Rooster with swollen ears

[Shomare]

Our Bielefelder rooster out of no where has bulges near his ears. He was starting to get a tad lethargic in the group, laying down one day, and we noticed the right eye was very lazy, like he was in pain on that side of his head, but it is swollen worse on the other side?

We have about 13 chickens (2 roosters, the rest hens), all being almost 1 year old, with three being 2 years old, and none seem to have this issue, only him. He is quarantined, on Tylan 50 currently (4 days now), and no change.

No coughing, no weight change, no stuff out his nostrils, nothing around his ears that looks like infection that we can see, other than the swelling. Outside his one eye being almost entirely closed, which has almost gone away, he seems to be moving, eating, drinking, etc., just fine. Poop looks normal, they all eat a general layer mix food, and sometimes run around in the scrub oak in the yard eating who knows what.

The swelling hasn't gone down that we can tell, and definitely not on the left side at all.

Is Tylan 50 the right antibiotic, or should we perhaps be using something else for this type of symptom?

Our poor roo roo!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

@Texas Kiki @casportpony @azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

 

[azygous]

Some questions -
1- Is he having trouble with balance?
2- Is he scratching at his ears?
3- Have you tried to look inside his ears to see if there is any waxy or crusty buildup?
4- Has he been scratching around anything rotting or dead such as a rodent or pecking at dog or cat poop?
5- Have you inspected the inside of his mouth?

 

[azygous]

Well, it's Azygous' bedtime. If the answers to the above questions are mostly "yes", it's likely he has infection in both outer ears. Bacteria such as E.coli can enter the ears through the slit in the roof of his mouth. Of course, there's also the possibility he has a respiratory infection which would require an antibiotic.

A good home remedy for an E-coli bacterial infection is virgin coconut oil and garlic. You need to melt 1/8 cup of virgin coconut oil with two crushed garlic cloves. Both are natural antibiotics. Strain out the solid material and cool to just below 100F or do the drop test on the inside of your arm like testing a baby's bottle for proper temp. Place into an eye dropper.

Lay the rooster on his side on your lap. Place one drop in each ear twice a day for at least five days. After putting the drop in the ear, wait a couple minutes for it to penetrate into the ear before turning him over to do his other ear.

If this fails to cause his symptoms to subside, then he's likely to have a respiratory infection, and you will need to treat with Tylan.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

tad lethargic in the group, laying down one day, and we noticed the right eye was very lazy, like he was in pain on that side of his head, but it is swollen worse on the other side?

He is quarantined, on Tylan 50 currently (4 days now), and no change.

nothing around his ears that looks like infection that we can see, other than the swelling. Outside his one eye being almost entirely closed

What dosage of Tylan50 are you using?
Look inside his ear, behind that little tuft of feathers, is there any pus, debris, mites, etc. in the ear?

Post#3 in the following link has very good instructions on treating ear infections, except for the Tylan50 dosage, we have better dosing information now than we did 4yrs ago.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/919235/ear-infection-in-rooster

 

[Shomare]

The dosage was Tylan 1cc for a few days, and then 1/2cc for the rest.

1- Is he having trouble with balance? No

2- Is he scratching at his ears? I saw him once tonight, otherwise I have never seen him do this since the swelling.

3- Have you tried to look inside his ears to see if there is any waxy or crusty buildup? I think we found the ears, but it is like near impossible to really know...the left I definitely can't find. The right has an indentation we think is the ear, but it is white in the dipped area? That is the best I can describe it, so my apologies.

4- Has he been scratching around anything rotting or dead such as a rodent or pecking at dog or cat poop? Nothing dead at the house anywhere. We have two large Great Danes, so the poop is HUGE...therefore, the poop is cleaned up so fast, there is no way for anything (like flies and maggots) to be in it and interesting? I have never seen any of them go near it if it is on the lawn at the time they go out. They mainly go into the scrub oak and rake up huge piles of leaves, bark, etc.

5- Have you inspected the inside of his mouth? Mouth looks good, nothing seem odd. What would we be looking for?

Questions:
1. Can a pecking wound (not that we can find one, but maybe he got hit in the ear?), cause BOTH ears to swell due to an infection on one side?

2. Would it be better to try and the peroxide/swab and then polysporin, or the coconut oil/garlic, or can we just do both? He is my baby, and my favorite bird in the flock, and I would hate to lose him. Super tame, super friendly, easy to hold and pickup...just a great bird to hang out with.

