Hen With Swollen Face, Possibly Sneezing.

[GlicksChicks]

Hello all,

I have a 8 month old broody Black Copper Maran hen who developed a swollen face tonight. I have heard a hen sneezing in broody jail (There are 2 others in broody jail with her) but I couldn't tell who, maybe it was her. Her weight is normal compared to my other BCM hens.

The only sign of illness is her swollen face. The sneezing is possibly one as well if it was her.

No other hens have a swollen face and I do not know who was sneezing.

The hen is broody. I brought her in my house yesterday to cool her and her 2 other broody sisters down. It has been in the 90-100 range outside so it would be hard to cool them down to break broody. It is around 60 degrees inside. There have never been sick chickens in the kennel they are staying in. Their bedding is clean towels so they don't try to brood in any loose bedding.

I have not seen her eating their normal feed, layer and scratch, but I habe heard the hens in there eating while I am not in the room. This morning she ate some plain scrambled eggs with her sisters.

All poops in the kennel are normal.

As soon as I saw her face I put some Poly-Vi-Sol drops into her water as well as some VetRX in case it is a respiratory illness.

I want to treat the hen myself, there are no vets willing to work on chickens near me. I am going to be gone for 4 days starting Thursday morning, so my hopes is to not worry too much about her while I am gone. I would bring her with me, but the place I am going is a fsmily member who breeds chickens and I don't want to bring a sick hen over there.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Any infection in the ears, are the earlobes swollen, hard to tell?
Any lice/mites?

She does have a few scabs on the face, could be swelling due to a bug bite, but generally that's on one side. It looks like both sides are about equally swollen.

Have you added new birds within the last 30days?

I'd clean/flush the eye with saline, the put Terramycin eye ointment into the eyes.

Tylosin would be good to get to have on hand just in cause this is turning into respiratory illness.

 

[GlicksChicks]

Any infection in the ears, are the earlobes swollen, hard to tell?
Any lice/mites?

No bugs on her. This is where she is swollen:

Have you added new birds within the last 30days?

I have not. All the chickens have been together for a long time.

I'd clean/flush the eye with saline, the put Terramycin eye ointment into the eyes.

Any way to make home made saline and tips on how to flush the eye?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Yes, I can see where she's swollen. Hard to know if it's infection due to respiratory illness or from bites/pecks. She has a few scabs, but the swelling is on both sides, so I would lean more towards infection from respiratory illness.

You can find saline recipes online. Just put the saline in a needless syringe and flush the eyes or you can apply compresses if you with.

 

[GlicksChicks]

Yes, I can see where she's swollen. Hard to know if it's infection due to respiratory illness or from bites/pecks. She has a few scabs, but the swelling is on both sides, so I would lean more towards infection from respiratory illness.

You can find saline recipes online. Just put the saline in a needless syringe and flush the eyes or you can apply compresses if you with.

I was thinking respiratory but I wanted other opinions.

I will give that a try.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Any improvement? Did you look in her ears?

 

[ChickenVixen01]

Terramycin eye ointment is the best thing to use, it works quickly. You can get it on Amazon. I just ordered Tylosin on PetMeds.com bc you have to have a prescription for it, as one of mine was exhibiting thew same symptoms.