Spontaneous swelling on the neck

[AllisontheImp]

I don't hang out with my chickens but I give them a good once over every night as I say goodnight to them. One of my chickens who is about a year old has a swollen neck tonight. Yesterday, she was fine. Now, one of her wattles is severely swollen and the neck region right below her beak is swollen.

She has all of her feathers, her eyes are bright and alert, I was unable to see any discharge. She didn't cry in pain when I touched the area. I removed her from the others when I saw her roosting neighbor pecking at her. Generally she is a wily hen but she didn't put up much of a fight tonight.

I've owned her since she was a chick (1 year) but I don't know what kind she is. My daughter picked her out because she had chipmunk stripes. I think she is a Leghorn. She's mixed brown, slim, with an upright tail. We have a white one that looks just like her in build and is just as clever.

We let our 19 chickens free range. The space they have enclosed at night is ~150 sqft and they forage on 2+ acres. I thought about predators but dismissed it due to lack of blood and death. I tried to Google possibilities and ran into big nasty viruses that are contagious. Eeep!

I'm going to get some pictures in the morning to share. Is there anything else I should look for when I visit her then?

 

[AllisontheImp]

I tried to get some pictures this morning. The good thing: she was spritely. The bad thing, my tired husband coming off of 3rd shift let the girls out and I had to chase her down. I upped the contrast so you can see the shape of her neck.

 

[wildriverswolf90]

Is it possible she was stung by a bee, or maybe fire ant bites? I had a hen last year get into a yellow jacket nest, her whole nech swelled up and so did one of her wattles and comb. I brought her in and put an blue ice pack on it for 5mins two time an hour for a day and swelling began to go down. Hope she gets better

 

[Lacy Blues]

We've had something similar here recently, though only the roosters were infected. It looks like her wattles are also swollen. She's a leghorn, can you catch her? Her wattles are probably hot as well. We treated them successfully and quickly with only one dose. If you have or can get any lincomycin-spectinomycin, this is what I did... about 1/32 of a teaspoon of the powder ( I have a 1/8 tsp measure and I use about 1/4 of that) mixed into a very small amount of plain yogurt which I then put on a pile of cornmeal. What I'm doing is making a pill. The cornmeal will coat the yogurt medicine mix so you can handle it. Have someone else hold the bird and they or you can get a hold of her beak and open it. Put the pill in the back of her throat and she will swallow it. The next day she will be fine.

I'm not sure if this particular antibiotic is available everywhere and I don't know why it works. Its what I had. Perhaps something else works as well?

Watch your other birds for the same thing.

 

[AllisontheImp]

we do have fire ants and ground bees,....

 

[AllisontheImp]

Well it a moot point now. The Dept of Ag - Poultry rep never called me back after two attempts to contact and now the hen is missing. Guess she's not with us anymore.