Today we found one of our little japanese bantam hens with a FAT tick on the side of her face. That side of her face is swollen and so were both of her tiny wattles. She was not her little feisty self. She was subdued and easy to catch. I removed the tick and applied some anitbacterial gel. She ate some bread but I haven't seen her drink anything. There is an indentation where the tick was . I isolated her and gave her some avian 2000 in her water. Could she have an infection? Why is her face swollen? Any ideas and advice would be most appreciated!!!!!
Not sure about ticks on chickens, but with people, the area can be red, swollen and inflamed for up to a week or longer. Just make sure you got the mouth parts out of her skin, or it could fester a bit. Sounds like you are doing the right things. Continue to wash the area and apply antibiotic ointment a couple of times a day.
I recently had a silkie hen that was acting strange. I picked her up and looked at her face...Her eye was missing from the socket! All I saw was blood and puss. Right below her eye was a huge blood filled tick. It sucked so much blood right below her eye that her eye was somehow sucked inside the socket. I removed the tick with tweezers, applied eye antibiotic daily and her eye was normal within 4 days. So scary.
