Large bump on the back of our Light Bantam rooster

[smhernandez777]

We're pretty new to raising hens but decided learning all about them would be well worth it! We ventured out and bought 12 chicks; two of them turned out to be roosters. Our Light Bantam rooster suddenly has a large bump on his back more towards his left side. The skin is not broken but it does seem to bother him when touched. He started losing his tail feathers a couple of weeks ago and now has this large lump which has me worried. He's eating fine and has normal demeanor but I don't want to just go about business as usual. Any ideas on what it could be and what to do, if anything?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

How old are they now?Do they ahve spurs?Meaning both roosters....

 

[smhernandez777]

They are about 5 months and neither of them have spurs yet. They haven't been aggressive towards each other that I've seen although our Black Langshan rooster gets aggressive with our pullets and the Bantam runs to their rescue.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry, your photo is not showing if you can try to post it again that may help.

Also a little more information.

You have one bantam and one langshan cockerel?
Do you free range or are they in a run?
How large of an area do they have?

It sounds like your Bantam(?) possibly has an injury, at 5 months hormones are raging in cockerels, so there will be fighting regardless of whether or not they have spurs yet. If the Langshan is starting to mate with the pullets, then he is most likely trying to dominate the Bantam as well.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

What probably happened is that they got ina squabble and it turned out bad...

 

[smhernandez777]

Sorry about that, let me try to post them again. I'd love to have them be free range but we have a lot of predators where w live but they have a good size run. We have a total of 6 Light Bantam and 6 Black Langshans. I don't see any cuts or any evidence of an external wound but there may have been damage internally.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you take him to a vet?

That is a large area. Is the skin discolored at all - yellow/green/purple?
How does the lump feel - hard, filled with air, fluid filled?

I'm not sure what that could be, you may want to separate him so you can monitor his eating/drinking and let him have a bit of rest. If you have them you can add some poultry vitamins to his water.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Looks swollen

 

[smhernandez777]

Thank you for all the replies! Is there any chance this could be an infected preen gland? Or is that way too big for something like that? The mass itself is soft to the touch but he wasn't too fond of me checking it out so I couldn't get a very good look at it. I'll try inspecting it again today and see about getting him into the vet.... although I'm not sure if we have any near us that will see fowl.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for all the replies! Is there any chance this could be an infected preen gland? Or is that way too big for something like that? The mass itself is soft to the touch but he wasn't too fond of me checking it out so I couldn't get a very good look at it. I'll try inspecting it again today and see about getting him into the vet.... although I'm not sure if we have any near us that will see fowl.

I suppose it could be an infected/impacted oil gland, but if it's the gland that is causing the swelling he will more than likely need vet care, unless someone else knows how to treat.

Does he have any problems breathing at all?

Here's info on oil gland and where located, toward base of tail.
https://www.beautyofbirds.com/birdoilgland.html