Swollen ears, eye bubbles, red face - in autumn

[porokelle]

Hello everyone -
We have 5 Orpingtons 2.5 years old. I'm in New Zealand so molting season is halfway done. We had so much sickness in the flock over summer I was glad everyone seemed to be doing okay ish.

Our girl Serena had a day or two of sour crop (others had surgery and months worth), bumble foot, and then molt back in December. During the past month she's had a few bubbles in her eyes (we think an infection went through the flock very very slowly from October on, setting off lots of this stuff. Opal, our one girl who had bubbles most of the time, never got sick like the others) but no other symptoms than still a bit of a limp from her bumble foot that's taking a long time to heal and has been standoffish compared to the other girls (which I still think is due to her having to be picked up and the bumble worked with for so many days).

I do an assessment on all days, except of course yesterday when I was sick myself, went out today - and there were the bubbles, along with redness of the face/comb, and a swollen ear (no eye swelling and no sneezing). Checked the other side, no bubbles but some swelling.
We're immediately going into 'egg with garlic' 'put some nutrient in the water, vetrx in the other waterers' and have really nothing else I can give her (maybe some meloxicam if we really need to).
She's eating and drinking enthusiastically. Hanging out with the others.
My partner swears she wasn't like this this morning, but it could be she's been swollen suddenly for 2 days.

I'll call the vet in the morning to see if we can get in and I suspect antibiotics (or should we ask for anything else), but is there anything else we can check or give her in the meantime?
Do infections last for a month+ and not spread? Not sure why this would suddenly show up if she's been a bit bubbly for a month+.
Other girls are okay, other than 2 still in middle of their molt. Other 2 are happy post molt.

Thank you

 

[Eggcessive]

There could be a respiratory disease, such as mycoplasma (MG) that is affecting your flock. Tylosin, Denagard and a few other antibiotics may control symptoms. But close your flock to any new birds or no birds leaving, since they will all be carriers. Symptoms can come on during periods of stress, and may come back later.

 

[porokelle]

Still trying to get antibiotics for our girls. Local vet is not a chicken vet and quite useless (they only want to treat the one chicken and we'd have to bring her in for an injection of antibiotics!). We have been given some pain relief, but not sure how much that's doing.

We def have a second girl with some ear swelling and a third who is in full molt, may have lost weight, and eyes are quite sunken. Other two girls are looking okay.

So I'm thinking everybody's got whatever kind of infection it is and I'll try contacting an online avian vet for treatment. We did a search about MG and the swelling for that is typically in front of the eye. And we're lucky the girls aren't showing other symptoms other than eye bubbles when eating.