been shaking her head a lot, and seems slightly unbalanced. She has trouble eating since her mouth doesn't open wide. I've been tube feeding her with the Kaytee exact baby bird for the past few days (twice a day), and leaving her with plenty of fine chick food and water.

I figure this is either an ear issue or she has some sort of head trauma. Her set up is as follows: ~72 square foot enclosed run/coop, currently holds 19 tiny bantams (temporarily until my other coop is built). Most are hens, but there's two roosters (one d'uccle and one serama), and one cockerel. She is the only kikiriki (her sister died of a eye tumor awhile back), but none of the other birds are much bigger.

They eat Nutrena all flock starter crumbles and free choice oyster shells/grit.

Any weird diseases I'm missing that would cause this? If it is head trauma or an ear issue, any ideas of what to do?

I do have a vet, but honestly in my experience they haven't helped much since they're not farm vets.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She presented a little while ago with one squinty eye. I assumed she got something in it, or was being bullied, and made sure she ate and put some terramycin in her eye.

The other day I noticed both eyes were squinty, and she was incredibly thin. I immediately took her inside assuming she was being bullied and not eating. Except I noticed she couldn't open her mouth very wide. She's been shaking her head a lot, and seems slightly unbalanced. She has trouble eating since her mouth doesn't open wide.

I figure this is either an ear issue or she has some sort of head trauma.

She is the only kikiriki (her sister died of a eye tumor awhile back)

Do you have photos of her and her poop?

Her sister died from an eye tumor, could this girl be having the same problem?

If you suspect ear infection, look in the ears. See any pus, debris (mites?) or discharge?

Can't open the beak. Any signs of lesions, yellow/white mucous or Canker?

Could she have injured her beak, any signs of fine breakage/damage?

I'd continue to work on hydration and keeping her fed. If you feel that she's suffered head trauma or is having some neurological issues. Start her on vitamin therapy.

Give 400IU Vitamin E and 1/4tablet B-Complex daily along with a bit of egg for the uptake of E.

 

[uisceros]

Do you have photos of her and her poop?

Her sister died from an eye tumor, could this girl be having the same problem?

If you suspect ear infection, look in the ears. See any pus, debris (mites?) or discharge?

Can't open the beak. Any signs of lesions, yellow/white mucous or Canker?

Could she have injured her beak, any signs of fine breakage/damage?

I'd continue to work on hydration and keeping her fed. If you feel that she's suffered head trauma or is having some neurological issues. Start her on vitamin therapy.

Give 400IU Vitamin E and 1/4tablet B-Complex daily along with a bit of egg for the uptake of E.

I do! See attached. I took these this morning. Her poop seems mostly normal (if a little watery, I assume from the tube feeding).

(the poop is mostly in the top right here - sorry for the bad pic!)

I don't think it's the same issue - with her sister (Lenore), the eye bulged out dramatically. I'm not seeing that with Dolly. She's mostly just squinting a bit. It could be a tumor (you never know), but it's not presenting the same.
This was Lenore shortly before she passed.

I can open her beak a tiny bit, maybe 5-7mm. I don't see any signs of canker. She often had dried food in the beak, but no plaques that I can see. I also don't see any breaks in her beak. I’ll check her ears tonight when I get home. I haven’t seen any mites though.

I can start her on vitamins for sure. I might have to crush them and put them in her tube feeding (since I don't want to force her beak open too far), but I can do that! I will say since I've started tube feeding her she has perked up considerably. She was definitely starving before.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Dolly gets dried food stuck in her beak? I'd work on getting the beak open, she may have a lot of material just stuck in there.

Not sure why she's so squinty, it's concerning. Do the eyes water at times? If so, you can clean/flush the eyes with saline, the put a dot of Terramycin eye ointment in the eyes to help soothe them.

Poor Lenore, I'm sorry you lost her. Did you have a necropsy through your state lab, is that how you found out the swelling was an eye tumor?