Chicken with swollen earlobe

[pinguin]

Today, my son's OEG hen has a swollen earlobe. She's about 2 years old.

She's on layer mash, supplemented with grass & some veggies. No other symptoms such as nasal discharge. Her appetite is a bit off, but she's molting. Energy level is normal.

The lump is not hard, but feels much like a fluid filled blister.

I suspect it's an infection of some sort, but told him I'd post on BYC & see if anyone had a better idea. He gave me two pictures to post, one of the swollen area & the other from the front, showing the swollen left earlobe.

Thanks for any help.

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[threehorses]

Can you feel if it's an external abcess (since he feels fluid) or if you guys think it's the inner ear? Looks like she's either had an injury on the outside, or maybe inner ear. Hard to tell. As for her appetite, yeah that sounds about normal. I'd give her a little extra protein and probiotics as a booster to both her immune system as well as feather building.

Do you think you could safely lance the blister and flush it out, drain it? Do you have any experience with this sort of thing? You'd want to flush it daily until it's healed.

Alternately you could leave it a day and see if it returns at all to normal. It might be filled with serum. Is the blister hotter than the rest of her?

 

[pinguin]

Thanks for the suggestions, threehorses. I'll pass them on to him. Not much I can do--he lives in California & I live in Illinois. I don't think they make needles that long.

 

[threehorses]

LOL prolly not.

I'm trying to get a better feel of where it is. I wish her neck was long enough to reach to TX.