Pullet cannot fully open mouth

[Bkaye]

Got her ears cleaned out good this morning again and packed with neospoin. Her ears were really hot I’m assuming due to a fever and or inflammation from the infection. Gave her a shot of nutri-drench and got a little bit of wet food in her. She didn’t eat as much of I’d like. I also started her on amoxicillin.

If she hadn’t eaten anymore when I get home I’ll fix her a special treat to see if she will eat it. If not I’ll attempt to tube her.

 

[Bkaye]

Got her ears cleaned out again tonight. Still getting some yellow puss out. Hopefully in the next day or so it’ll be better. Got them repacked with peroxide and another round of amoxicillin. Her ears are swollen which is to be expected. Still nothin in her crop. I had some leftover baby food from when my D’anver had her impacted crop issue. So my husband helped me tube her this evening and so she’s sleeping tonight with a full crop.

Tomorrow morning I’ll clean again, pack, give her the amoxicillin, shot of nutri Drench. I’m off work tomorrow so I’ll keep an eye on her. I’ll give them wetted food again in the morning. If she seems uninterested in it I’ll tube her again.

Really hoping in the next day or so I’ll start to see some improvements.

 

[azygous]

Good work. Hopefully, the tube feeding will restore her energy and she will feel like eating on her own. Here's an observation I've made about tube feeding. The more days in a row a chicken is tube fed, the less interested they will be in eating on their own. It's almost as if they forgot how to be hungry with the tube fed crop full and not triggered by hunger. So I do maybe two days of tubing just to get the patient's energy back up and then try to encourage her to eat on her own.

 

[Bkaye]

That’s great information. I’m really hoping by tomorrow she will start to at least be interested in food. She will look at it and bend down like she wants it but doesn’t make the effort to actually try to eat anything. She is still drinking on her own so that a positive then in my mind.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Is there a bad odor when you clean out the ears or they are just caking up with pus?

Do you have any photos?

 

[Bkaye]

I noticed an odor last night when I cleaned them. No odor from her mouth or anywhere else just from the ears.

I do not have any photos, I can try to get some tomorrow. Just looking at her ears normally they are not caked up now and no visible pus just swollen. When laying her down to clean them I can see yellowish puss further down and was able to get some more out tonight.

 

[azygous]

Ear canker. If the swelling increases in spite of the amoxy, it might be canker. Canker has a smell. Look in the throat tomorrow to see if there is any plaque developing.

 

[Bkaye]

Her ears doesn’t seem to be swelling anymore but hasn’t really gone down to much either from what I can tell. I couldn’t see any plaque or anything in her mouth. Attached are the pics I could get this morning of her ear. It’s really over cast her today and I was out at first light so they may not be the best. I can try to get better ones later.

She has had 2 full doses of amoxicillin so far so. I just put down their wetted food for the morning and it appears she’s eating some so that’s a big improvement.

 

[Bkaye]

Also forgot to mention when cleaning out her ears today they were not any where near as hot as they have been.

 

[azygous]

That is a very encouraging report! It appears this is just a simple ear infection, possibly respiratory, not canker. While canker is treatable, it does cause much more discomfort and can make eating difficult to nearly impossible. So. Yay!! The amoxy is working! Keep up with the antibiotic for a full ten days.