Swelling on Silkie chicks upperbeak & ear..Fowl pox?? A growth? What IS this?

[Lacrystol]

I've added electrolytes to their waterers today. I wish I could take them to a vet but I don't know of one around here that treats chickens. Everybody I've asked has said "no".


Any particular kind of antibiotic you would recommend, Lacrystol? I think they sell some for parrots and such at Petsmart?

I can try getting another picture, maybe use the iPhone..The lower part of his mouth does look a little yellowish, but only faintly. The upper part is more scabbed, brownish looking with a little red. The paint baby's swelling is mostly red, maybe slightly yellowish. And yes just to clarify I am diluting the iodine.

Gallo, thanks for posting the link, it does kind of sound like that. I don't know where to get any of these drugs.. There is no oozing though, nothing around the eyes, they're both still very active, but Nutmeg is losing weight. It's been at least 6 days, but probably a few more than that since the upper beak thing was already that big when I saw it on Sunday. I just can't believe I missed this! Ugh..

Sounds like a weekend of cleaning for me..Do you think these two babies will get along together okay? Neither one will be very happy to leave their moms..Thank you for all the replies. Off to does them with the diluted iodine and coconut oil again until I can get something else. Oh, do you think the adults can get this/might already have it?? I have no idea where they would've gotten it from besides the wild birds (which don't frequent their pens, as far as I've seen)

How old are the chicks? I would put them on a liquid diet, it doesn't look like they would be able to eat any hard food, if they do I would like the one would have an extremely hard time and it would probably be very painful..., if they can great if they can't you have two choices to get them to eat, one is to soften up there food really good needs to be totally mushy or two make them a liquid meal. Let me know if they can eat at all....

 

[Debbienmousey]

Gallo- Thanks for posting that info. I had just read that first link when searching for canker on here. Very interesting, but neither of those seem to be like what my babies have. However, I did have a hen a year or two ago that had a swollen cheek kind of like that. After a week or so it opened up and drained out and she's been fine since. Our town is pretty small, but I'll see if I can find some Fishzol. Thanks so much .

Shayna- I was thinking about yogurt earlier too. I'm just not sure if the little ones would eat it. I'll try fixing them up some yogurt + chick starter and maybe add some Poly-vi-sol or something as a little boost tomorrow and see if they'll eat it.

Lacrystol- Nutmeg, the Partridge, will be four weeks old tomorrow. The Paint will be two weeks old tomorrow. Nutmeg can eat but does have trouble. The Paint seems to be eating fine, his swelling isn't effecting his mouth yet. Both their beaks are so tiny that it's hard to get them open and look into them, though. When I was doing the evening feed I decided to try making a wet mash for Nutmeg since I've given that to other sick birds and they seemed to get more food in one peck that way. He was pecking at it pretty good, but it was hard to tell how much he was actually getting. If he doesn't eat the yogurt mash tomorrow, what would you suggest I use to make a liquid meal? Just the starter dissolved really, really well in water, or what? How would I get him to eat something like that, just try and get him to drink it? I was wondering if I should give him some Benadryl or something to help with the pain, like you said, I'm sure it hurts too.

I didn't get another picture yet but will try to get one tomorrow. Thanks all

 

[welasharon]

I can't really tell but I had pox this year (or I blamed it on it) on my silkies and polish. Last year the combed birds had it and it was the typical scabs on the comb thing. This year it was round swollen bumps that were on or near the beaks. If you were to pick it off you would find that there is a hole under the bump on the beak. My silkie had it on her head and her eyes...they just swelled shut.My tolbunt had the beak bumps and some had bumps on their legs. It made them feel bad and a few quit eating and had to be hand fed till they started eating again. My mom's seabright had warty looking bumps all over her actual head and I believe it was in her ears too as her balance was severely affected. She took the longest to recover but she is also 9 years old. THe bumps on the beak were always very round and were like a rough marble cut in half and attached. They seemed to be solid...not liquid filled. It was as though they ate their way through the material of the beak. I did not, however, ever have any in the mouth...could that be the wet form?
Mine liked to eat soft scrambled eggs...almost liquid..mixed with cottage cheese.

 

[Lacrystol]

I think the important thing to do is keep them from getting dehydrated, so to make a liquid meal for them try this:

hard boiled egg
yogurt, plain
Electrolytes water or save a chick
a dropper of polyvisol

Mix all this very well, I use my food processor, add as much water as you like to make it liquified. have them drink it. I would NOT give them benadryl, give them Childrens Tylan for the pain. You can put that into water and it will melt and let them drink it or put it in a dropper for them to drink it.

You can tell how much they are eating or drinking by feeling there Crops, right now there crop should be about a nickel size or even bigger.

For antibotics the best and fastest results would be Baytril however you can only get it from a vet. SO I would substitute:

I would go to Tractor supply and pick up some tylan 50, it's used for Cows, however you can use it for chickens, I use the injectable kind so you would have to get a syringe, use a diffferent syringe on each chicken that you give them Tylan50 too. All's they need is about 1/4cc, within 3 days you should start to see some improvements. I would treat the one that is the worst first....I would hold off on the 2 week chicken...

