Eyes swollen shut, scabs

[Moondazzle]

Hello there!
I'm in 4-H, and at the farm I go to work with my animal at they have a flock of about fifteen hens and a rooster. Yesterday myself and another 4-Her, who handles and has raised this hen, found her with her eyes completely scanned over and swollen shut. Her ears also appear scabbed and possibly clogged. The rest of the flock is absolutely normal, and none if them have had constanct with any outside birds for at least a year. There is a problem with scaly leg mites in the flock, could that have anything to do with it?
Here are some pictures:

She is a small, friendly bantam hen and is about four years old. She's currently in quarantine at the 4-Her's house, and will be dusted for mites and given antibiotics, vitamins and electrolytes soon (which I have to a lethargic bird who wouldn't eat, and he pulled through wonderfully). Any advice? Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I texted a vet who said it could be fungal, bacterial, or from parasites.

 

[Michael Apple]

If it were one eye, I'd say it could be an infection from a peck injury. I suspect Coryza. Treatment requires Sulfadimethoxine. The powder is given .5 tsp for 6 days. If that isn't available, use Sulmet at 2 tsp per gallon for 7 days If you don't see improvement after 3 days of treatment, consult a vet as it could be something else. A secondary infection of Coryza would be CRD which requires drugs like Tylan. Dosage for a bantam would be .5 cc injected under the skin on the back of the neck once a day for 5 days. Use a 25 gauge needle.

Using an eye cleanser with q-tips to clean exudate out of the eye will help. Terramycin eye ointment may help with the eye infection. Wash you hands well before and after handling that bird and stay away from other birds after handling that bird. Gently check the inside of ears and see if they are clogged with any gunk.

 

[Lynnsfarm]

This looks almost exactly like what my young chicken has. Check out the remedies and help for Pox. I soak the area with clean rag and warm water to gently get the scabs off. Then put terramyacin in eye and Neosporin all around area that is infected. My chick seems to have the respiratory infection along with Pox. Know that I am no expert and have not went to a vet. Just sharing what I personally have found worked for me. When my other chicken kept scratching at the infected area I made a cone (like for a dog) out of 1/4 edge of a paper plate. I wrapped it around head at the neck until it didn't come off when pulled to head,I then taped it along where it joined. Then I had to separate her, and although she didn't like it, she ate and drank and was healed up within a week.
Good luck to you

 

[Eggcessive]

I don't have an answer because this looks pretty confusing, so I would probably treat for several things, including coryza as Michael suggested. Although the eye and ear in your photo have some similarity to a bad case of fowl pox, it looks too dry and scaly, so scaly mites or even a fungal infection such as favus could be a problem. I would put some antibiotic ointment such as the Terramycin or some plain neosporin on the swollen eyes and ear, just to smother any mites. The ears need to be cleaned out. Dawg 53 has a couple of good posts about cleaning ears with peroxide and QTips, then filling the ear canal with neosporin ointment. I can't post links now, but may find one in the morning to give you.

 

[Moondazzle]

Thank you all very much. I'll check up on the hen as soon as possible to see how it's going, and luckily the person she's staying with has a vet tech in the house. I'll see if they want to go to a vet if it persists much longer or doesn't improve at all, and I'll check out the Neosporin and ear canal cleaning stuff. I'll post progress as soon as I can.

 

[Michael Apple]

Thank you all very much. I'll check up on the hen as soon as possible to see how it's going, and luckily the person she's staying with has a vet tech in the house. I'll see if they want to go to a vet if it persists much longer or doesn't improve at all, and I'll check out the Neosporin and ear canal cleaning stuff.

I'll post progress as soon as I can.

You're welcome. Eggcessive mentioned pox, which I didn't consider. That's good of you to help that hen. I hope she recovers.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are some threads with ear infection treatments given by Dawg53 in posts #4 and #5:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/767500/ear-infection
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/630778/gunky-ears

 

[Moondazzle]

Thank you very much. I texted her the instructions and she said she'd try it out. She also said that the hen has had Neosporin applied to the scabs every day.

 

[Kevintherooster]

Hello there!
I'm in 4-H, and at the farm I go to work with my animal at they have a flock of about fifteen hens and a rooster. Yesterday myself and another 4-Her, who handles and has raised this hen, found her with her eyes completely scanned over and swollen shut. Her ears also appear scabbed and possibly clogged. The rest of the flock is absolutely normal, and none if them have had constanct with any outside birds for at least a year. There is a problem with scaly leg mites in the flock, could that have anything to do with it?
Here are some pictures:

She is a small, friendly bantam hen and is about four years old. She's currently in quarantine at the 4-Her's house, and will be dusted for mites and given antibiotics, vitamins and electrolytes soon (which I have to a lethargic bird who wouldn't eat, and he pulled through wonderfully). Any advice? Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I texted a vet who said it could be fungal, bacterial, or from parasites.

I had one like that she's getting better I recommend separating her and wash always 3 times a day with warm water and scrub it lightly and give her a little tylan 200 is strong but only give her a shot not full but a little once every 2 or 3 days

 

[StPaulieGirls]

I wish I could hear how this case turned out! This bird looks exactly like our buckeye hen. Her face, ears and under-wing-pits are a scabby mess, but she eats and drinks ravenously. She's been like this for 6 months, no improvement, no decline. The rest of the flock is healthy. We've had her isolated all this time and have tried so many things (ivermectin for mites, doxycycline, miconazole, terbinafine, vitamins, vaseline...). It's so very frustrating. Our rule is if an animal wants to eat and drink on its own, we won't give up. Aggh.