Ear mites? Vitamin deficiency? Dizzy/stumbling hen, abscess

[Eggcessive]

The lump on the face could be a feather follicle cyst, or possibly a tumor. You could try to lance it and get out the cheesy center and look for an ingrown feather. Here is a link with a picture of a similar lump:
https://bitchinchickens.com/2020/12/03/case-study-feather-follicle-cyst/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Update and question - do we lance the abscess on her face? No real change, though this morning there was a little bit of crusty stuff on it like it had oozed a tiny amount.

Abscess is fairly firm but palpable. The whole pocket seems very maneuverable away from her face, so my gut tells me it’s not a sinus cavity, etc that’s inflamed. There’s even a natural pocket/separation from the eye socket area.

So next concerns - the abscess on her face, and I’m also treating a spot under her vent that appears to have also become infected/inflamed from poop buildup that was washed off this weekend. Surrounding skin is normal colored and I feel good that some daily Vetericyn and antibiotic gel will encourage healthy growth and recovery.

You can try lancing the lump on the face.

Does she still have any pus inside the ear or has that cleared up?

I'd treat the spot under the vent like you have suggested, hopefully that will heal up and hopefully all the mites are gone too.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sinus-surgery-video.1081042/

 

[zinnia_flower]

You can try lancing the lump on the face.

Does she still have any pus inside the ear or has that cleared up?

I'd treat the spot under the vent like you have suggested, hopefully that will heal up and hopefully all the mites are gone too.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sinus-surgery-video.1081042/

No ear issues after all - I think I was seeing dry skin and/or some mite debris/dirt. Her balance and strength have been recovering steadily - still not 100%, but she insisted on trying to perch on the edge of her hospital box yesterday, so I got her a piece of plywood and she sat/stood on that ALL day.

Mite treatment cleaned her up - we’ll re-treat this weekend to catch any eggs. She’s been on a puppy pad so the first couple of days let us see a few mites crawling away from her, then dead mites, then nothing.

Thanks for the help with the abscess - I’m anxious about the procedure (hurting her) but we’ll try to do it today. It came on so quickly last week, like suddenly appeared one day, so my gut tells me it’s an infection that needs draining. (Unless an infection just needs to be allowed to work its way out?)

 

[Eggcessive]

An abscess, such as from a dog or cat bite, sometimes may open on it’s own, but a feather cyst can continue to grow and get larger. I would probably lance it after disinfecting the skin, and then squeeze and explore it.

 

[zinnia_flower]

Update - Rider has been recuperating for 9 days now. Doing better, but not great.

Mites are cleared up, and we are slowly rebuilding strength and balance. She spends most of the day snoozing but is now alternating between standing and sitting, and comfortably preens and scratches her head on one foot. 9 days ago she couldn’t stand unassisted, so good progress.

Have not addressed the lump on her face yet - it has grown a bit, unfortunately, but does not appear to be impacting her sinus or eye. Been waiting for her appetite to stabilize before we cut it open, as I’m worried about bleeding with an already-compromised bird that was potentially anemic.

I think I made a critical error and did not provide her grit, which set us back. Her appetite was strong 6 days ago, and slowed over time so she wasn’t eating much or drinking much. We feed whole grain, which she had access to alongside water and we kept trying to bribe with eggs, little fruit bits, arugula, and yogurt. I finally checked her crop one night and the next morning and realized she had a very full crop, like a golf ball, that hadn’t drained overnight. We’ve syringed 1/2 tsp coconut oil and massaged several times a day and it’s abating. Not totally clear yet, but the crop is much more malleable and smaller and we can feel the little bits of grit she greedily gobbled down.

Tonight she ate some blackberry bits, soft grain, and about a tablespoon of scrambled egg, which is a stronger appetite than we’ve seen in a couple of days. She drank a lot of water, too! I’ve been administering watered down Poultry Cell and durastat 3-4x a day.

Poops are solidifying finally. They have been yellow-green all week and were splashy-diarrhea that occasionally included some solid matter. Today was the first day they were much more solid and cohesive - still green/yellow, though, about the same color as the watered down Poultry Cell.

Wound under her vent is scabbed over! I can see some small cracking/separation between the scab and her feathers/skin. This patch had turned infected/poorly after some poop had built up too long, and it got cleaned off when we did the mite treatment last week. I’m so relieved that this has been healing - we lost a girl to fly strike who had a similar wound spot and it had progressed to a fatal state by the time I found it.

So - goals:
-Appetite needs to improve, keeping an eye on her crop
-Poops need to stay solidified and get back to white - hoping we don’t have an underlying liver issue…
-Need to lance the lump on her face eventually

Poor girl managed to accumulate SO many issues in the past few weeks and it makes me feel like a terrible chicken mom. We’re following her lead - she’s been perky, insists on wiping her beak on a “napkin” (I keep a little wash cloth in my hand when we use the syringe), growls at aerial predators outside, and chirps at us, so as long as she’ll keep fighting, we’ll keep going with her.

Some pictures from the past few days:

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We’ve syringed 1/2 tsp coconut oil and massaged several times a day and it’s abating. Not totally clear yet, but the crop is much more malleable and smaller

I'm glad to hear Rider is slowly improving. You're doing all the right things.

I would however increase the coconut oil to 1tsp twice a day if possible. See if she will eat it in small chunks on her own. My hens love the taste of coconut oil, if she won't then no worries.

It's good the wound is healing and that her poop seems to look a little better too.

I agree with you on lancing the lump, waiting for her to regain some strength is a good idea, especially since it doesn't seem to be bothering her for now.

Thank you for the update, I look forward to the next.

 

[zinnia_flower]

I'm glad to hear Rider is slowly improving. You're doing all the right things.

I would however increase the coconut oil to 1tsp twice a day if possible. See if she will eat it in small chunks on her own. My hens love the taste of coconut oil, if she won't then no worries.

It's good the wound is healing and that her poop seems to look a little better too.

I agree with you on lancing the lump, waiting for her to regain some strength is a good idea, especially since it doesn't seem to be bothering her for now.

Thank you for the update, I look forward to the next.

I got to check her wound more thoroughly, and found it rather interesting. Thoughts?

The scab is definitely separating from her skin and there is healthy, pink tissue underneath. SO glad to see this - it honestly had a mildly rotten smell when I found it.

It looks like this is a raised cyst/lump/thing of some kind - or is just the whole area still inflamed tissue? I’m not sure I can do much about it other than monitor, but it’s odd to me that she has a lump on her face and a big lump on her backside. I spotted a little bump on the back of her neck that I dismissed as a cyst a while back - it was barely the size of a pea and looks very much like a skin tag/protein growth that humans get.

It was a puzzling find for sure. She is extra eager to bathe the feathers back here.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Let's get @Eggcessive to give her thoughts on this too.

I wonder if it's something like a Feather Cyst. Perhaps some impacted feathers within the wound. It is interesting looking.

If it's slowly separating and the skin underneath is healthy looking, it may just be a matter of time that the scab and old feathers slough off, then you'll be able to see a little better whether there's impacted feathers that need to be teased out or not.

 

[Eggcessive]

Good advice from Wyorp Rock to watch and see or to explore it for an ingrown feather.

 

[zinnia_flower]

Thank you both!

She’s eating more yesterday and today, though I wish her crop was emptier each morning. Perhaps her system is just running a bit slow. Droppings are getting larger but still off in color. We’ll keep going!