Swollen head / Eyes (pics included)

chickenflock01

Chirping
Aug 17, 2016
30
12
64
Good morning, and thank you in advance.

We recently purchased a home and the previous owners had left their chickens for us. Yesterday we took ownership and it was too our sadness that one of the hens has a swollen head and eye on her left side. Her right side eye will open occasionally but looks a tiny bit swollen. One of the other hens seems to be 'taking care of her' and will not leave her side. Last night the hen did not seem to want to go into the nesting boxes with the other hens and remained on the ground with the other hen who was watching her.

We are arranging for a vet immediately but i want to ask this question if anyone can help us. We are not raising these hens to be pets and are very worried about her as we want them all to be ok. Here are some pictures.

Please help!!



 
Welcome to BYC! Your hen has a respiratory disease of some sort. Moset forms of respiratory diseases are highly contagious and airborne so separate her immediately, it looks like she has had it for a while, all the other hens could be carriers by now. Some respiratory diseases are caused by viruses others are caused by bacteria. They can be transmitted from wild birds and passed on from other flocks (for example if someone else walks around your birds after being around their birds, or if a second hand feeder was used etc). It is hard to distinguish owhat disease it is without a vet but some common respiratory diseases are Mycoplasma Galisepticum, Coryza, Bronchitis, ORT, Fowl Cholera and others. To me it looks like Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG), Bronchitis or Coryza. If it is Coryza she will stink like something rotten. Most respiratory diseases can be treated using similar antibiotics. You can treat her with soluble medications such as Oxymav 100 or Oxymav B. Oxymav 100 is for pigs but I have used it on poultry and it works better than Oxymav B. Otherwise a much stronger, more effective medication is Baytril 25 - a liquid that is administered orally. Tylosin is also very useful. It comes in a soluble powder and an injectable solution. Give her crushed garlic and chillis in her water for now, this will boost her immunity (and chickens have a bad sense of taste so the chilli won't bother her).
 
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Hi Cuckoo! Thank you so much for your reply. I went to the feed store yesterday and showed them the pictures, they advised to get them all on Duramycin-10 as they thought it looked like a respiratory problem as well. So they advised to get the Duramycin-10 in their drinking water so the entire flock would be treated. There are 8 hens of several different breeds. Yesterday the hen in question was eating and drinking well and also grazed a bit when I let everyone out to clean the coop.

How long should I wait for visual improvement on the actual swelling with the Duramycin-10 until I either increase the dosage or try another medicine (ie. Oxymav)? (for what it's worth she seems to be doing better physically.) Also, luckily, she does not smell/stink so that should rule out Coryza.

I also thoroughly cleaned the coop and used Permethrin dust on the ground area to help ward off any of the bad insects that may have been coming in at night. Poor hens, the coop appeared to not have been cleaned for an extended period of time and I think maybe she could have been bitten by a bug or just exposed to all the bacteria.

One last question, her eye socket does not show an eye. I suppose it could either be covered by the swelling or pecked out? I know from the picture it may be hard to tell, but I would appreciate your opinion.

Thank you again so much!

 
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Tylan 50 injectable, found in cattle medicines in your feed store, is another good antibiotic to treat a bacterial or mycoplasmal respiratory disease. It can be given orally as well as injectable. The dosage is 1 ml given orally for a 5 pound hen, twice a day, for 5 days. For bantams give 1/4 ml, and for a smaller than 5 pound regualt chicken, give 1/2 ml. this is a good drug to give a sick chicken that may not be drinking enough water to get enough medication. The others don't need to be treated or separarted unless they are showing signs of illness. But they are still considered carriers. Give her some chopped egg or tuna, and moisten a small amount of feed with water to tempt her to eat.
Mycoplasma (MG) and coryza both cause eye drainage and swelling of the eyes or face. I would not get any more chickens to add to your flock until these 8 are gone. Afterward, you can clean your facilities and wait a month, and the disease will be gone.
Here is a good link to read about common diseases including the two above:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

EL-25050F-2.jpg
 
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Hey Eggcessive! Thank you for your help. Can i ask you, is a bird with a respiratory disease/infection experiencing pain? We are caring for these hens as pets and we will not be eating them or even eating their eggs. We do not intend to add any birds we just want them to be healthy and live a comfortable life.

Typically, how long until we should begin to see improvement and/or move on to a higher dosage or different medication? If the Duramycin does not give any results I will order Tylan.
 
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Hi Cuckoo! Thank you so much for your reply. I went to the feed store yesterday and showed them the pictures, they advised to get them all on Duramycin-10 as they thought it looked like a respiratory problem as well. So they advised to get the Duramycin-10 in their drinking water so the entire flock would be treated. There are 8 hens of several different breeds. Yesterday the hen in question was eating and drinking well and also grazed a bit when I let everyone out to clean the coop.

How long should I wait for visual improvement on the actual swelling with the Duramycin-10 until I either increase the dosage or try another medicine (ie. Oxymav)? (for what it's worth she seems to be doing better physically.) Also, luckily, she does not smell/stink so that should rule out Coryza.

