Hen has swollen lump above vent and cloudy eye

[sierrabrady]

I have an 11 month old speckled sussex hen who has just been going through it the past couple months

Back in February (around the 18th if I had to guess) she started showing signs of not feeling well. She was puffed up, lethargic, not eating or laying eggs, and panting. Isolated her and had the vet run a fecal which came back positive for capillaria worms. We were told to treat twice two weeks apart with Valbazen/Albendazole and that’s what we did. She improved a few days after the first dose and we had her back out with the flock (who also got treated) before we did the second dose.

She’s been fine since but last weekend I went away and had my mom take care of all my chickens and when I came back on April 1 I noticed one of her eyes was shut. I used MicrocynAH gel that night and the next day she was opening it more but it looks cloudy and the pupil almost looks deformed its not a perfect circle like her other eye. I’ve done some saline rinses and applied the gel a few more times but it seems like she’s blind in that eye. April 3 I was tending to her eye and her butt touched my leg and it was wet which is unusual. That’s when I noticed runny poop under her vent and above the vent is a very swollen lump. She is still eating, drinking, and active but resting a little more than usual. She has some normal solid poops and some runny as well. Idk what happened to her eye and idk when her vent started to look like this because I was so worried about her eye when I got home I didn’t even think to look at her vent. Could these things be related? I did an epsom salt soak this morning, is there anything else I can do?

I will post pictures of her vent area in comments but warning they are pretty gross!

 

[sierrabrady]

This was taken after her soak

 

[coach723]

That is above the vent? Does the vent look normal? Is there a scab or any indication of a wound there? Does it feel hard or soft, and does it move around if you manipulate it? I'm wondering if it's infection or if she may have a feather cyst. A tumor is also possible. If you can trim some feathers back so we can get a better look at it, and see exactly where it is located, it would help. Don't worry about how it looks, we can't help if we can't see it with detail.

 

[sierrabrady]

That is above the vent? Does the vent look normal? Is there a scab or any indication of a wound there? Does it feel hard or soft, and does it move around if you manipulate it? I'm wondering if it's infection or if she may have a feather cyst. A tumor is also possible. If you can trim some feathers back so we can get a better look at it, and see exactly where it is located, it would help. Don't worry about how it looks, we can't help if we can't see it with detail.

Thanks for your help. I’m sorry I wish I had better pictures and better answers but I have no one to help me hold her right now so that I could clean her up and do a better assessment. It might be her vent itself that is swollen. When I lift her tail it looks like the opening is at the bottom of the lump or underneath the lump but it’s hard to tell what I’m looking at bc of the swelling. There is a black spot which you can kinda see in the second pic which might be a scab. It doesn’t feel hard like an egg but it’s not squishy.. there’s some give to it but also firm if that makes sense. After cleaning her feathers up tomorrow I hope I’ll be able to see if it moves when I manipulate it but as of rn I can’t tell.. last time I tried to feel it she started to open her mouth a lot like gasping/gagging.

 

[coach723]

I circled what I think you were referring to below. I would try to flush that out, do some manipulating, use some tweezers maybe, see if you can get anything out, pus, etc. If it's a feather cyst then you might find a curled up, malformed feather in there. Or it could just be some kind of injury. It may be full of pus, which will be firm and cheesy like, white, cream or pale yellow color. If you find pus it will all need to be removed, flushed out well with chlorhexidine (hibiclens from any pharmacy) or with sterile saline, and then fill the hole with plain triple antibiotic ointment or plain neosporin. Take pictures of what you find or get out, and what it looks like after. She may be having trouble pushing droppings out normally due to the swelling.
If you can get some good clear pictures of the eye, that would be good, so we can see what that looks like.

 

[sierrabrady]

I circled what I think you were referring to below. I would try to flush that out, do some manipulating, use some tweezers maybe, see if you can get anything out, pus, etc. If it's a feather cyst then you might find a curled up, malformed feather in there. Or it could just be some kind of injury. It may be full of pus, which will be firm and cheesy like, white, cream or pale yellow color. If you find pus it will all need to be removed, flushed out well with chlorhexidine (hibiclens from any pharmacy) or with sterile saline, and then fill the hole with plain triple antibiotic ointment or plain neosporin. Take pictures of what you find or get out, and what it looks like after. She may be having trouble pushing droppings out normally due to the swelling.
If you can get some good clear pictures of the eye, that would be good, so we can see what that looks like.
View attachment 3791984

Yes thats what I’m referring to. I will try that and see what happens. She definitely smells like she could have an infection and now she has blood dripping from the vent after she poops. Fingers crossed that this helps!

 

[sierrabrady]

Some updated pics of her eye and after removing the scab. We rinsed the small hole with saline and tried to see if there was pus but nothing came out. For reference her other eye looks completely normal and clear, large black pupil and brighter color around the pupil

 

[LaFleche]

The area around her left nostril appears to be swollen also with some crusty discharge.

 

[coach723]

The eye is definitely not normal. Hard to say if it's disease based or injury. The nostril does appear to be swollen and blocked. I would use some peroxide and see if you can loosen the gunk and clear the nostril. Some terramycin eye ointment in the eye a couple of times a day, to make sure there is not any infection that could affect the other eye. I see a couple of other spots on the swelling at the rear that could be pecking injuries also, not sure if that swelling is attracting attention and pecking from others. Without being able to feel it myself, I'm not really sure what else to recommend. Is vet care an option for you? They could test to see if you are dealing with a respiratory virus that is affecting her eye. Marek's disease can cause eye changes, but usually you see it in both eyes, though they don't look exactly the same on both sides. They could also determine if the swelling on her rear is a tumor, or something else.