Wake up, wake up! I haz a chicken question ...

[ebayfool]

Has any of you dealt with ear infection in your poultry? I have a girl, Honey Butt, who has been fighting one for a while now. Vet is not in the budget, and I've tried (am trying!) antibiotics, ear cleaning, compresses, etc. Gets better but not gone.

She's my fav girl. Rides my shoulder like a parrot (well, until her balance got wonky with this), sits on my lap and is the happiest of the bunch to see me every morning! If I had any money I'd do the vet, but I haven't paid full rent on time for months. Just can't do it. I don't want her to suffer, but I just can't put her down.

Any ideas? Anything? I will do anything in my power!

[Kali]

1. might be mites or even a tick

what are the symptoms?

[ebayfool]

2. Oh, TY for responding!

Swollen, some discharge but not smelly - can't tell if there's any color. Seems to be kinda clearish/tannish. She is scratching it like crazy, so it's itchy. The swelling seems to respond well to warm compresses, but doesn't go away completely.

The earhole itself is open to view. The swelling looks like it's just below the opening. I keep putting Neosporin on the area because she scratches to the point that the feathers/down are gone, so it's bald all around her ear. The discharge collects at night and hardens right below her ear, and has to be soaked to clean off.

She has improved - some - with antibiotics I got from my son in law ( a dairyman) but it seems there is something in her ear that keeps it going. This has also spread to her other ear in the last week.

I have 6 more pullets but Honey Butt is separated in her own coop til she gets better. I sure don't want to expose the rest of them to whatever she has going on.

Do you think a miticide would do any harm to try? (hopefully something from the TSC)

[Kali]

3. mites usually leave a gritty dark almost coffee grounds looking deposit

so that doesn't really sound like what you have going on. I would try to maybe clean with some peroxide and keep with the ointment a while longer

you might try an oral antibiotic in her water too, though if it isn't bacterial you are just wasting money and risking resistance,

I found some advice on backyardchickens.com and google had a lot of results for "poultry ear infections"

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/767500/ear-infection

[ebayfool]

5. TY - I'll try anything.

Hmm, I've been grinding pill antibiotic - mebbe the oral/water form would be better. Giving her lotsa yogurt too. I know the havoc antibiotics can wrought on the system.

I'm a member on Backyard Chickens, but sometimes too much info is hard to sort through (if that makes any sense). I'll keep trying though, and will update. It was worth the shot to try the DU group too.

A lot of what I'm doing I got from there, that's undoubtedly why she's still going. She is still eating, that's a good sign.

How in the hell I came to lurve a chicken is a puzzlement! But there it is. It all started when the 1st one just showed up in my back yard, eating my grapes, and refused to leave. Chicken math!

TY for the aids

[Kali]

7. oh, I thought you meant topical antibiotics

yeah - try some generic neosporin, just the vaseline in it should be soothing on the skin

[Kali]

4. could it be an ingrown feather or something like a barley or foxtail awn?

[ebayfool]

6. I gotta get hold of a magnifying glass and another set of hands and will check. n/t

[ebayfool]

8. Yay! Honey Butz is much better! Good call @ the mites!

Still couldn't find any tell-tale signs, but I bought the drops and tried 'em anyway (desperation time!).
Signs of improvement within 24 hours! Stopping losing her balance, stopped scratching her head, eating well,perching on a low block,holding her head cock-eyed.

I'm thinking my girl is gonna finally get well - TY, TY, TY!

I'm keeping her in the Little Tykes playhouse/chica hospital for a while longer, make sure she's stronger before she has to go through the whole 'pecking order' thing with the rest of the girls.

Blue eggs for everybody!!! (ended up with 1 white layer & with Honey Butz, 6 blue layers)

[mopinko]

9. congrats, chic doc. got one of my own right now.

she will be going back to the flock today, as she is well enough to jump up on my desk now.
but she injured her leg, got it caught in the back of a chair in the yard and nearly hung herself. brought her in for that, and turns out she had a bumble on the other foot.
since she really needed to be walking on that sore leg, she has been free ranging around my house. sharing the bird room w the parrots.

funny how sweet and docile they get when you are making them feel better.

[ebayfool]

10. TY! The big problem now is incorporating her back into the flock.

She has been in a separate enclosure (the converted Little Tykes playhouse cum Chica Palace/Hospital!) for so long they are little bullies when I've let her out with supervision! She initially was isolated when she got two, count 'em 2!, eggs stuck in her vent and that took a goodly bit to recover from - then the ear thing came right after.

So yeah, she's thoroughly docile and tame with all the care and attention she got. She's a pet as much as the cat or dog.

And I, to this day, have not much clue how they got me into this! All because a chicken just decided to move in my back yard. I think I've been chicken-napped!

[womanofthehills]

11. I have 10 chickens but had to look online to see where their ears are

When my dog or my cats have ear problems - I put coconut oil or olive oil in their ears. Might try that on your chicken. Coconut oil is easier because I just put a little ball of it in.

A friends dog had an ear infection, and we used Betadine (iodine) with a q-tip which seemed to help big time.

[Claude_balloune]

12. Vishnu must keep dreaming

With regard to poultry, the second teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita, speaks of this type of chicken:

"Indestructible is the presence that pervades all this; no one can destroy this unchanging reality. It is not born, it does not die; having been, it will never not be; unborn, enduring, constant, and primordial, it is not killed when the body is killed."

So keep your chicken-ears clean, so that wisdom may pass from them out to you. And hope that Vishnu keeps on dreaming.