I also thoroughly cleaned the coop and used Permethrin dust on the ground area to help ward off any of the bad insects that may have been coming in at night. Poor hens, the coop appeared to not have been cleaned for an extended period of time and I think maybe she could have been bitten by a bug or just exposed to all the bacteria.

One last question, her eye socket does not show an eye. I suppose it could either be covered by the swelling or pecked out? I know from the picture it may be hard to tell, but I would appreciate your opinion.

Thank you again so much!

Hi, I think I have used Duramycin before and it is a reasonally effective antibiotic. How long it takes for her to recover depends on whether the condition is Chronic or Acute. Acute cases of respiratory diseases cause the bird to go downhill dramatically, for example, she could develope a swollen eye overnight or die unexpectantly, Acute cases are usually easier to treat. Chronic conditions last longer, are more resistant to antibiotics but aren't as severe. It would be best to put her on Duramycin for about a week then switch to Tylan or Oxymav (Tylan would be more effective). The reason for this is because the bacteria will build up an immunity to Durymacin eventually. You can't see her eye is because there is a layer of 'chicken puss' beneath the third eyelid. It is likely that she will lose her eye but chickens do quite well with just one eye. The hen should not be expieriencing much pain, usually they experience a numbness etc. If she is in pain she will be constantly scratching her eye and having 'chirping fits'. I advise putting garlic in her water and as Eggcessive already suggested, tuna or boiled egg. Also note that with Mycoplasma Galisepticum, the affected birds get 'sweet' smelling breath. Mycoplasmas are an odd bacteria - they are missing a third cell wall so they are vulnerable to disinfectants. You can disinfect your coop so the existing bacteria is less harmful to other birds and it can't spread easily.

Good luck with your hen,
Cuckoo Orpington.
 
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Cuckoo, my continued thankfulness for your replies. I will follow your advice and keep her on duramycin for 1 week. I think I'm also going to slightly increase the amount of duration in the water because I'm not 100 percent sure how much she is drinking. I did disinfect their coop immediately yesterday and it looks very good now. Do you suggest I use saline drops on her face/eyes ? Or should I kind of just let her be.
 
Hi, I think I have used Duramycin before and it is a reasonally effective antibiotic. How long it takes for her to recover depends on whether the condition is Chronic or Acute. Acute cases of respiratory diseases cause the bird to go downhill dramatically, for example, she could develope a swollen eye overnight or die unexpectantly, Acute cases are usually easier to treat. Chronic conditions last longer, are more resistant to antibiotics but aren't as severe. It would be best to put her on Duramycin for about a week then switch to Tylan or Oxymav (Tylan would be more effective). The reason for this is because the bacteria will build up an immunity to Durymacin eventually. You can't see her eye is because there is a layer of 'chicken puss' beneath the third eyelid. It is likely that she will lose her eye but chickens do quite well with just one eye. The hen should not be expieriencing much pain, usually they experience a numbness etc. If she is in pain she will be constantly scratching her eye and having 'chirping fits'. I advise putting garlic in her water and as Eggcessive already suggested, tuna or boiled egg. Also note that with Mycoplasma Galisepticum, the affected birds get 'sweet' smelling breath. Mycoplasmas are an odd bacteria - they are missing a third cell wall so they are vulnerable to disinfectants. You can disinfect your coop so the existing bacteria is less harmful to other birds and it can't spread easily.

Good luck with your hen,
Cuckoo Orpington.


Cuckoo, my continued thankfulness for your replies. I will follow your advice and keep her on duramycin for 1 week. I think I'm also going to slightly increase the amount of duration in the water because I'm not 100 percent sure how much she is drinking. Do you have any suggestions on how to get her/make sure she is drinking and eating?

I did disinfect their coop immediately yesterday and it looks very good now. Do you suggest I use saline drops on her face/eyes ? Or should I kind of just let her be.
 
Cuckoo, my continued thankfulness for your replies. I will follow your advice and keep her on duramycin for 1 week. I think I'm also going to slightly increase the amount of duration in the water because I'm not 100 percent sure how much she is drinking. I did disinfect their coop immediately yesterday and it looks very good now. Do you suggest I use saline drops on her face/eyes ? Or should I kind of just let her be.
Saline drops or a salt and warm water solution will help clean out her eye so yes it is a good idea. Note that the salt will sting a bit when you administer it so she might wipe her eye on her wing afterwards etc. You can give her saline drops daily to help clean it out. Keep us updated after the Duramycin treatment to see how she's going
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Saline drops or a salt and warm water solution will help clean out her eye so yes it is a good idea. Note that the salt will sting a bit when you administer it so she might wipe her eye on her wing afterwards etc. You can give her saline drops daily to help clean it out. Keep us updated after the Duramycin treatment to see how she's going
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Ok thank you we are staying positive that she will get better.

Also if anyone has any suggestions on how to make sure she is getting enough water and food please let me know. My fear is she is not having enough water to get the benefits of the antibiotics. We are thinking of increasing the amount of antibiotics in the water.
 

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