# Peacock emergency



## manybirds (Jan 1, 2016)

our peacock was looking Down and out the last few days and scratching at his face so I caught him and looked in his mouth. He has a huge infected dying flesh growth that smells on the roof of his mouth. I think it goes up through his sinus and the whole side of his face is swollen. I believe he was eating and maybe got something stuck in there that turned into a raging infection. I believe he will die soon without vet help but all vets are closed today for one, and I don't think there are any local vets that will do anything for a peacock, we don't have any vets that will look at a goat I can't imagine what they'd say if I brought him in. Is there anything I can do? What's the best poultry antibiotic, I can't get it until tomorrow but I will asap. Should I do anything to it? Should I dig around until I find what caused the infection? It's really hard to work inside a birds mouth without causing harm. It's so big he can't close his mouth and therefore can't drink without assistance. I know, shame on us for not noticing it earlier but he free roams and is very wild and very hard to get to close to when healthy so we couldn't get him until yesterday. I will post pictures later. I will be posting this in backyard chickens as well but figured I would put it on both


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## Hens and Roos (Jan 1, 2016)

sorry to hear about your peacock.  Can you try and flush the wound out with dilute hydrogen peroxide?  Not sure if PenG would work or maybe look at Lincomycin.

Hopefully others on BYC can help you out!


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## Poka_Doodle (Jan 1, 2016)

Okay, I know more about chickens, but the only thing I can say is to give him electrolytes. There are some homemade bird recipes and I will go and find one for you now.


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## Poka_Doodle (Jan 1, 2016)

Didn't find what I thought I would. If your local feed store is open check there. This is a BYC thing http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/221676/can-you-make-your-own-electrolytes-for-chickens


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## manybirds (Jan 1, 2016)

Here's some images of it


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## manybirds (Jan 1, 2016)

There's no visible wound it's just one big growth of smelly dead flesh, so would I just apply some to the surface? Also whatever I give him is going in his mouth so he has to be able to ingest it.


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## manybirds (Jan 1, 2016)

Probably not hydrogen peroxide because if he swallows it it might be bad. I know you give it to a dog to make it throw up because it expands in the stomach, wouldn't it maybe blow a birds stomach up because they can't throw up?


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## Hens and Roos (Jan 1, 2016)

I know chickens don't like it, a friend of ours puts it into eggs to stop the chickens who are eating eggs.

I looked at the pictures, is the stuff in his mouth- cheesy looking?  It sounds similar to what our friends peahen had under it's eye, they used lincomycin to try and get it to heal up, they also had to remove the pus and drain it out from under the peahen's eye.

Hope you can get him well again


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## Latestarter (Jan 1, 2016)

That looks terrible. I can't really make out what it is as the lighting is poor, but it doesn't look natural or good. Whatever that is, you can't leave it there... That will need to be cleaned out and somehow sanitized. You could use a 50% peroxide solution applied with Q-tips or something AFTER the bad stuff is scraped or cut out. There wouldn't be enough peroxide left to be ingested. It will almost assuredly need some sort of antibiotic as well, but I have no clue as to what would be best or dosage info. Good luck, and hope he makes it.


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## manybirds (Jan 1, 2016)

Tomorrow stores should be open again so hopefully I'll be able to get some antibiotics (if I have time I have a funeral most of the day). I tried picking the puss out with tweezers, I got some out but the flesh underneath is still to swollen for him to shut his mouth


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## Mini Horses (Jan 1, 2016)

Swab it off with Listerine.   Antibacterial & antifungal...may help until you get other meds.   Maybe honey, antibacterial.


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## animalmom (Jan 3, 2016)

@manybirds, How is your peacock doing?  Is he responding to anything you have tried?


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## manybirds (Jan 3, 2016)

Listerine? He's not doing any worse, I think the water and electrolytes we've been giving him perked him up somewhat. I'm gonna give him some duramycin today. A couple months ago we had a bird bring in some mites and he was the only bird on the property we couldn't catch to dust, so when I caught him I noticed he had some of the nasty little buggers crawling on him and dusted him really good and I got em all So I'm sure he's feeling much better in that regard. Now I suppose we have to redo everyone just in case he managed to spread it back to one But u gotta do what u gotta do I guess . I got most of the puss off yesterday and it's got more on it so I suppose I'll have to do that again.


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## HomesteaderWife (Jan 3, 2016)

I am not of any help in this situation as I have never experienced anything like this, nor do I know any veterinarians who work with animals outside of cats and dogs. It sounds like you're taking really good care of your peacock, so just keep looking into it and I wish you the best. I hope someone on BYC has been able to help you! Keep us updated please.


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## sadieml (Jan 3, 2016)

You can always flush with a mild saline solution.  Maybe you could try lightly brushing it with a _soft _toothbrush?  That should help remove the pus, and you definitely want that out.  He must be truly miserable if you are able to do all this with him since you said he's pretty wild.  Poor beauty.  I think diluted h-p is probably okay in very small quantites.  I don't have birds, yet, but when a vet is out of the question common sense is what we must use.   Very glad he seems to be feeling better.  My best guess is he ate something with a stick in it or a thorn, and infection rushed in after.  These things will happen.  Don't berate yourself, you are doing very well by him now and none of us can be expected to keep ahead of everything, even though we might wish to.


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## animalmom (Jan 24, 2016)

@manybirds, how's your peacock doing?  Please and thank you.


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## GLENMAR (Jan 24, 2016)

Here's a link that might help. 

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/542109/peafowl-103-illness-injury-medication-and-care-in-progress


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