swollen comb on chicken

[Annpan]

My hens are between 18 months and 2 years old (or there abouts) and one of them seems to have developed a rather nasty looking swollen comb, the comb is also black in places (I assumed it was dirt but a quick google leads me to believe that it might be associated with the swelling)

She doesn't seem to be ill in any other way, her bum looks clean and her tail is up and her head is up, I can't tell if she is laying and they all seem to be eating less in this warm weather. I put some food out for them and only 2 out of the 4 went for it. The other chickens don't seem to have the same problem.

Light is fading but I'm going to try get a picture of it to put up.

[Annpan]

Nobody?



I suspect it is pecking, there is definitely blood on it and I think the black bits are dried in blood. I have let her free range today, while the others are in the chook tractor, hoping that will give her a break.

What can I wash it with? Is there any household remedy? Or maybe I can wash it and put sudocream on it? (I think I read somewhere it was safe to use on chooks)

I don't have any chicken meds, this is the first time any of them have shown anything worse than lethargy, which I give them cider vinegar for.

My Internet connection has gone down so I can't put a photo up here (on mobile connection)

[Millymollymandy]

We have Betadine which is iodine which we dilute and that is fine for both humans and animals. I imagine any human antiseptic lotion diluted should be fine for washing it.

For antiseptic cream/spray I don't know as I have a spray from the vet (stupidly expensive) and I don't know what Sudocream is. If it's something mild like Savlon or is OK for babies I would have thought it would be OK on a chook - but then again I don't know this for sure.

Think the main thing for now is to keep her away from the others and hope someone else adds to this thread with advice!

[Awne]

When we got our last lot of ex batts there was some squabbling and one of the girls didnt just have her comb pecked...she was grabbed by it and it bled quite a bit. I just cleaned it up well with warm water with a little salt in it....it soon healed up with a black scab and she has had no further problems at all. xx

[Annpan]

Well, I eventually got my internet connection back and was able to do some serious googling, still didn't find much info.

We tried to give her comb a clean with salt water just now but she was clearly in pain when we were touching it.... so we couldn't clean any dried-in stuff, it is very dry and cracky. We did manage get some sudocrem onto her (I found another forum saying it was OK and that is good enough for me right now)

IMG_0297.JPG (967.26 KiB) Viewed 5356 times

The photo isn't great and I know (after googling lots of images) that this isn't badly swollen but it is clearly painful.

Any other tips?

They are all shut up together for the night (they have overnight access to the chook tractor) and I can separate her in the morning again but can't keep doing it every day, only if I am about to keep an eye on her.

I'm not 100% convinced that it is pecking since I have never seen them do it, and I do watch them quite a bit. She doesn't seem afraid of the others, when we put her back in tonight they all had a good look/smell at the sudocrem, I'm hoping they don't peck at that now

[JulieSherris]

Hi Ann, I would say that baby products will be fine on the chooks.... it probably is some thing like a peck that's got infected, but you can have a good look once you are treating her.

If the birds comb is actually turning black, it can mean respiratory problems, so just check that the black bits are dried blood.
When our girls got gapeworm (from the crows) their combs started to blacken - a week on Flubenvet & all was returned to normal - phew!

[Awne]

yeah thats what mine looked like too..is there anything she could have caught it on? Could they have given her a swift nip when they are shut in for the night? I wouldnt worry about it too much, when we got our first hens I would lose sleep worrying about the littlest, totally bullied one.....she was in the worst state of them all, she looked oven ready!!! They have an odd little hierarchy and they eventually all settled into place. Sudocreme should do the job....it fixes everything. Meanwhile.... Im dealing with a randy hen who thinks she is a boy lol xx

[Annpan]

Right, hoping now that it calms down and I'l get more sudocrem on it tomorrow, I'm not very worried, and if it had been winter I probably wouldn't have noticed it for a few more days as it isn't that large or obvious that it is anything more than dirt.

I don't think it helps that it has been really warm here too, maybe that is increasing the swelling a bit. But want to catch it early, whatever it is.

Now, follow up questions.... is it worth buying in any meds for them then? what? They are livestock not pets so not really planning on ever taking them to a vet... though I do need to convince OH that he wants to wring their necks (not over a swollen comb obviously)

[JulieSherris]

Ann, if you keep savlon antiseptic, or even dettol, that will cure most wounds.

All I keep here is apple cider vinegar, garlic, and I make my own poultry powder with ginger, chilli, fenugreek, sugar & anything else I can think of!

Apart from that I keep Flubenvet (after losing 4 birds to gapeworm last year) and Diatom for worming and dusting. Diatom can also be used for worming cats/dogs, & will also deal with earwigs/ants/woodlice/fleas - great stuff & lasts ages!