- May 9, 2010
- 23
- 4
- 77
Hello,
I am new here. Does anyone know what is wrong with our hen?
About a month ago, our 8 or 9 yr old white Brahma hen began scratching the side of her face and shaking her head. It turned out that she had scaly leg mites, so we treated the entire group and their environment with Adam's Plus flea and tick mist with IGR and Sevin dust.
We also put vegetable oil in both her ears since it was possible that she had an ear infection. She was acting as if she plainly did not feel well. Subsequently she developed a swelling on one side of her head. Assuming that it was a sinus infection, we began giving her oral tetracycline via eyedropper. We did this daily for about a week. One day my daughter could not come to assist me. The following morning our hen's head looked like a tennis ball had been inserted under the skin on one side. Additionally she had some bleeding from her nostril area. Her eye was completely swollen shut.
Since we have had this girl for 7 yrs (she was a rescue chicken at that), we decided to administer penicillin G by injection. We began using 1/2 cc since she was pretty thin. It is now 14 days later and we are administering 1 1/2 cc daily. We have watched the swelling shrink steadily. She now opens her eye partially and can can see out of that eye. Her eyelid gets 'bubbles' under it and The swelling has not spread to the other side of her head.
Something is out of control at the side of her mouth. We have watched the tissue inside her mouth go from dark brown to normal. My daughter said that her palate was pushed to the side initially but now is straightened out. This is the second time this growth or whatever it is has appeared at the side of her mouth. The last time it apparently 'fell out' and she could close her mouth normally. We watched it grow again into this. This seems to be some sort of scab or something. It swelled up kind of like a boil and we began to apply hydrogen peroxide and triple antibiotic ointment to the outside of it.
We have applied Vaseline to her face and beak multiple times to be sure that any scaly mites are gone. We re-treated for mites at 10 days since this is when her face ballooned on one side.
She seems to feel fine. She is eating, etc. She is still shaking her head and scratching at the side of her face. We made an e-collar 2 weeks ago for her to wear. She is amazingly good during all the poking and prodding and experimenting we have done. She seems to know we are trying to help... and that bit of cake she gets afterward helps too.
None of the other hens have developed this. None of the other hens are sick. A Silver Sebright banty that is her best friend apparently had scaly mites in her beak which deformed one nostril, so we think that there might have been scaly mite involvement with our Brahma's beak which lead to infection.
I have searched the internet and not found another photo like our hen. Another pet chicken site was stumped.
We expect the thing at the side of her mouth to fall off again like last time, but will it re-grow again?
Thanks for any help you can give us...
I am new here. Does anyone know what is wrong with our hen?
About a month ago, our 8 or 9 yr old white Brahma hen began scratching the side of her face and shaking her head. It turned out that she had scaly leg mites, so we treated the entire group and their environment with Adam's Plus flea and tick mist with IGR and Sevin dust.
We also put vegetable oil in both her ears since it was possible that she had an ear infection. She was acting as if she plainly did not feel well. Subsequently she developed a swelling on one side of her head. Assuming that it was a sinus infection, we began giving her oral tetracycline via eyedropper. We did this daily for about a week. One day my daughter could not come to assist me. The following morning our hen's head looked like a tennis ball had been inserted under the skin on one side. Additionally she had some bleeding from her nostril area. Her eye was completely swollen shut.
Since we have had this girl for 7 yrs (she was a rescue chicken at that), we decided to administer penicillin G by injection. We began using 1/2 cc since she was pretty thin. It is now 14 days later and we are administering 1 1/2 cc daily. We have watched the swelling shrink steadily. She now opens her eye partially and can can see out of that eye. Her eyelid gets 'bubbles' under it and The swelling has not spread to the other side of her head.
Something is out of control at the side of her mouth. We have watched the tissue inside her mouth go from dark brown to normal. My daughter said that her palate was pushed to the side initially but now is straightened out. This is the second time this growth or whatever it is has appeared at the side of her mouth. The last time it apparently 'fell out' and she could close her mouth normally. We watched it grow again into this. This seems to be some sort of scab or something. It swelled up kind of like a boil and we began to apply hydrogen peroxide and triple antibiotic ointment to the outside of it.
We have applied Vaseline to her face and beak multiple times to be sure that any scaly mites are gone. We re-treated for mites at 10 days since this is when her face ballooned on one side.
She seems to feel fine. She is eating, etc. She is still shaking her head and scratching at the side of her face. We made an e-collar 2 weeks ago for her to wear. She is amazingly good during all the poking and prodding and experimenting we have done. She seems to know we are trying to help... and that bit of cake she gets afterward helps too.
None of the other hens have developed this. None of the other hens are sick. A Silver Sebright banty that is her best friend apparently had scaly mites in her beak which deformed one nostril, so we think that there might have been scaly mite involvement with our Brahma's beak which lead to infection.
I have searched the internet and not found another photo like our hen. Another pet chicken site was stumped.
We expect the thing at the side of her mouth to fall off again like last time, but will it re-grow again?
Thanks for any help you can give us...
