Now what? A CYST?!?!?!

[starting.from.scratch]

So, I have been trying to save these little chicks. This is Limpy, a partridge silkie, that is about 5-6 weeks old. I call him Limpy because when I got him a week ago, I noticed he limped and his leg looks like this...

So, a week later, thanks to the kind folks here, Limpy appears to be more alert. He's been on medicated feed, yogurt, yolks and some cooked oatmeal, along with Polyvisol. He'd been covered in poultry lice, and very weak. He still limps, but I noticed this, this Thing when I fed him last night. I started giving him and his friends in the picture, 2 buddies from the same situation at the same time, some Sulmet on...Wednesday or Thursday-I don't sleep much so I get my days mixed up-today is the last day to get it full strength in the water and food. I've lost 1 chick the day I got the Sulmet.
I don't want to lost this little one too-what should I do? What is it?
As you can see in the picture, he looks like a vulture because it sticks out so much. In retrospect, I think I had noticed it a couple days prior, but thought that maybe it was his crop, or that the Sulmet would take the swelling down...? Please help! Thank you!

 

[threehorses]

I'm having a hard time getting a feel for what that is. If you touch it, is there air in it? Is it solid? If you try to hold it and move it, does it move seperate from the underneath muscle layer, or does it move the muscle when you move the bump?

It's not the side of his crop, right?

 

[sojeo]

If it's an air bubble right under the skin, it could be subcutaneous emphysema. Is the skin crackly when you touch it, can you hear air moving around in there when you massage it? I have a little chick that just got over it, in the same place. I was feeding it by dropper (was very sick, long story) and everytime it ate a little, it would blow up more. Ended up taking a hypodermic needle to it a couple times a day for 3 days to deflate it's skin. Haven't had to do the pricking for 2 days now and it's doing much better, eating and drinking on it's own, but still quite sleepy. I have read that it is quite painful, I can imagine that it would be.

Hope you figure it out!

 

[starting.from.scratch]

First, Thank You!
It seems watery, like a water balloon, but air too..I realize that doesn't make much sense, but it isn't all air or water. Some of both, maybe? No noise though-had to go check.
The actual location seems to be the base of the neck, and does appear to be painful, he hates being held, and still peeps all the time. When I try to move it, I think it stays right on the muscle-that is, it just bulges more, without moving around or rolling, nothing like that...

 

[threehorses]

It might be a small air sac infection from his crappy home before you. That's going to be my biggest suspicion based on his history and what I'm hearing.

There are air sacs right in that area. If their immune compromised (and he sure was), they can get little infections in their air sacs - which will then inflate and sometimes can be filled with fluid.

You think he came with it, kind of looking back?

I'd go with what Sojeo said. You can heat a hypodermic needle to sterlize it. Let it cool. Then use it to deflate the area. Repeat dailyl until it doesn't need it. IF you want to, you could give a tiny gentle scrub to the area where you're going to stick him with an alcohol q-tip. Then let that evaporate, then put the needle in.

 

[starting.from.scratch]

Wow. I wanted to be a vet growing up, and even ran a tube down my dog when he had bloat, but I guess I'll be thrown into it full tilt with these little babies.

Should I keep the Sulmet in the water to be safe? I'm going looking for sojeo's posts in the meantime.
Do you think he'll always be sickly? Or maybe get on the mend once & for all after this? Do you think he'll continue to limp?

 

[starting.from.scratch]

This is what I noticed tonight. ACK! This is him with me holding his belly up, that is his little chest! Ok, so there is a cyst like thing on the side of his neck, but also on that side, there appears to be a huge swollen area along his crop. The other side is normal though. Apparently it's wet because of him drinking? The shoulder separates the 2 masses...I was planning on getting the needles tomorrow, but am scared about this other mass - bigger and lower..?

 

[threehorses]

That poor little bird is a MESS. Bless you for taking him in. He's going to be the poster child for BYC when he's a big fat big man on campus - erm, in the barnyard even!

Is that new mass airy, too? Could be the air sac on the other side.

 

[sojeo]

Maybe a breast blister? I dunno, sure hope someone more knowlegable can help you. I have stopped deflating my chick, but it still has a mass, but now it seems to be filled with something else. I'm unsure if it's fluid or crop, so I'm just going to let it be since it's eating, drinking and acting somewhat normal now.

The problems with my chick are all my fault, I had helped it out of the shell as it was late and it was positioned sideways. It never absorbed it's yolk, which I had to tie off because it burst in the incubator from dragging it around. I thought I had secured it enough in a damp paper towel, but when I returned home from church, it had punctured the yolk and also pulled out some of it's intestine. After I tied off the yolk and cut it off, I pushed the intestine back in with a wet qtip and smeared the navel with bag balm. Next day, the navel was healed it pooped so all was good there. Then that's when it started having problems with the air bubble. It was expanding everytime I had fed it with the syringe. I felt it was all or nothing, so got out the syringe with the needle and on an angle, put it in and then gentle pushed out the air through the hole.

Man, I felt so bad. Really felt like I was torturing the poor thing as I had to do it several times for 3 days straight. I hand fed it egg yolk, yogurt, vitamins and apple sauce mixed with a crushed antibiotic that I had left over from one of my cats that had a bladder infection. Now that it's eating on it's own, I'm gradually making it thicker with the medicated starter.

One thing that I think was a major cause of it's will to live was that after it could stand on it's own, I put in my other chick that hatched a couple days before it. It was exactly 2 times heavier than this chick but now they are both gaining at the same rate (I weighed them the last couple days). It follows the bigger chick around constantly, won't leave it's side. I think that if it had been left alone that it would never have made it.

I hope my story has helped you in some way, there is hope to heal very sick little ones, though the amount of time and energy involved is great and not always possible for some. Please keep us updated on it's progress. I should post a pic of my two together to show you the difference in size, it's amazing.

 

[sojeo]

There is another person dealing with a breast blister here https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=211969&p=1 that you may want to check out.