bacterial infection on hen... description and treatment

mmaddie's mom

9 Years
Jun 2, 2010
Elmwood, Illinois, USA
I post this so it might be helpful to someone else in the future.
This started when my hen, Yoco, started losing her head feathers while sitting. After babies were hatched, her head and neck swelled up and became yellow crusty/scabby and her eyes swelled almost shut... pretty much overnight. She continued to eat and take care of 7 babies, but seemed very uncomfortable.
After a talk with a vet who was willing to talk to us over the phone, we determined that it was a bacterial infection.
Here is how we treated her... we continued to clean the affected skin with HIBICLENS ( an antiseptic, antimicrobial and bactericidal cleanser that is affective against a wide range of micro-organisms... found it at the pharmacy ). The vet also recomended an antibiotic called TYLAN... this was given as a shot (sub-q, under the skin of her chest) twice a day, .01 mlgms. Also alternated applying Aloe (for healing) and Vaseline (to soothe). Will continue the Tylan for at least 2 weeks maybe longer if she is still swollen around her eyes (this is still a problem). The swelling of her head and the extremely crusty/scabby skin is so much better after treating her for over a week.
The vet said that this can happen after an injury... but Yoco didn't have any apparent injury... possibly she could have gotten into a plant/weed or a bug bite that irritated her head and face?
Hope this is helpful to someone else.

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