Tumor? Cyst? Nodule at base of beak...

[Mary & Thad Gray]

What happened to my objectivity? KISS: Keep is simple stupid....Here is my saga of what worry ignorance brings that I'm willing to share with the hope that if someone else is also going through this they will be spared. I had not found this problem on any of the forums ....

I lost a very small bantie about a month ago. I doubted it would live long when it hatched as the egg had been so small. The chick seemed feeble from the time of hatch. I thought I should put it out of it's misery but wanted to give it a chance. And it surprised me with how long it lived, about 2 months. However, before it's death it developed a nodule or bump at the base of it's beak. I noted it mentally and wondered if if it had been cancer or something. The word lesions kept showing up in disease discriptions. I did not know then about Ga.'s state vet. office and that I should send dead birds off for evaluation or at least speak to our count agent.

Then I noticed another bird with a closed eye in the rooster pen and figured the bully had pecked it. Sure enough in a day or two it was fine. By now I'd read enough threads to know a closed watery eye might be a symptom of illness and started watching my birds more closely. Was the closed eye now healed bird a carrier spreading more disease? Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

In the meanwhile our drought had broken and last month we received over 10 inches of rain and developed a water problem in the pens. Nearly 25 of our keets died before I discovered the cure was simple, we made up the "mud" recipe I found online using yogurt and buttermilk. In the meantime we raked all the pine bark out of the pens and borrowed a dump truck and shoveled about 4 inches of lime in the pens then about 6 inches of sand to try and dry them out. More rain. More high heat and humidity. Pens sure stank as they were flooded when a couple of times we had over 3 inches of rain in a short amount of time and the water ran through the pens.

Now in the last few days I noticed more eyes shut...and more bumps on the beaks of several chickens. I couldn't help but worry that the little banty chick that I buried might have been a carrier of some dreaded disease that was now showing up in our flock. I'd read where whole flocks have to be destroyed. Were mine in jeopardy due to the sympathy shown that one bantie?

Here I'd like to note that the columns on bird disease have it backwards...For us newbies or beginners especially. I'd like a disease fact sheet like I have on the car/truck where it's lists the problem or symptom then the list of possible causes. I sat here on my slow dial up reading night after night of disease after disease for the knot on the beak or the other symptoms I was observing, not finding that symptom and not knowledgeable enough to decipher all I was reading.

So, heavy in heart, not knowing what kind of can of worms I was opening I dialed up our county extension agent this morning. My imagination running rampant. Was I fixing to have the state vet. out here? So, to my great relief and gratitude to our county agent, the mystery solved...Our problem? Mosquitos! The eye problem also solved...the chicken seeing the mosquito biting the other chicken pecks at the mosquito. Jumping jehosahfat! Why didn't I call earlier?

[RonL]

Mary or Thad (I would guess Mary :) ) . You can sure spin some yarn :D ..... Sure glad its interesting. I love reading your tales. Good story and thanks for sharing. Next long time rain we get here, I'm going to remember this ..............

[Mary & Thad Gray]

Ron,

You're right, it's Mary...my late husband told me one day he'd never seen anyone that could talk about nothing as much as I can...and Mr. Thad, a man of few words, when we were dating, said he agreed and wanted to know how I thought it all up...I said I didn't know but I sure don't believe in lies or secrets 'cause if it's in my head it's gonna spill out my mouth. So, yes 99% of the time it'll be me writing...Now if anyone needs to know about ol' farm stuff, my sweetie can look at a piece of something and most of the time know what it is or came off of. He was cutting tobacco as the twelth child of a share cropper at five and walked behind the mules as a youngin' farming. His first "running" water was in basic training. Talk about child labor....I thought we had it rough with no dishwasher.

I'm glad you enjoy my posts and find them intresting...I was hesitant to write at all as I know so little about the birds...I am pretty much a hermit any more out here in the middle of no where and find the birds good company. I'd been reading this forum for a while before joining. I must say here, that I this is my favorite one with some of the nicest folks. I enjoy the questions as much as the answers.

Our buddy that I hadn't been able to talk to for a while came by with another batch of near 30 guinea eggs this morning. And I thought I was about done for the year, ha. He said it would probally be the last of them for this season.

We walked the farm a bit and he admired our "Mosquito Hilton". If I'd a got hold of him first of the week he could have told me that the bump or rising on the beaks was from mosquitos. He's been raising birds for over 40 years. One of his remedys is to find some water soluable sulphur to add to the water. The other is to rub the little ones head with vaseline or petrolium jelly. He says here the mosquitos this time of year are so bad a biting that the litttle chicks head swell up and both eyes will swell shut and then the little chicks can't see to eat and starve to death. But that if they are larger they do better. He also said that here in the "dog days" when it's so hot most folks don't try to raise any chicks or keets as they don't do too well. I swanee...this morning was so humid that you could clap your hands and it would splash!

I hatch most of mine in a hovabator in the dining room then after a day in the still incubator move them to a box in the guest bathtub off from the den. Sometimes I had as many as four boxes going with reflector lights, rough on the airconditioning to say the least. I truely love to hear the peeping from my recliner. I know some say they are too dusty to keep in the house but the way I layer the boxes up they arn't too bad. For note I use 2 layers of wax paper on the bottom then open up the newspaper so it's not like it comes, each piece needs to be laid out seperate and make the stack kinda thick, then I put a layer of bounty paper towels last. Then each morning or more often if needed I just pull up one layer of the newspaper from the corner and roll to the other katty corner and get all the droppings and old food up then put down fresh paper towels. It dosn't disturb the babies so much that way, kinda like changing diapers. If the waters been spilled I go down enough layers of newspaper till it's dry. Put it in a old plastic shopping bag and out it goes, stink and all. My buddy said they are doing well this way and to keep them inside now for sure as long as I could. Ha...just like kids, for some reason around 2 to 3 weeks their poop smell changes and when that happens they gotta' go...

Hope this found every one well and enjoying their blessings.....granny