AndreaT Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 3 weeks ago I noticed one of my chickens had a swollen face, on both sides. I took her to the vets and over the course of 2 weeks she had parasite treatment, 3 lots of antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory injection and a steroid injection. Unfortunately she kept getting worse and in the end both vet and I decided that it was kinder to have her pts. She wasn't showing any other symptoms, no wheezing, sneezing or discharge from her eyes or nose. The vets were at a loss as to what was wrong with her but didn't think I should isolate her as if it was contagious it probably would have spread to the others already and would most likely stress her out more. That was 9 days ago and with no signs of anything in the rest of the flock I thought she was a one off. Until this morning that is! i've just noticed that one of the others now has a slightly swollen face, just on one side. Has anyone ever experienced this before and if so what type of treatment, if any, did you find successful? I'm really worried now that I'm going to lose the rest of my flock and I'm totally at a loss at what to do. This is a pic of my girl taken this morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 We had a cream leg bar with a swollen face. Never got to the cause of it but asked advice on a forum and as a result tried E45 cream, just a couple of applications and the swelling went down never to be repeated (she lived another 5 years). I wonder now if it was an allergic reaction to something eaten? It looked rather bad at the time because the skin became flakey as well, but it didn't bother her at all. Just on one side it could be a bite or sting AndreaT. I would try the cream but otherwise disregard it. I know there is an incurable condition where the feet swell up with fluid because we had a hen with it. She did however endure it, even though she struggled to walk, and went on to lay some lovely brown eggs again. The turn around came when we gave her, on the vet's advice, half a small aspirin just once. Nothing short of miraculous was the effect of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaT Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Thanks for your suggestions Beantree. Took her to the vets today, he gave her some antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory injection and told me to isolate her. He's going to speak to the lab tomorrow to see if they have any ideas and if it comes to it, and they can't save her, they'll do an autopsy to get to the bottom of it and see if they can save the rest of my flock. Not looking forward to the next few weeks of chicken keeping!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolly Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Did the vet say anything about mycoplasma, which can cause facial swelling but usually is accompanied by bubbles in the eye? One of my girls had a swollen face but just the occasional bubble in her eye and was treated with Tylan antibiotic powder which is added to their water, she recovered and lived for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miller30 Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Hi ive had a brahma boy come out of the house before with a swollen face looked like he had been in a punch up had no other symptoms as it was the start of scaley face gave him 3 treatments of ivermectin and an injection the swelling went down and then went sort of crusty looking hard to explain but about a month later all back to normal leanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daxigirl Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 I've experienced this (well not personally you understand), the treatment was amoxycillin for 7 days. I had caused it by being a bit slap dash when squirting the diatom/biodry about too close to the girls. I'm careful about it these days. Of course it may be something entirely different in your girls case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaT Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Who'd've thought 1 symptom could have so many different causes, be easier if they could talk and tell us what the problem was! The vet's given me some tylan today so hopefully that'll work and she'll start showing some improvement. I'm going to move the others to a different part of the garden too, as the vet couldn't rule out that it could be something toxic they've picked up. Thanks for your support, I'll keep you posted with how she gets on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GillC Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 My nutmeg had something very similar in January this year. I wrote it up with photos as it happened in my chicken blog http://connectedpeasant.blogspot.co.uk. First vet prescribed than in case it was myco. No improvement so I took her to a specialist vet who sent a sample off to the path lab who were stumped. I decided to stop there as it was costing a fortune. She eventually died about 6 months later, and I never did find out what it was. None of my other hens ever developed the same symptoms so maybe it was different. Your photo looks similar to mine though. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
