Very swollen earlobe and neck - tick

[lemuckley_flock]

Help!! Everyone was fine this morning (at least as far as I noticed). We were just doing a big scrub down of the coop and feeders/waterers, and my dh yelled that there's something wrong with one of the girls. We caught her - she had a large tick attached at the bottom of her earlobe. We removed the tick and are left with this swelling. It appears to be causing discomfort - she flinches and pulls away when I palpitate it. We can't tell if it's just blood filled, or infected, or ? I've done a warm compress for about 15 minutes, then let her back out as she's not acting unwell. I'm going to check on her several times this evening, but wonder if anyone has any advice or has had this happen? What should we do for our girl?

The dark spot is dried blood from where the tick was.

 

[bargain]

When you removed the tick, did you put oil on it so as to cause the tick to withdraw his/her legs. If you leave any of the tick legs on it, it will continue to harm the parasited animal. I would try putting mineral oil on it to hope legs withdraw. I think after than some topical antibiotic. It will be tender for some time. Just keep observing her to see if she continues to be okay.

 

[Suzie]

Oh how awful - I have never known a tick to get onto a chicken - we frequently get them on the horses and our dogs - we have a tick "remover" we turn it anticlockwise and it pulls the tick out completely - do you have any tea-tree-oil? It is useful for any infected area - you may have betadine or some antibiotic cream you can apply - that must have been very painful for your chicken - it is always advisable to remove the leg parts of a tick as it can cause complications (infections).

Good luck!

Suzie

 

[lemuckley_flock]

Just checked her and she's still swollen, but it appears to be going down a little. Still acting perfectly well....keeping a close eye today.

 

[finnegan2006]

I posted this on another forum before I saw this post. My hen had the EXACT same thing happen to her. It was not bitten by a Chicken tick but by a larger tick, called the Texas Lone Star TIck, which normally attaches itself to dogs, cats, horses and humans.

My hens comb is swollen too, in the exact same way. I pulled the tick and saved it (it was quite engorged btw). I wiped the comb down with bendaine after I pulled the tick and then put a chigger/tick homepathic paste on it to see if that would help with the swelling. It was less this morning but still quite swollen.

Hen is alert and raring to get out this morning so I am hoping that she is okay. I am more concerned that she may get a tick bourn virus like Lyme and pass it into ther eggs (lyme can be passed in utero). Would her eggs be safe to eat?

I have read on another forum that the tick bite may kill her and only time will tell.

I am baffled at how my chicken got a tick attached to herself. I live in NC and it is early in the season for ticks and if there out there, it would be the tiny nyme size ticks, not an adult size tick! Of all the years I have had chickens, I have never seen a tick attached to any of them!

Please keep me posted as I will do the same.

 

[MoonAngel12]

I just did a google search for the same exact thing! My chickens free range so I don't always get an up close look at them, but when I got home this morning you could see something was just not right. I was able to catch her and looked at it a bit closer only to find a horribly engorged tick! Blech! I was able to get it off (you could hardly tell what it was - the legs looked like little dots compared to it's body) and came inside to see if it might have been the cause of the swelling on the ear lobe. We are in NC also - not thrilled to see ticks already!!