Swollen Nostril

[omga747]

Hi, I have a black Australorp roughly 4 years old that has developed a swollen nostril on just one side. Over the course of about 2 weeks its gotten slowly, steadily worse. The other side is totally normal. No discharge or other noticeable symptoms. I've been cleaning it daily and applying some VetRx, but no change. Any idea what it might be? Pictures below show the normal side and the abnormal side (with a little food on the beak too).

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Looks like it's plugged up with debris, mucous or food.

I'd apply 1 drop of Peroxide and let that soak in for a few minutes, then slowly work on removing the obstruction with an orange stick (wooden cuticle stick) or something similar. If you are very steady, you can try tweezers.

If the material is hardened and she's not very tolerant, then work on it in stages over the course of several days.

 

[omga747]

Thank you! We started digging foul-smelling junk out this morning, and it's looking a lot better. She's surprisingly tolerant of us poking instruments into her nostril, so it's going fairly smoothly. It looks like several more rounds of this to go, but it's doing the trick!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you! We started digging foul-smelling junk out this morning, and it's looking a lot better. She's surprisingly tolerant of us poking instruments into her nostril, so it's going fairly smoothly. It looks like several more rounds of this to go, but it's doing the trick!

Sounds good, let me know how it goes.

 

[omga747]

Many sessions and 8+ hours of digging later, her upper nostril is looking much better. It's amazing how much stuff we've pulled out. That fleshy bit at the bottom is still concerning, and there's still more in there. Is that fleshy bit a normal part of the nose that's just swollen?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I think the fleshy part is just swollen, once you're able to remove the debris, I think that will reduce in size.

If you look inside her beak, is the Choanal Slit full of mucous or debris?

 

[omga747]

Several weeks later, and this is still an ongoing problem. Her choanal slit is clear, but the fleshy bit in her nose has not gotten any smaller. We're now using some dental tools to clean the gunk out of her nose, and more seems to build up every day. We left it alone for about 4 days at one point, and there was a ton of buildup after that. Could the enlarged fleshy part be causing the problem in some way?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Several weeks later, and this is still an ongoing problem. Her choanal slit is clear, but the fleshy bit in her nose has not gotten any smaller. We're now using some dental tools to clean the gunk out of her nose, and more seems to build up every day. We left it alone for about 4 days at one point, and there was a ton of buildup after that. Could the enlarged fleshy part be causing the problem in some way?

Possible the tissue is getting in the way. I'm not sure what you can do about that unless you have an Avian Vet that can see her.

If not, then I'd just clean the nostril out regularly or when it gets a lot of buildup.