Oozing Sore!!

[OrpingtonDude]

I have a 8 month old Splash Orpington Rooster. He has some sort of sore on the right side of his head. I need to know what this is and how to treat it.

Mike

 

[Judy]

I have no idea. I'd wash it up and put some Neosporin on it to see if it helps. Or BluKote. Maybe it's from an injury of some sort.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Is it on his ear? hard to tell from pic.

 

[CMV]

More importantly- is it IN his ear?

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
This is Mike's dad. I believe it is in his ear. When I pulled the scab off a thin yellow liquid came out and the stuff stinks. It does not seem to bother him. He walks straight and acts normal.

 

[jbear]

Quote:
This is Mike's dad. I believe it is in his ear. When I pulled the scab off a thin yellow liquid came out and the stuff stinks. It does not seem to bother him. He walks straight and acts normal.

i would do systemic antibiotics and warm compresses. if he'll let you. that looks icky.

is he in with another rooster? hopefully someone else also has some input too! yellow stinky liquid = infection to me, but I don't know for sure--that's mammal experience, not chicken...

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
This is Mike's dad. I believe it is in his ear. When I pulled the scab off a thin yellow liquid came out and the stuff stinks. It does not seem to bother him. He walks straight and acts normal.

i would do systemic antibiotics and warm compresses. if he'll let you. that looks icky.

is he in with another rooster? hopefully someone else also has some input too! yellow stinky liquid = infection to me, but I don't know for sure--that's mammal experience, not chicken...

Yes he is with 4 other roos. 1 one roo is older, 1 is the same age, 2 are younger. They all get a long, he does chase one of the younger roos.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

I cleaned it up some more, no more liquid puss. The puss is weird looking, its not gooey, it almost seams dry but not powdery. Its hard to describe.

 

[CMV]

I believe he may have had an abscess in or around his ear. I would keep cleaning it very well and applying an antibiotic ointment (Neosporin, no -caine ingredients) to the area. I don't know that I would use systemic antibiotics unless the chicken was obviously more ill than he sounds. Chickens' bodies tend to encapsulate infections thus the reason for the weird pus. Infections are rarely oozy instead the infection tends to get hardened and isolated into a pocket (abscess), which is generally easy for the body to deal with long term and can be cleaned up pretty easily once the pocket is opened. Systemic infections from wounds are fairly rare considering how often chickens scratch and bite and wound each other. I think he should heal up just fine as long as the infection doesn't move into the ear or sinuses. If he should start displaying any swelling in his face or head or any balance problems I would start him on a systemic antibiotic ASAP.

Good luck with him. Keep us posted on his condition.

 

[TheWaddler]

Quote:
I had a vet tell me that chickens don't create the same kind of puss we do, there puss is this kind of a cheesy thick substance instead of a running kind of liquid like us. I am going to do surgery on one of my chickens who has a swollen lump under her eye that the vet told me was more than likely a particle of grain/dust that clogged the air sacs that run through a chickens head and into the beak and caused an infection, he said the swollen spot will be full of this hard cheesy "puss" that chickens make that will need to be cleaned out for a few days after the surgery to make sure it is all cleaned out. Winging it myself because he quoted me $1100 to do the operation himself on my $5 chicken