I would also Flush there sinuses out. To flush out there sinuses, you mix 1/2cc Tylan 50 with 1/2cc of steriod water. Take a syringe without the needle, hold the chick with it's head down and squirt the Tylan50/water mixture in each nostril.. Try to avoid them from drinking it, after you have done this then I would get some VetRx, which you can pick up at Tractor supply as well, and squirt some in each nostril.. It's a lot of work but this is what I would try..

 

[Shayna]

How are the chicks doing? Do they eat softened food any better? If they won't eat the yogurt mix, try sprinkling their food on it to get their attention. I've had trouble when giving my chicks treats for the first time, they don't always recognize it as food right away.

As far as a nasal flush, I wouldn't recommend that. It can be risky on an adult if not done right, it can drown them. Doing it on a chick would be very hard, especially if their nasal passages are already blocked up from this mass. If you decide to do it, please research this option very carefully. (and you'd use sterile water to mix)

Antibiotics probably wouldn't hurt, but I don't think they'll help if this is wet pox. I have no experience with wet pox, but it sure seems like this could be it from the images I just googled. In that case, just keeping your babies eating as well as possible to get them through this will help more than anything.

If you choose to dose medication, please double check the dosage for the size of your chicks. These ones are pretty little yet and you don't want to OD them using dosages intended for older ones.

Please keep us updated. I really hope they come out of this ok!

 

[Debbienmousey]

Hi all, so sorry I haven't updated you guys, just been busy with stuff and taking care of these babies.

First off, thank you SO much for the replies and great ideas. I truly appreciate it.
Welasharon - Thanks for this info. It doesn't really look like pox to me, because I've had that before too just not in chicks, but maybe it is.

Lacrystol - Thank you for the recipe for liquid food. I usually can feel their crops and make sure they always have plenty of food in their dishes. Thanks for the note about antibiotics, I will look for that when we go to TSC. I must sound very unknowledgeable, but where/how do you inject the Tylan50?

Shayna - Nutmeg did eat the softer food better, but wasn't too keen on the yogurt food. I gave the Paints some yogurt food and they weren't too thrilled, but hopefully they'll get used to it and start eating it. I think I might make them some scrambled egg, they've had that before. I'm hoping I won't have to use the antibiotics on these babies, but I really don't want to lose them. We've had a tough year with the birds (outbreaks of Cocci in other chicks and other mysterious deaths a couple months ago) and especially the Silkies. Hatching these Paint babies was such a surprise and delight, a real pick-me-up from everything that's been happening this year.

Here is an update on the chicks:

I'm afraid it's mostly bad news. Little Nutmeg lost his fight last Sunday morning. I feel so bad, he just couldn't eat enough or the sickness took over.. The night before, a 20-week old Silkie cockerel who became lame (couldn't stand up or walk, but could move his toes and legs) and was living inside died suddenly. It was very sad. I decided to send him and Nutmeg to the Poultry Lab for a Necropsy. The vet gave me a very brief overview (he sends a quickie report out first outlining the findings and then the detailed report later after all the tests.) The older cockerel had multiple tumors in his liver and possibly his kidneys. I'm still waiting to hear back as to what it is, but I suspect Lymphoid Leukosis, poor baby. All he said for Nutmeg was "Abscess on ear, severe exudate buildup in mouth". I can't wait to hear back from him with, hopefully, a diagnosis. I'm going to send him an updated picture of the Paint baby and see what he suggests as far as treatment goes. I don't know if I should be hoping it's fowl pox or not..Baby Paint has had his lump for about one week now. It is getting bigger, but doesn't seem to be affecting his eating or mouth at all yet. For the past two days I've been trying to do a warm compress 2x a day in hopes of drawing out the pus if there is some. We had switched from the iodine to antibiotic ointment for several days but it didn't seem to help at all.






^ Just for fun..The other babies are doing well, approaching their 3-week birthday. I love that one right in the center, I call it "Spot" because of it's black spot right under it's eye. (Very original, I know!

) The baby with the swelling/lump is a little smaller than the other Paints, but he also doesn't have a vaulted skull (which makes him look smaller) and when he was hatched the toes on his left foot would curl in and so for a few days while we fixed him up with a "shoe" he wasn't able to get around as much until his foot fixed itself, so that may have caused him to be a little behind size-wise compared to his siblings.

 

[leadwolf1]

With the lameness and the tumors, I would suspect Marek's as the culprit over LL. Either way, it is not a good diagnosis to receive. So sorry for the loss of little Nutmeg..he was a cute little guy

 

[dorothymcd]

So what was that bump on the little splash? I have 2 young EE/Silkie chicks both have the same bump on their beak no one else seems sick they are doing good but im freaking out because i have other chicks and chickens and i do not know what it is.. Please if you know what it is and how to treat please reply to my cell by text asap (i will send you my cell#)!
Thanks
Dorothy

 

[Casper1428]

Did anything come of this??? Mine has it as well