Leg injury?

[Faithjo]

Update, I’ve been giving her penicillin shots for 2 days now. We tried lancing it a little with a pretty small needle and nothing but blood came out. I was hoping to let some of the infection and pressure off her leg, I thought it was an infection but I don’t know now. She has little scabby places on up her leg as well, her other leg is fine and no more of my flock is suffering. She’s lost weight and doesn’t seem to be doing well, the purple stuff is blu-kote. I tried that a while back, her leg was just soaked in water and epsom salt before the photo as well

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Update, I’ve been giving her penicillin shots for 2 days now. We tried lancing it a little with a pretty small needle and nothing but blood came out. I was hoping to let some of the infection and pressure off her leg, I thought it was an infection but I don’t know now. She has little scabby places on up her leg as well, her other leg is fine and no more of my flock is suffering. She’s lost weight and doesn’t seem to be doing well, the purple stuff is blu-kote. I tried that a while back, her leg was just soaked in water and epsom salt before the photo as well

Since it's been going on so long and worsening, I wonder if it's Cancer.

I'll tag in @Eggcessive and @azygous to see if they may have some suggestions.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...e-not-injury-confirmed-to-be-a-tumor.1543307/

 

[Faithjo]

Since it's been going on so long and worsening, I wonder if it's Cancer.

I'll tag in @Eggcessive and @azygous to see if they may have some suggestions.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...e-not-injury-confirmed-to-be-a-tumor.1543307/

I am wondering if it’s something like that as well, especially since it didn’t drain any infection and it seems to be spreading onto her body as well. I’ve found some scabby places spreading onto her skin, you can maybe see one a little in one of the pics. I appreciate yalls help! I think if the penicillin doesn’t work I might just have to switch over to trying to make her comfortable and spoil her for whatever time she has left.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I am wondering if it’s something like that as well, especially since it didn’t drain any infection and it seems to be spreading onto her body as well. I’ve found some scabby places spreading onto her skin, you can maybe see one a little in one of the pics. I appreciate yalls help! I think if the penicillin doesn’t work I might just have to switch over to trying to make her comfortable and spoil her for whatever time she has left.

That may be the best approach.

You may want to read the thread I linked for you. Carol goes over some of the medications/antibiotics/treatment she tried, then discovered an Enzyme that seemed to really help. It's something worth reading and looking into/thinking about to see if it may help.

 

[Faithjo]

That may be the best approach.

You may want to read the thread I linked for you. Carol goes over some of the medications/antibiotics/treatment she tried, then discovered an Enzyme that seemed to really help. It's something worth reading and looking into/thinking about to see if it may help.

I have went and looked, I think I found that enzyme online and available. I do think hers looks a bit worse than that ones in the pictures, I wonder if it has progressed too far? She’s no longer acting normal, she’s lethargic and seems weak. She feels like she has lost a lot of weight. I haven’t had her for very long so I have no idea how long she’s had the problem, although she is a very young hen. Maybe not even a year old yet. I’m so scared to tormenting her with treatments until she dies, I want her to be happy but I’d love for her to recover. It’s a hard call to make. What would you do if she was yours?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have went and looked, I think I found that enzyme online and available. I do think hers looks a bit worse than that ones in the pictures, I wonder if it has progressed too far? She’s no longer acting normal, she’s lethargic and seems weak. She feels like she has lost a lot of weight. I haven’t had her for very long so I have no idea how long she’s had the problem, although she is a very young hen. Maybe not even a year old yet. I’m so scared to tormenting her with treatments until she dies, I want her to be happy but I’d love for her to recover. It’s a hard call to make. What would you do if she was yours?

I'd wait and see if Kim and Carol offer any suggestions.


What would I do? It's hard to know without being your shoes, but for me, if it's not getting better, there's more lesions on the body showing up and she's continuing to decline, I would put her down then go have myself a good long cry. I'm sorry

 

[Faithjo]

I'd wait and see if Kim and Carol offer any suggestions.


What would I do? It's hard to know without being your shoes, but for me, if it's not getting better, there's more lesions on the body showing up and she's continuing to decline, I would put her down then go have myself a good long cry. I'm sorry

Thanks for the advice, I am afraid you are probably right. It’s not fair for me to let her suffer, she is still eating and getting outside right now just not acting like usual. If she gets really bad I will probably have her killed. As bad as I hate that part of having chickens.

 

[Eggcessive]

Azygous has much more experience that I do with something like this. I just had my in-house human pathologist give it a look, and he cannot see anything that obviously looks like cancer. But squamous cell skin cancer is common in legs and around necks of chickens. I would stop antibiotics or any probing it, and just do some soaks with Epsom salts or Hibiclens/chlorhexidene to give it more time to heal. Apply some plain Neosporin, castor oil, or coconut oil to help it stay moist and promote healing. Can you see any other craters on the skin of her body that might also be squamous cell? This link has pictures of what squamous cell lesions on the skin look like:
https://sesc.cat/en/squamous-cell-carcinoma-in-laying-hens/

If her quality of life continues to go down and she is not enjoying life, it might be best to put her down. If you then want to get a diagnosis, your state vet lab might do a necropsy with some histology (examining tissue) that might give you answers. We learn a lot here when people follow up with necropsy reports. But, WV is one of the few states that does not offer necropsies on farm animals. I called them once about that. There is help in OH and VA though.

 

[Faithjo]

Azygous has much more experience that I do with something like this. I just had my in-house human pathologist give it a look, and he cannot see anything that obviously looks like cancer. But squamous cell skin cancer is common in legs and around necks of chickens. I would stop antibiotics or any probing it, and just do some soaks with Epsom salts or Hibiclens/chlorhexidene to give it more time to heal. Apply some plain Neosporin, castor oil, or coconut oil to help it stay moist and promote healing. Can you see any other craters on the skin of her body that might also be squamous cell? This link has pictures of what squamous cell lesions on the skin look like:
https://sesc.cat/en/squamous-cell-carcinoma-in-laying-hens/

If her quality of life continues to go down and she is not enjoying life, it might be best to put her down. If you then want to get a diagnosis, your state vet lab might do a necropsy with some histology (examining tissue) that might give you answers. We learn a lot here when people follow up with necropsy reports. But, WV is one of the few states that does not offer necropsies on farm animals. I called them once about that. There is help in OH and VA though.

I definitely gave up trying to drain it when blood came out, I held pressure on it and don’t plan on doing that again. My thought process with that was to relieve some of the pressure from the infection so it could heal better. I didn’t realize it wasn’t infected, I don’t know why it is swollen so bad if not infection. Maybe just inflammation, it’s very hard and scabby in places though. The places on her body are like raised scabs, almost like a little ball under her skin that is scabbed over. There is one kind of in her breast area, and then 2-3 more above her legs. There could be even more I haven’t found. I can’t say that it looks like the pictures in that article. A lot more scabby and not as many that I know of.
Thanks for the help!

 

[azygous]

I went back and looked at your initial photos which showed more detail. While the lesion is not precisely what I've seen, it does have characteristics of squamous skin cancer.