Possible ear infection, how to treat?

[gerlando]

Today I noticed some swelling on the side of my 7 week old Ameraucana. She's not showing any signs of irritation or discomfort yet. These are our first chicks and I'm not sure what to do so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[littleredhen77]

i used to have a bantam cochin hen who had something similar to this, along with the puffy cheek she would occasionally get a white 'growth' in the corner of her mouth and if you lifted the little feathers covering her ear hole it was full of this yellow spongy stuff..i had no idea how to clear it up but i did use tweezers to remove some of the yellow stuff from her ear without actually digging in, i was only able to get a little bit off the top and it eventually went away. it would come back from time to time, i want to say maybe once a year or less for a couple years, she was fine otherwise and lived a long and happy life. sorry i cant be more helpful but if yours has something similar, i feel safe to say its not life threatening at least

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. If you do a search at the top of this page for "ear infection," there are many threads about this subject. Looks for posts by Dawg53 on how to clean the ear canal to look for mites or infection. Clavamox, amoxicillin, and sulfa drugs such as SMZ-TMP are antibiotics used to treat ear infections.

 

[gerlando]

Yup, I've searched on the subject but wanted to post a photo since this is new to me and I was hoping more experienced members could confirm/deny what I think I'm seeing.

Actually,... searching on Dawg53 and ear infection has been hugely helpful. Thanks!