Mystery injury / infection on chicken face

[cheide]

Hello, and thanks in advance for your help I’ve looked through some posts and there’s so many or I can’t find anything quite like this…

my 2 year old jubilee orpington has this nasty thing on her face. I can’t tell if it’s coming from her ear? or maybe she was injured by something? it looked more scabby a couple weeks ago when I first noticed something looked strange. but now looks more wet. also looks like the tip of her beak is chipped…

I haven’t treated in any way. she’s acting normally. poo looks normal. all the other chickens look and are behaving normally. bedding is wood chips, wood bedding pellets.

ideas on what’s going on? how to treat?

thanks

 

[alinas2010]

Aw poor girl, to me it looks like she may have gotten an injury. It does look like it is close to her ear, so check very closely to determine if/how involved her ear is. I’m not sure but the white parts might be fat or pus around the injury site, it’s hard to tell. She might have had a small injury initially that scabbed over and her flock mates opened it up again and made it worse even. She may need separated in a large crate yet still in site of the flock while it heals so they don’t peck at her.

If she were mine I would use some saline to rinse well and trim feathers away from the affected area and give it a super good look, share more pics if you’re stumped on what’s going on still. After you rinse and inspect, get some ointment such as neosporin (w/out pain relief) to keep on it while it heals. You can use neosporin in her ear too if it is injured.

Her beak looks like it may need trimmed up a little bit, at least evened out; a nail file will work well to do this. Be sure to look her over really well for other injuries, sometimes they hide injuries so well in all those feathers. Let us know if you think it’s a wound or something else once you look her over really well.

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

@Eggcessive

 

[cheide]

Aw poor girl, to me it looks like she may have gotten an injury. It does look like it is close to her ear, so check very closely to determine if/how involved her ear is. I’m not sure but the white parts might be fat or pus around the injury site, it’s hard to tell. She might have had a small injury initially that scabbed over and her flock mates opened it up again and made it worse even. She may need separated in a large crate yet still in site of the flock while it heals so they don’t peck at her.

If she were mine I would use some saline to rinse well and trim feathers away from the affected area and give it a super good look, share more pics if you’re stumped on what’s going on still. After you rinse and inspect, get some ointment such as neosporin (w/out pain relief) to keep on it while it heals. You can use neosporin in her ear too if it is injured.

Her beak looks like it may need trimmed up a little bit, at least evened out; a nail file will work well to do this. Be sure to look her over really well for other injuries, sometimes they hide injuries so well in all those feathers. Let us know if you think it’s a wound or something else once you look her over really well.

thank you so much!
I’m still new and of course this is my most skittish chicken. never squats squaks when I try to hold her. do you have tips on how best to handle her? should I wait until night after she goes to sleep when she’ll be more low-key? just get my husband to hold on tight?
thanks again!

 

[alinas2010]

thank you so much!
I’m still new and of course this is my most skittish chicken. never squats squaks when I try to hold her. do you have tips on how best to handle her? should I wait until night after she goes to sleep when she’ll be more low-key? just get my husband to hold on tight?
thanks again!

You’re welcome. A lot of chicken keepers do recommend trying to handle them at night, but mine still throw a fit and wingslap me when I try to pull them off the roost at night. I suppose it’s a little easier, but not much lol What I do is get a small dog crate to bring mine inside in, for ease of transport, then once inside, I use a towel to (gently, yet firmly) wrap around the body, pinning the wings to the sides. Be very careful not to squeeze or wrap too tightly while you do this. This helps a lot with the wing flapping and may settle her down enough to look closely at her head. I would enlist help for sure if it is available. Always easier with a helper to hold so you can have some free hands.

One of the educators has been tagged to take a look, let’s see if she has helpful advice, also.

 

[aart]

wingslap me

Gotta hold the wings against the body right off the bat.

 

[alinas2010]

Gotta hold the wings against the body right off the bat.

Thank you haha, I also do not hold firmly enough, I am sure of it. I tend to treat them like they’re made of glass

 

[cheide]

update:

she’s separated in a crate on my patio, which is close to the run but it’s been so rainy I wanted to move her somewhere covered. at night I take the food and water out and put two zip ties on the latches to keep her safe ( let me know if I should make some adjustments)

we’ve washed with saline and been applying neosporin. she must not be feeling great because she doesn’t protest too much

at my feed store someone recommended spraying with vetericyn - but it got more red and maybe irritated her eye so maybe that was a mistake…

I tried to get some pics; so I’ve attached a couple. my husband had a heat lamp on her (“because she’s wet from the saline”) so that’s why the lighting looks a little off. I included the other side of her head so you can see that ear too.

I have no idea which part is her actual ear but it does seem like there is just a hole in her head!

thanks all. I feel like we’ll keep at this for another week or two and maybe it will get better?

 

[alinas2010]

update:

she’s separated in a crate on my patio, which is close to the run but it’s been so rainy I wanted to move her somewhere covered. at night I take the food and water out and put two zip ties on the latches to keep her safe ( let me know if I should make some adjustments)

we’ve washed with saline and been applying neosporin. she must not be feeling great because she doesn’t protest too much

at my feed store someone recommended spraying with vetericyn - but it got more red and maybe irritated her eye so maybe that was a mistake…

I tried to get some pics; so I’ve attached a couple. my husband had a heat lamp on her (“because she’s wet from the saline”) so that’s why the lighting looks a little off. I included the other side of her head so you can see that ear too.

I have no idea which part is her actual ear but it does seem like there is just a hole in her head!

thanks all. I feel like we’ll keep at this for another week or two and maybe it will get better?

Keep treating as you are and keep it slathered in ointment at all times. It does look deep but it should start to heal. If her ear is involved, it may take longer. Vetericyn can be a great wound spray, but yes if it’s irritating stick to saline. I hope she begins to improve. Is a vet an option if not?

 

[Twilia]

One of my hens had the same thing a few years ago!
It was an ear lobe infection, cause unknown (like how DO they get these?). But your treatment appears sound.

Is it deep, like a cavity? Can't tell if that white is the infection or ointment?

Monitor that it doesn't get filled with pus.
In the case it does, lavage the wound (carefully please!) with water to clean the infection as much as possible out. Then continue using the Neosporin, to add a protective barrier and aid against infection.

Good Luck!