Could this be swollen area be caused by a bee sting?

[Mybackyardgirls]

My dear Miss Ericka showed up this morning with this swollen area on a gland (?) below her eye. Could this be a bee sting or something more horrible.? Any recommendation to control the swelling?

 

[chooks4life]

Could be a lot of things, of course. A spider bite, ant sting, a peck from a dirty beak introducing bacteria, a tick (dunno if that's a problem where you are)...

I would check her carefully and if you can't see anything, maybe just disinfect the surface even with saline solution or whatever and leave her be, but watch in case anything develops. The inflammation is itself the body's way of dealing with something problematic, and treating inflammation like it's a disease is actually one way people commonly make the actual issue worse.

It's a bit like people being too hasty to cure diarrhea in infants then inadvertently killing them because the diarrhea was necessary to remove the actual problem from the body as quickly as possible. The stats on how many babies died due to overly hasty diarrhea treatment are pretty saddening. People tend to use anti inflammatories as soon as they get a backache or injury, around here, which is in many cases actually worsening the real damage because the inflammation was the body's way to immobilize the injured part and direct the most repair resources to it as possible.

In other words I wouldn't intervene unless it becomes obvious that the body is struggling to achieve its natural goal of healing.

Best wishes.

 

[Mybackyardgirls]

Thanks. The swelling is not getting worse. I'll take a closer look and wash it with saline.

I'm always worrying that the problem is worse than it is. I'll wait and see. Thanks again