Nasty Preen Gland! Infection? What To Do? *PHOTO*

ChickTracy

In the Brooder
7 Years
Apr 17, 2012
30
7
22
Virginia
I could really use some help here! Last night we were dusting our chickens for lice/mites when we found one of our girls' preen gland looking like this. It was nasty. Do they get infected or could something else be going on here? She's our biggest, fluffiest girl, a Buff Orpington, so it was hard to even find her gland. Then I felt bad when we found it, because I hadn't found it earlier. I'm not sure how long it had been like that. She hasn't shown any signs of feeling bad or anything. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

 
That's a nasty infection, all right. It can be caused by a number of things, from stress, poor diet, injury, or even tumors. You'll probably have to give her some antibiotics, although this has never happened to me personally. My friend had one like this, and I can't remember if it was oral antibiotics, or topical. I would try both. Try giving her something like baytril for a week or two, and apply some safe topical ointments. Hope it clears up. Until it gets better, you should try wiping her down with some gentle oils. My mom used to show rabbits and chickens, and she would wipe down her birds with baby oil to keep them clean before a show. Works like a charm! Good luck.
 
Any yeasty/foul smell coming from gland? Clean area with mild soap/water,depending on the smell will indicate what topical ointment to apply,example if yeasty apply antifungal cream,if bacterial infection apply antibiotic ointment.
 
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You could try cleaning it real well with Betadine, and apply antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin without pain medicine. If it is just superficial and not an abscess, you might get by without using systemic antibiotics.
 
I did clean her up today, and she has a bump next to her preen gland that is "leaking" the puss. It doesn't look bad, but if you press on it, some puss (or puss like stuff) does come out. She isn't stressed, has a good diet and hasn't been injured. I'm not sure if it had an odor to it, because I can't smell anything with my allergy and sinus problems right now! I would say that getting mounted by our rooster probably rubs it and makes more puss come out. I will check her again tomorrow and see what it looks like. Thanks for the help, everyone!
 
Can you take the rooster out of the flock for a time, and place him in a large crate or run? Puss in chickens will solidify into a cheese-like core over time, so you need to get any pus drained out of there right away by squeezing, and cleaning with betadine. Perhaps an antibiotic might be in order--your vet could probably prescribe a good one--cephalexin, baytril, clavamox, or amoxicillin--penicillin from the feedstore if no other available.
 

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