Strange large black lump on chickens thigh.

[Evangitron]

We are living with this lady and she has chickens. We do too but ours live in a separate area
Anyways, today I saw her closing this one of her chickens into the coop. I was confused but looked and saw some minor things thought that was the reason. Than I decided to take a look ( the hen was not thrilled) and was in pain while I took a look and discovered this large lump on her leg.

Which was way larger than I've ever seen. I'll provide a pic but idk what it is. I think its a overgrown wound. Since she still can walk and what not but I'd like any advice or insight.

 

[Eggcessive]

That could be a large injury, but it looks like a tumor.

 

[Evangitron]

We don't think it's a tumor. But we will see if it can be removed carefully. It'd probably a bad injury that kept spewing materials.

Here is more pics of the black mass.

 

[Evangitron]

We removed whatever the thing was. After soaking her in Epson to attept to soften it. I'll show some pics below but it's gross. It was filled with boiled egg yolk like pus? Which smelled so bad that we put on masks in a attempt to reduce the smell.

We used iodine, first aid spray, rubbing alcohol to disinfect while carefully removing the hard exterior and yellow stuff. Luckily the scalpel didn't have to hard of a time, but she did bleed alittle.
We got down to her skin, and put more disinfectant, some neosporan and put a sterilized tissue held in place by gauze around the wound.

As of rn she's still very active and alert. Even after removing the stuff, she seems fairly normal. Eats alot, drinks alot and has normal droppings.

We also have been changing the wrap every day, giving it time to breath and removing any new material. Will keep updated.

 

[apryl29]

I'm not an expert by any means, but maybe call around to see if you can find a vet that will see her. To me it looks like it may just be a cut or scratch that got infected and she will likely need antibiotics. I had a hen lose a toe tip to frostbite and that's what I had to do. If you can, keep her inside in a clean environment so she can heal. I used a med size dog cage and put towels on the tray. I would recommend blucote, but it may be an issue if you do take her to a vet. Hopefully someone else can assist who has had more experience w bigger injuries.

 

[Evangitron]

Update: she is doing fine, and is pretty normal considering she has a hole on her side.

I've been giving her Epson salt baths when it's convenient. But every day or two days I've been cleaning out her wound and removing any new yellow build up. St first I just sprayed first aid spray but now I've been doing blue coat and her wound seems to be healing.

Though I'm not sure if it will totally heal. But if she can live a fairly normal life with it, than that's OK. The main concern is infections and such but I'm unsure what the yellow material is. I wonder if it's bacteria as it smells and the more I remove the less returns. Though the nature of her wounds crevices making getting every chunk a bit tricky.

 

[Banana01]

I had a rooster with two of of these black wounds, one on each leg where his spurs rubbed for years. They were hard as a rock, and i did the same thing as you, tried to remove them.

It looked the same inside. I never treated my rooster and he did fine although he was at the top of the cull list and when i had to provide food for a funeral he was put down.

It is an infection internal, and it may be protozoal. If she wants to treat it, i would recommend an antibiotic with Metronidazole. But first try an antibiotic that a vet may give, and if it doesnt respond, ask for an antiprotozoal. The smell and yellow material are indicative of several chickens i had that did not respond to antibiotics, until I discovered Metronidazole and similar wound types have cleared up that were chronic for months and nonresponsive to antibiotics.

If my rooster with the black spots were still alive, im sure his wounds would have been cleared by the antiprotozoal antibiotic. His wounds also smelled bad and had very similar color to your photo.

 

[Evangitron]

She's actually doing fairly fine. I have been trying to figure out which antibiotic to give. So I'm going to see about contacting a online vet. Since our area is devoid of poultry vets. But I'm definitely giving your suggestion a try. Since it very much sounds like what's going on with her.

So far though I've been mostly cleaning the wound and giving her baths. She eats well, is fairly active though she can't be with other chickens for obvious reasons. Though I do think her wound will recover, I just haven't been able to tell if my constant daily cleanings have made much of a difference, it seems like the tissue is regrowing. But the yellow stuff always reappears, which would make sense if its infected.