Cyst? Tumor? Under Beak between waddles

[Wild Prime]

Just a little update, her right side of her face is a little swollen but i got the pus out that was pushing on the side of her face there that was causing the swelling. I was going to put her back out in the coop but then she ripped off one of her spurs when I was rinsing the abscess (I'm pretty sure thats what it is) with the saline solution, so I used Quick Stop, gauze, and electrical tape to make a bandage, and she's back in solitary. She was quite angry with me today

 

[Wild Prime]

Hey guys, I've been off the site for awhile (almost a month!) and I thought you might like an update on Tamera.

She's been eating and drinking, but no matter what I've done the lump under her beak continued to grow, and it got so big she couldn't preen herself.

So today I went out to try to figure out if I could maybe cut open her lump and try to clean it out that way, when I saw a scab the size of a pencil eraser that hadn't been there yesterday.

I squeezed the scab and a little bit of liquid came out. I thought I wonder if I can get this scab off if I'll be able to get into the lump. So I gently removed the scab, and there was a hole leading right into the lump!

I got my tweezers out and was there today for the past 3 hours cleaning out pus and rinsing out the hole with saline solution. I finally found an opening leading from her mouth to the lump. It starts right under her beak and slants down diagonally to the left into the lump! That's why I couldn't clean the lump out before, because I was going straight down instead of at an angle.
I'm hoping after today that the lump will go down, and I'll use the outside hole to keep it clean. I was wondering if there was someway I could block the outside hole so bugs won't get in? Maybe with gauze?

 

[TeamChaos]

Wow, what a saga! I'm so glad you updated and that you're getting closer to a cure for her! I had a rooster that got an abscess in his wattle and I didn't know how to treat it, until (like you) I noticed a scab one day, so I soaked it and the infection popped out- it was hard and about the size of a peach pit. Yuck! I flushed the pocket twice a day w/warm salt water and then slathered the hole in vetericyn and put a square of paper medical tape over it. As you know, you want the abscess to heal from the inside out and that hole will be the last thing you allow to close up. Best of luck to you and your girl!

 

[Wild Prime]

Thanks for the info and support, TeamChaos. We have Vetericyn for the horses, I could probably use that on the sore on the outside. I didn't have to worry about flies getting in the hole, because it scabbed right over when i was done. And the lump has shrunk quite a bit. I'll have to reopen the hole today and scrape out more. I noticed when I clean out the lump some more puss will push up into her mouth where the mess started at. I am pretty sure at this point that she tried to grab grass through the chicken wire and stabbed herself with a point on the wire. However, it didn't go all the way through, just enough to make a nasty hole which has abscessed. I did notice after I worked on her yesterday she went straight inside and gobbled down a bunch of food and water. Feeling better? I hope so. I am heading outside right now to work on the lump again. Hopefully I'll get this thing under control. I'll try to get a pic up later today.

 

[TeamChaos]

Truthfully, I'd direct the vetericyn IN the hole and work on healing the mouth side of things before you allow the scab to reform or shrink at all. The puss will drain naturally from that hole, since it's the lowest point. Would she tolerate you irrigating the hole from the top? Yes, please post another pic if you get a chance.

 

[Wild Prime]

I opened up the outside hole and irrigated it from the mouth side out, and got more puss out today. Doesn't seem like the puss is coming back, I'm just getting deeper into the hole. Can't get pictures until tomorrow, but i'll try to get good ones. I don't want to stress her out too much! She's been really good through this whole process

 

[featherz]

I opened up the outside hole and irrigated it from the mouth side out, and got more puss out today. Doesn't seem like the puss is coming back, I'm just getting deeper into the hole. Can't get pictures until tomorrow, but i'll try to get good ones. I don't want to stress her out too much! She's been really good through this whole process

Good job! I hadn't seen this thread before, but wanted to comment that I had a chicken with wet fowl pox (and finally had to put her down) and it didn't look like that. My chicken had yellow gunk, but it wasn't in a pocket like an abscess, it was spread out and went down her trachea and was very hard to remove (did not just squish out). I would have thought canker, but she also had dry pox at the same time so wet pox was the most likely diagnosis. Yours looked more like an abscess - good job on getting down to it!

 

[Farmerboy16]

That reminds me of my steer calf that had a lumpy jaw. Its was caused by something sharp poking inside his mouth, and he developed an abscess , but it was liquidy type. At first I did not know what to do with it, until I saw a scab almost on the underside of the lump, I touched it and it pretty much exploded a stream of pus. I pushed it out as much as I could, and squirting betadine in the wound, I repeated for about a week, then the lump went down, then it disappeared.

So, your hen sounds like what my steer had. So, keep it up on clearing out the bad stuff out of her mouth.

If you don't mind, here are some picture of him-

It was in January, at a month old.

A few days ago, and stupid.

BTW, his name is Pancake.

 

[TeamChaos]

Ha ha ha, FarmerBoy16- Pancake is adorable! I'm glad he's healing well.

Wild Prime- I'm glad she let you clean it out, I wonder if it tastes bad too- poor girlie! I wonder if adding apple cider vinegar to her water (or everyone's water, actually) would help change the PH enough in her mouth so it wasn't so attractive to bacteria. Huh. If you happen to find the offending wire (or suspected offending wire, I should say), it'd be worthwhile to post a pic of that too so new chicken owners (and old ones who may not know) can try to prevent it from happening in their own flocks. I hope Tamera continues to heal!

 

[Wild Prime]

Farmerboy16-Pancake has got to be the cutest steer calf I've ever seen

And today the lump is way smaller!! It is down to about the size of 2 marbles- a great change, because when I started it was the size of a peach pit! She seems happier today, she was preening and sunbathing with all the other girls. Hopefully in a few days it will be totally gone! And I haven't found the wire yet, but I know of two possible places where it could be. We had a squirrel that always came in the run, he chewed open a hole in the wire. I'm sure that's where it is. Darn squirrel