Soft lump on chick's throat, full of bubbles?

[CaptainScarlegg]

We have a ten day old male chick with a lump on his throat. We thought it was his crop to start with, but now it is soft and squishy and kind of bothers him when you touch it. I've attached the best photo I could get.

The skin over it has no feathers or fluff and is really thin, and I can see air bubbles moving round under the skin when I manage to examine it. He has been sneezing this morning but nothing is coming out when he does so I'm not sure if that is related.

They're on chick crumb only, their water is changed every day, their brooder is lined with
the same sanitised straw from the farm shop we've been using on all our chickens the past decade. The other chick (female) is fine (except for an umbilical hernia I'm treating).

I've just never seen anything like this before. Any clues what it could be?

 

[JoePa]

Could be an infection - what I would do is pierce the bubble with a needle and syringe and draw out the puss - then inject peroxide into the wound to clean it out - put some neosporen over wound and hope for the best - Doc Pol would probably give an antibiotic

 

[CaptainScarlegg]

Could be an infection - what I would do is pierce the bubble with a needle and syringe and draw out the puss - then inject peroxide into the wound to clean it out - put some neosporen over wound and hope for the best - Doc Pol would probably give an antibiotic

We don't have medical equipment, or chicken antibiotics. Is there anything I could do from home, or do should I get a vet involved? This is our first time rearing chicks, and we picked a really bad time for it... The vets are all only taking emergencies because of the pandemic so I'm not even sure they'd give us an appointment.

 

[JoePa]

You could get what you need on the internet - forget the antibiotic

 

[CaptainScarlegg]

Just to update in case it helps anyone in the future: we took this chick to the vet and the lump was an intestinal hernia, which is apparently nothing to worry about and it's already going down on its own with no treatment. It was a side-effect of an older mother hen and imperfect conditions whilst hatching. He's going to be fine