3. Should we stop Tylan at day 7 then, despite the swelling still being there?

 

[azygous]

Thanks for the great answers! It's a big help.

You can complete the round of Tylan while doing the oil and garlic treatment in his ears. If the ears are too swollen to be able to look inside the ear opening, it's probably too swollen to try to swab. You could try just dropping a couple drops of peroxide straight into the ear, then turn the roos' head and let the opposite ear drain the peroxide back out. Then follow with the oil treatment. But skip the Polysporin.

If the Tylan has caused no visible sign of improvement after the full seven days, it's probably not going to work. While most poultry ear infections are bacterial, there is an inner ear infection that's viral in nature and another that's fungal. The only way to know which you're dealing with would be to let a vet see your rooster and run some tests. The Tylan would have no effect on viruses or fungus, so that could account for it possibly not working on your roo.

There is one other treatment option I can recommend. Oxine is a multi-purpose disinfectant cleaner - anti-fungal and anti-viral as well as anti-bacterial. It's 99% effective on all three, and it can be safely used directly around chickens. It's also useful in a vaporizer to mist the anti-fungal solution that the roo can breathe in, going directly into his ears from his throat, and that can have an effect on whatever villain is occupying his ears. (Do not pour Oxine in the ear or eyes or mouth.) You would mist the rooster for about half an hour twice a day, and the mist hopefully would be adequate to kill the disease organism in his ears. You can buy it here. https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/oxine-animal-health-ah?sku=15101-801

No, I do not think there's much likelihood he got kicked in the ear and it's now infected.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How much does he weigh?

Injectable Tylan50 can be given orally and is to be given 2-3times a day for 5 days in a row. A midrange dosage is .20ml per pound of weight. So let's say he's five pounds - that would be 1.0ml given at least 2 times a day.

 

[Shomare]

[/QUOTE]
There is one other treatment option I can recommend. Oxine is a multi-purpose disinfectant cleaner - anti-fungal and anti-viral as well as anti-bacterial. It's 99% effective on all three, and it can be safely used directly around chickens. It's also useful in a vaporizer to mist the anti-fungal solution that the roo can breathe in, going directly into his ears from his throat, and that can have an effect on whatever villain is occupying his ears. (Do not pour Oxine in the ear or eyes or mouth.) You would mist the rooster for about half an hour twice a day, and the mist hopefully would be adequate to kill the disease organism in his ears. You can buy it here. https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/oxine-animal-health-ah?sku=15101-801
[/QUOTE]

Chicken humidification is hilarious...never thought of anything like that before. He is in a swimming pool with straw hay and metal fencing in the garage for now, crowing his heart out at the other rooster in the coop which is fairly close to the garage.

Question:
1. Humidifying him in there might be a challenge without maybe wrapping it in plastic drop cloth perhaps with openings on two sides (one for humidifier, and other as an exit?)? How would you recommend doing it so he actually breaths the stuff in?

2. The link talked about coop humidifying. I assume that is done at night with an actual humidifier inside the coop, running for whatever time might be necessary? Something about taking my humidifier into a coop wigs me out...there is power right next to it, so it is doable, but does this sound right? Is it healthy for me to use after it has been in the coop!? I guess that is the other thing I am wondering about.

3. Gad, how do you QUOTE something!? I can't figure it out. Wyorp Rock did such a nice clean job.

 

[Shomare]

Update:

I am not seeing change fast enough, and I still can't find any sort of ear on the left side, but found it finally on the right. I lightly squeezed the bump to see if it is annoying to him, hurts him, a hard or soft, and he sort of shuts his eye like it hurts, and it seems more hard than soft. Freaky.

Took him to the avian vet or whatever today. They are using a different spectrum antibiotic (wife didn't tell me what it was yet), and he couldn't find the ear either! (I feel less idiotic now). Seems they can sometimes grow over or something like that, like a deformity or perhaps over active membrane he said. Whatever is going on (or it is just hidden like no other due to the swelling), he talked about how they produce a hard material vs soft as a puss? They talked about removing it under gas, etc., after 5-7 days of this antibiotic and measuring his lumps for change. This will be cheaper than the first visit by a long shot!? Crazy, lol.

I just want my rooster back to normal, he is the coolest!