Odd tumor removed by vet

[Lizzyduff]

Last week my 8 month old prairie bluebell egger had surgery to remove a bony tumor under her jaw on the right side of her face. It grew over the past 4 months, but didn't seem to cause her issues until the past month when I saw her swallowing a lot. We decided to have it removed before it got too bad. Well, the vet said it was bony, and rather vascular. She removed what she could but a wee bit remains. She'd said she'd never seen one like this before so we don't know what to expect. We're just praying it doesn't come back. Has anyone else encountered something like this? Today is the last day of antibiotics and her stitches come out Friday... then we can let her go back out to the flock. She's recovering very well.

Note: ideas on how to get dried blood stains out of white feathers? The vet said it bled a lot but wasn't able to clean all of it off.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures before or after the surgery? Peroxide may help with removing blood, but it needs to be rinsed off with water or irritates skin and causes itching. It may wear off in time with dust bathing.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Cold water or peroxide can help with the blood. Bony growths can be secondary to injury or inflammation (fracture or foreign body like a sliver or grass awn), infectious/abscess like lump jaw in cattle or a tooth root abscess (yes I know birds don’t have teeth!), or an actual tumor (benign or malignant). If you can fix the source of the problem it will go away, pull the tooth, remove the FB, cure the infection, excise-the growth. Partially removing it only tends to debulk it temporarily: leaving a partial tumor or infection but often you can’t remove the animals entire face or cure a bony infection. Time will tell, if it starts growing again in acouple months prognosis is guarded, if it doesn’t come back she’ll do well.

 

[Lizzyduff]

Do you have any pictures before or after the surgery? Peroxide may help with removing blood, but it needs to be rinsed off with water or irritates skin and causes itching. It may wear off in time with dust bathing.

I'll take a photo when I get off work. I didn't think of taking one before... wish I had... to compare.

 

[Lizzyduff]

Do you have any pictures before or after the surgery? Peroxide may help with removing blood, but it needs to be rinsed off with water or irritates skin and causes itching. It may wear off in time with dust bathing.

 

[Eggcessive]

Does she have any yellow material inside her beak on that side or a bad odor? Sometimes canker can be inside the beak and protrude on the oitside. Also, I have seen a few of those turn out to be a tumor which a vet excised them. Is she eating and drinking okay?

 

[Lizzyduff]

Nothing inside the beak or any bad smell. She's eating and drinking just like before the surgery now. The first day it was tender and swollen so she didn't eat much the first day home. The Vet wants us to keep her separate until the stitches come out. She scratched at it a bit today (probably itchy as it heals I'm guessing) so it had a drop of blood in the photos, otherwise it's healing really well and the swelling is much improved too. I've never had a chicken get a tumor before, I suppose I'm just a bit freaked out. The doctor said if it comes back in the future I'll have to find a specialist... we live in northern Louisiana so probably Dallas is the closest. I think if it does return we will likely just keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as possible...I don't want to put her through any more painful invasive procedures. I feel bad enough putting her through one surgery.