Ear/Sinus Infection?

[allosaurusrock]

The fact that the ears were clogged with a white cheese, her skin was flaky, and that her face is still puffy makes me feel that this might be a fungal yeast/thrush infection rather than a bacterial one. I’m not 100% sure on that and I’m nervous to recommend any treatment without going to a veterinarian. There are still sites that you can purchase oral antibiotics and antifungals off of for pigeon and parrot use that also work on chickens. But antibiotic resistant bacteria is no joke and we are developing new antibiotics slower than the bacteria is evolving to resist them. There’s a reason they’re illegal over the counter for livestock now.

How is her balance? Is her breathing raspy? Is she sneezing? Usually with ear infections the clogging is just localized to the ear. Her crusty eyes and puffy face worry me. I think this is might be more than an ear infection and there is something internal going on.

The clogging in her ear is gone but her face has gone puffy. I am worried the antibiotics are making it worse. I’ve had fungal infections spring up after antibiotics are used, since the beneficial bacteria are dead. There fact that you are still getting crust out of her ears despite treatment makes me feel that this is yeast as well.

We are in a wet environment where I live and I had this same thing happen to my hen’s nostril. I was able to pop it out with a sterile needle and she made a full recovery without need for medication. In the future I would remove the mass and just gently clean out the gunk with a q-tip or something like that.

Antibiotic ointment is also known to cause skin inflammation.

You’ve been using antibiotics on her for more than 10 days, which is usually considered a full course. I would give it a rest and see if the swelling goes down. There are poultry probiotics you can give her to help her recover.

 

[jwcarlson]

She is isolated. I have seen no scratching and the skin appears unscratched. I have checked for mites, finding nothing. The deposts on the feathers seem to be crustiness from her ears? But it was never on the outside of the feathers, just down at the bases. She had a round of oxytetracycline. I will not be taking her to a vet, she's one of 40 birds. Just trying to give her a shot if she has the will to live.

My daughter said she saw her shaking her head yesterday, but that (I believe) could be from the ointment I fill her ears with every morning. I may leave her ears open tomorrow and see how they look after.

 

[jwcarlson]

She only had antibiotics for 10 days, she's been off them for awhile.

Balance seems OK. She does have a bit of something I can hear when she breathes, but not anything alarming. I did notice 3 or 4 bubbles in her eyes this morning. Her eyes remain clear, she remains alert and eager to eat and drink.

I could buy the fungal infection thing, but the skin looks fine? Other than whatever the crust was. I know she looks rough, but she seems improved. I can keep doing what I am doing indefinitely, basically. Will see what happens with her.

 

[Ponypoor]

She is isolated. I have seen no scratching and the skin appears unscratched. I have checked for mites, finding nothing. The deposts on the feathers seem to be crustiness from her ears? But it was never on the outside of the feathers, just down at the bases. She had a round of oxytetracycline. I will not be taking her to a vet, she's one of 40 birds. Just trying to give her a shot if she has the will to live.

My daughter said she saw her shaking her head yesterday, but that (I believe) could be from the ointment I fill her ears with every morning. I may leave her ears open tomorrow and see how they look after.

What is the odour of the discharge from the ears? If there is an odour what does it smell like?

So first off never ever insert anything into an ear canal, to soften crud in the ear you can use 1 drop of mineral oil and massage it around gently.

Also I am wondering if (as pointed out above) this may be a yeast infection, you can try applying some Clotrimazole cream (the vaginal yeast infection stuff) to the skin for a few days and see if this helps.

I know that Ivermectin is not approved for poultry but it is highly effective for parasites like mites, lice, etc. I am also suspicious of her having ear mites, I have had rabbits like this in the past.

Tetracycline isn't the best choice for an antibiotic for suspected ear infections - Amoxicillin is a better choice. People on here use Fish-mox since one needs a script from a Vet to get hold of it now, but try the Clotramizole cream first to see if this helps.

As for the eyes, I use my old tea bags for the horses and chooks eyes, make a warm solution and using a cotton ball gently wipe the eyes, you can also clean the skin/ears with this make sure to dry her thoroughly with this freezing weather.

Good luck with her - I am glad you're working at helping her.

 

[Eggcessive]

Miconazole or clotrimazole ointment, Nustock Horse cream which has sulfur in it, or Betadine are all anti-fungal, and any of those could be applied to her crusty skin. I would clean some of the ointment out of her ears, since she only needs a dab in them. It is hard to know what she has, but it seems like some respiratory disease. MG and coryza are common, but hard to know without testing or a vet.

 

[jwcarlson]

I appreciate the ideas and advice. I'm planning on miconazole. The ointment seems to be gone each morning, but I was planning on skipping it tomorrow to see if anything seems to be coming out of them. Part of me wants to give her a bath to loosen all of the crust, but that would certainly be problematic this time of year.

I'll take a look at the other stuff as well, maybe one of those would be a better option.

 

[jwcarlson]

Sorry I didn't respond to everything and have been thinking. Are mites possible without ever seeing one and seemingly no other bird on the flock with them? I feel like if she had ear mites, for instance, that there would be some evidence of that in her ear? I am certainly paying enough attention to that area that I feel like I'd see something. Same as her neck. I can check her vent area tomorrow.
I do have liquid ivermectin, so if I do find mites I could very easily treat her for them. Just don't want to bombard her unnecessarily.

Thanks again!

 

[Eggcessive]

Mites or their droppings can be seen on the skin. So if you haven’t seen mites craling or the droppings they leave behind, there probably are not any. Ear mites which are microscopic might be inside the ear and causing irritation. But I would think the ointment in the ear would have killed any ear mites by now.

 

[jwcarlson]

I looked her over and see zero evidence of mites. There was a tiny bit more crustiness towards her vent, but nothing big at all. It does look like the crustiness is coming back on the neck as I haven't put ointment on most of her neck for a couple days.

Being able to put enough fungal cream on her several days in a row seems like a very large task it would be her whole head/neck and part of her rear. Who knows where else it might be. She's got a lot of feathers.
It's almost l like I need to give her something for her whole body. Is there anything like that available? I have done monistat in a hen's vent for several days to combat gleet. That worked swimmingly, but would that help external fungal issues?
I have done additional digging and while I can't find a lot of information about adult birds with Aspergillosis, she does seem to have some of that look to her. She does seem to have a little respiratory issue going on. My daughter also said she saw her extending her head up and stretching with mouth open the other day. But I have not seen that.

I started her on pre/probiotics/plasma protein and whatever the Flock Rescue 911 stuff is from Perdue (I think).

 

[Eggcessive]

You can also use Betadine 10% to treat fungal infections. That might be easier to apply to the skin. Walmart sells a generic Betadine called Equate First Aid Antiseptic in the first aid aisle near the pharmacy.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-F...uAp9GWkHTZjtJTFTdwEqmpS-HL7Q4q-xoCx9QQAvD_BwE

https://www.target.com/p/povidone-i...v-0k77yrO4I8qKL6o2wmuccnfCt6Od0BoCkB8QAvD_BwE