What is this under my chicken's tongue?

[katie_94]

Lately one of my EEs has been sneezing with her whole body kind of like a small dog would and I also noticed that she tends to drop food when trying to eat. So I opened her mouth after noticing some brown drool and her neck all wet and I find this stuff under her tongue. Me being an idiot, I pulled it out but with little to no resistance. There was some blood but it didn't continue to bleed (I checked an hour later and no bleeding still). I left some of the stuff under her tongue (as seen in the pic) as it's hard for me to inspect her by myself. There is a smell and her crop feels empty. Other than that, she hasn't been showing signs of lethargy, fluffing, breathing with her mouth open, or discharge from her eyes and nose. She still shows some interest in eating/drinking and is active. I don't have a poultry vet neat me.

 

[ChickNanny13]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/canker-in-chickens.78133/

 

[sourland]

canker

 

[katie_94]

I see. Again, I don't have a poultry vet near me and I don't know what I can specifically buy to help her and without a prescription

 

[katie_94]

https://jedds.com/products/metronidazole-20?_pos=1&_sid=188724326&_ss=r I found this after frantically combing through threads. I'd appreciate any other advice.

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

Are there crusted lesions on her comb as well? or any other crusted sores on her skin? If so, fowl pox is also a differential. It's hard to see in the photo whether the lesions on her comb are sores or frostbite, peck wounds, etc.

 

[katie_94]

Are there crusted lesions on her comb as well? or any other crusted sores on her skin? If so, fowl pox is also a differential. It's hard to see in the photo whether the lesions on her comb are sores or frostbite, peck wounds, etc.

She's at the bottom of the pecking order so she gets picked on. There are no crusted sores on her skin/eyes/mouth and I live in FL where it's still 70F so not frostbite. The specks you see on her muffs is dirt

 

[katie_94]

I just checked the roof of her mouth and her throat and I don't see any of the stuff there only under her tongue. She's still interested in eating but when she does the pellets would just come back out with drool as if she can't hold them quite in her mouth. She does get some pieces in.

She's been isolated.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Canker is rough. It’s a protozoan infection spread by pigeons or doves through water. It’s also very contagious, and an infected bird, even if she gets better, is a carrier for life. I personally would cull her. If she’s not eating it’s likely the lesions have spread down her throat and are partially or fully blocking her esophagus. There is treatment for canker, but it doesn’t work too well, especially in advanced cases.

If you want to treat her, the metronidazole is the way to go, although I would get tablets, not powder. You can get tablets here. The dosage is 25 mg per pound, twice a day. It’s pretty easy to just pop parts of a tablet into their beaks.

I would definitely disinfect all the feeders and waterers, and also get some acidified copper sulfate here to put in the water to hopefully prevent anyone else from getting it. Dosage for that is 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water for three days, and it can’t be put into a metal waterer.

I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this. I had a hen in my flock get canker, and I separated her and did all the treatments, but she still died. Another hen got it as well, despite all of the preventative measures, and she died too. If you don’t either cull or treat your hen, she’ll likely die of suffocation, which will be a slow miserable death. If you do treat her, and she recovers, you’ll have to put the copper sulfate into their water for three days every month as a preventative measure. It’s not foolproof though.

 

[katie_94]

I panicked ordered the powder last night. I'm sobbing I can't cull her I'm trying to contact vets hours away and no answer because its the holidays.