Swollen cheek

[onmelissa]

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This has been here for about 3 weeks. She's eating, laying, and behaving normally. I've tried abx in the water for a week, but it has not seemed to make a difference.
There is a little scabby looking place in those cheek feathers. I'm considering removing that to see if it will drain. Any advice?

 

[onmelissa]

A few more photos:

 

[onmelissa]

Anyone have any ideas?


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[KayTee]

That's not her cheek, that's her ear that's swollen - it looks like a pretty bad ear infection, and needs treating quite soon.

Here are some links to useful posts on how to treat it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/767500/ear-infection#post_10945707

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/630778/gunky-ears

Just to add one thing - if you want to treat a chicken with antibiotics then adding them to water is never an accurate or certain way to treat them. One of my girls had an ear infection a few weeks ago, and I treated it with amoxycillin - I measured out the dose for 3 or 4 days at a time, sprinkled it over a bit of tinned sweetcorn, and mixed it all in, then divided into daily portions. Keep your girl separated from the others for 5 minutes so that only she can eat the medicated treats. (My husband gave it to my girl every day by just dishing out treats to the rest, then holding the medicated corn cupped in his hand and only letting the sick chicken get at it to eat it. It was only about 10 or 12 kernels of corn, so she ate it quickly and with no fuss.

The link to my post is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...r-lobe-possible-mareks-tumour-or-an-infection

Since then her ear has cleared up pretty much completely, and I've treated them all for ear mites - touch wood I've had no further problems.

All the best for you girl.

 

[onmelissa]

Her ear?? Oh boy. Ok, I can do this, right?
Thank you so very much for the info.
Where would I get amoxicillin for her? That would certainly be preferable since we've been discarding eggs for 9 days now and I had to buy a carton at the store!


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[KayTee]

I can't really advise you on antibiotics, as I live in France. Here you have to get them from a vet, but my local vet sold them to me without actually seeing the chicken - I just described the symptoms and she wrote a prescription and gave me the packet.

If you are in the U.S. then from what I have seen on here it seems that you can buy stuff like that at local feed supply stores, but I suppose that might depend on your area. I also know people who have used amoxycillin prescribed for humans - it's exactly the same drug, you just need to make sure that you are dosing the right amount, which is 10mg of pure amoxycillin per kg of weight per day. (In all honesty that's such a small amount that I quite probably gave a double dose each day, and I've done it twice to different chickens who are still both alive and kicking!)

 

[onmelissa]

I might try that. Thank you.
I cleaned the ear, but once I removed the big chunk of crud, I could go no further. I tried dripping in some peroxide, but the opening looks to be sealed.


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[onmelissa]

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[heartsizedfarm]

I'm not sure it's a good idea to drip hydrogen peroxide in her ear. What you need is a systemic antibiotic, one that gets into her whole system and can kill the bacteria deep in her ear, not a local antiseptic that just gets at the outside parts of the ear. If your vet won't give you an antibiotic for her sometimes you can find a small inexpensive packet of antibiotics designed especially for poultry at your local feed store.

 

[onmelissa]

40mg of amoxicillin down the hatch...I had some from a recent bout of strep throat among my kids.


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