Ear/Sinus Infection?

[jwcarlson]

I have a roughly 6 month old hen who has quite swollen ears with discharge. Crusty snot. Doesn't seem to have any long issues. Her eyes aren't particularly swollen, but with crust shut occasionally. This morning just lightly touching them and they popped open. She's eating, drinking, and pooping. Poop seems normal looking.

I completely forgot to take pictures this morning. But I have had her isolated from the flock since seeing the issue this weekend. Her ears absolutely are plugged with puss, which I know I need to remove. I don't think that will be terribly difficult to do. My question is what should I have on-hand to treat her ears after cleaning them out. Should I just flush with saline and call it good? Or should I use iodine or antibacterial ointment or anything?

I also plan to look in her mouth to see if there's anything that might be causing it from in her mouth.

I initially thought this could be coryza, but she doesn't seem to have much of an odor outside of some normal chicken smell. I feel bad for her, it has to be miserable to be so plugged up.

I'll get some pictures of her this afternoon when I get home from work.

Thanks!

 

[jwcarlson]

Her left ear didn't have much pus. It was basically just crusted up. The right ear had a huge mass of fairly hard pus. I got most of it out, but could didn't want to dig farther. I don't have the right tools. I flushed ears and eyes with plain saline. Right ear bled a little bit, but seemed incidental more than anything. This isn't everything I got out, she shook her head and flung some of it. I will have oxytetracycline for her water tomorrow.
I didn't see anything in her mouth, but was difficult wrangling everything. I might try looking in her mouth again tomorrow.

Should I push to get more pus out of that right ear or hope it works its way up?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would try to get all of the pus out tomorrow. You can apply a couple of drops of hydrogen peroxide into the ear canal. Then clean it out with QTips gently and apply some plain Neosporin triple antibiotic ointment daily.

 

[jwcarlson]

I forgot to check back on this. The brutal cold arrived (below zero and below freezing all day) and I don't want to fuss with her too much. It's going to warm up a bit tomorrow. I got oxy water mixed up for her starting this morning. I am still having to pop her eyes open, but they remain open all day and crust closed at night. She certainly seemed to feel better today. Ears absolutely have more stuff coming out of them, but looked at least a bit better.

I wish I had a better place for her where it was warmer so I'd feel more comfortable messing around with her. Meaning that she'd be more comfortable after since I can't imagine liquid in your ears feels good when it's a high of 12 degrees.

This may be a difficult question to answer, but how far down does the ear canal go? I guess I could try looking in a healthy chicken's ear to have some frame of reference.

I'll try peroxide and cotton swabs tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

You only would add a drop or two of the peroxide into the ear canal, and then clean it out. Then use some Neosporin ointment inside. The Neosporin can also be used into the eye twice a day to treat infection in the eyes. I would bring her inside once a day to treat, and then put her back out. Or bring her off the roost early am, treat and put her out with her flock.

 

[jwcarlson]

I'm worried it would be bad going from 10-15 degrees to 60-70 and then back the other way? Maybe that's not a real concern.

I currently have her isolated from the flock worried she could spread infection. Also, with the not being able to open her eyes in the morning, I'm not sure she'd do well in the winter hoop house. I don't necessarily want to medicate the whole flock with antibiotics in the water either.