Silkie Pullet with infection and absess?! HELP!

[SweetLilRachy00]

I'm so not sure what to do here. I have 2 silkies. They were in with the big chickens they are about 20 weeks old now. I think...?

I found one in the afternoon about a week ago and it had a bunch of feathers on it's back of it's neck all ruffled and looked funny. So I looked under the feathers and it was all full of pus. So I cleaned it out. 2 times a day for a week. today i looked and inspected it (they were inside during the time) and it looks like a mat of feathers...but when i look closer it looks like maybe it's the skin inflamed a lot and maybe an absess underneath? He didn't seem to mind me messing around back there..so maybe it didn't hurt when i touched it. What should I do?

I can't afford to take him to a vet, let alone find someone that actually has experience with chickens!

I will try to get some pictures later when DH can help me hold me just right..

 

[Pinenot]

Post pictures as soon as you can so that we can see it. She may have lice or mites, so look for that too.

 

[tiffanyh]

Chicken abcesses are very different. The pus in a chicken abcess is hard (like very old hardened cottage cheese), not soft like in mammals. The abcess has to be excised rather than drained or expressed. I have had expereince with these in my own hen and by working at the vets as a certified tech for many years. We had to cut with a blade a large slice to open the area around the abcess and actually removed the hardened pus. Then it usually gets packed with a cloth like material to allow it to be cleaned and flushed for a few days. Then the material gets removed and it is allowed to heal up. Bird abcesses will not reabsorb like mammals will and will not burst like mammals will. they are quite a bit of a pain to deal with and what you think is hard skin inflammation can actually be an abcess.

Good luck with your birdy. Maybe dl will chime in and give you some links to follow. Its always more difficult to access on your own pets rather than others. You'll have to see if you need vet help eventually or maybe a very experience chicken person in your area to help. I made my "BFF" and her husband help me! She is a tech too so she can stomach it well.

Like I said, hope she does well!

 

[dlhunicorn]

pics would indeed be helpful... including diet and environment info.