Utah!

[ElkMtnCove]

OK, here's another weird problem. This sure is my year for the weird/awful stuff!

I posted it on the emergencies/diseases forum, here's the link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7640851#p7640851

But a warning, has some graphic photos. Unless someone has some experience with this I will probably need to have my husband cull this bird tonight/tomorrow. (From someone that is keeping banty roos cause I don't have the heart to "dispatch" them just cause they were born a boy).

Any help would be awesome!

julie

 

[the-bird-man]

Quote:
wow julie you just do not have the best luck this year

i am not sure what to do. are you attached to this girl or would it not be the end of the world if you had to cull her? avian vets are very expensive so if you cant treat her yourself i would cull her. sorry you have to deal with this

let me know if i can do anything

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Quote:
I have a very pretty roo partidge cochin if you can have roos? Free if you don't eat him. You can be the breeder!

julie

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Quote:
Thank you Bird Man! This year has bn the worst ever...starting with the fatal kick to my golden filly and having to put the killer down, loosing lots of chicks at the first of the season because the PO left them on the dock (in March), then Betsy, then Izzy. I'm sure hoping 2013 is a much better year!

I'm trying to research this chicken's problem, but so far not seeing a good ending.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
What about a blocked feather follicle? Check out this link:

http://www.petmd.com/bird/conditions/skin/c_bd_Feather_Cysts
"As the feather grows, the lump -- caused by the ingrown feather -- also continues to grow until the feather cyst becomes an oval or long swelling."

"A feather cyst can occur anywhere on the bird’s body."

If you look at the images of blocked feather follicles, some of them are huge for the size of bird. Maybe she got it infected? If she dustbathes as much as ours do, I can only imagine all the dirt and crap she's gotten on it.

That being said, it sure looks like a tumor.

I'm trying to see the glass half full.

 

[Mahonri]

Have any of you seen the old chicken farm on the main drag heading into Gunnison from the south? It's on the west side of the road.

I noticed it when I went to Manti last week... lots of old breeding coops and one main chicken coop... I'd be in heaven with a set up like that.

What's up with the cold so soon up there? I 'bout froze to death!

I was showing my wife where I'd love to retire... I'd love to have a home to the SW of Marysvale... gorgeous country, but, alas, I think I'd freeze to death. Guess I should sell my 8 acres in Utah Valley and find a place down here in the country where it's warmer... perhaps Prescott or Payson, AZ.

 

[the-bird-man]

Quote:
its been over a year since i have seen it but i know what you are talking about. i have a lot of memories of that area. my dad spent a lot of time on his grandpas farm in manti and i have a lot of family that lives in manti, gunnison etc

there are loads of poultry farms in that area as i am sure you know.

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Quote:
What about a blocked feather follicle? Check out this link:

http://www.petmd.com/bird/conditions/skin/c_bd_Feather_Cysts
"As the feather grows, the lump -- caused by the ingrown feather -- also continues to grow until the feather cyst becomes an oval or long swelling."

"A feather cyst can occur anywhere on the bird’s body."

If you look at the images of blocked feather follicles, some of them are huge for the size of bird. Maybe she got it infected? If she dustbathes as much as ours do, I can only imagine all the dirt and crap she's gotten on it.

That being said, it sure looks like a tumor.

I'm trying to see the glass half full.

Love your outlook but I looked and I just don't see this as a cyst of any kind. Below is what I just posted on the disease forum as no one has run into the problem but it's getting narrowed down to a tumor of some kind.
------------------------------------------
"Well I've read just about as much as my stomach can handle... sooo many nasty looking photos & trying to figure this out!

I did find this on one forum:

"...unfortunately, as my vet informed me last year when I took in a hen with a lump at the base of her tail, chickens can suffer from upwards of 300 different types of tumors and cysts. If it is a solid mass and does not feel like fluid, it is most likely a tumor and will prove fatal eventually. I've had three hens with tumors over the years, all died shortly after the mass was discovered. The thing with tumors is, the chicken will carry on normally and not act or look ill until the thing just takes so much of their energy that they pass away. Cysts have a better outlook, they can usually be drained, but you never know if they will reoccur. "

Don't know the poster or if it's true but sounds possible... I just hate the idea of putting this girl down, and if we do and I get a good look at this thing and figure out I could have let her live I'll really have a bad night.

but on the other side...I've read on a ton of sites (like research docs) that there are many tumors caused by a virus. That's just dandy. NOT. I'm not seeing a good way out for this good layer.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here. Yes, most of them probably are caused by a virus. But, how long have you had her? The others have probably been exposed. Two, not every chicken will have the same reaction. Just like other animals, some will develop tumors, some will deal with it a different way, some will have no symptoms, and some will be immune.

High morbidity and high mortality are two entirely different things. Just saying.

That being said, you need to do what you feel is right. Especially if she starts suffering.

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Quote:
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here. Yes, most of them probably are caused by a virus. But, how long have you had her? The others have probably been exposed. Two, not every chicken will have the same reaction. Just like other animals, some will develop tumors, some will deal with it a different way, some will have no symptoms, and some will be immune.

High morbidity and high mortality are two entirely different things. Just saying.

That being said, you need to do what you feel is right. Especially if she starts suffering.

Yeah, might hv figured it out. A nurse on the other thread thinks it might be a keratotic horn growth: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7642143#p7642143

Given this, I'm waiting to see if she believes the eggs to be safe to egg and if so my little hen will rejoin her flock when she heals over.