Facial / comb swelling in 21 week old pullet

[micstrachan]

I hope she’s feeling a bit better in the morning since you’ve cleaned the wound. Keep us posted!

 

[DobieLover]

The vet will see her tomorrow at 10 am. The vet with chickens is not in until then.
No improvement in swelling this morning. Still alert, active and normal pooping. She sounds a little "stuffy" but I think that is the gross swelling.
I still gave her another dose of Benadryl.
We flushed the wound with betadine in water then treated again with Vetericyn.
She is eating heartily. Gave her a spoon full of live mealies and she gobbled them up.
We moved the isolation crate out right next to the run and left the other chickens in for the day.

 

[llombardo]

Was she attacked by anything?

 

[Eggcessive]

I am so glad the others are chiming in on this thread. It sounds like you really have your hands full at home. Don’t feel guilty that you didn’t see this the minute it happened. This is an unusual case. The vet may be able to ascertain whether or not this is an infectious process, trauma to the head and neck, or sort sort of bite or sting. I would suggest a culture or specimen collected for PCR testing to rule out respiratory diseases if the vet feels like this is an infectious process. Will be waiting to hear what you find out.

 

[DobieLover]

I went through all my chicken pictures to see when the swelling started. I have one back on 9/12 and it was just starting then. It's blurry but you can see the bulge starting to form.
The one I have from 8/22 she looks totally normal.
As I said, her withdrawn behavior and extra resting started Saturday 9/22.

 

[DobieLover]

Was she attacked by anything?

Other than one of the higher up pullets, no.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm glad you will be able to see the vet. You are doing what you can for her right now. It's good that she is alert, eating/drinking.

Some things come on slowly and we just don't see them. It sounds like you have a lot going on right now I hope you get some answers, please keep us posted.

 

[DobieLover]

The vet prescribed 10 days of amoxicillin, 2x daily to see if that helps.
She feels it is likely cancer but that we should see if the antibiotic makes a difference.
Her comment on the receipt was "She's a sweet little bird".

 

[Eggcessive]

One thing I had considered was cancer or possible Mareks disease, but hopefully that is not a problem. We have seen some threads where a large swollen area of the face has turned out to be cancer though. I really hope there is some improvement with the antibiotics. Did the benadryl have any effect?

 

[DobieLover]

One thing I had considered was cancer or possible Mareks disease, but hopefully that is not a problem. We have seen some threads where a large swollen area of the face has turned out to be cancer though. I really hope there is some improvement with the antibiotics. Did the benadryl have any effect?

The Benadryl had no effect. All I can do is continue to keep her in the isolation coop and start the antibiotics and hope for the best.