my chicken has swollen eye with bubbling liquid

hello all , I was looking for a little assistance.

I have 4 white rocks , I am fairly new to owning chickens. I am not sure on there exact age as we got them at a local flea market .
The guy that sold them to us claimed all the birds were about 11 weeks old . My father in law said that a couple of the birds were definitely not 11 weeks . I would say two of them are .

Two days ago we noticed that one of our young birds had a bubbly liquid coming from her eye and it was swollen .







Today I noticed that one of the older birds eye has the bubbly liquid coming from it but it is not swollen yet . After doing a little reading on the internet I have found that it is most likely contagious.Whatever it is . I know that it is probably not good .

We feed the birds everyday laying pellets and we pretty much try to give them clean water everyday.

I have noticed in the coop that some of the droppings are diarrhea , although we cant pinpoint which bird or birds are doing it .

My father in law at one time had chickens and he recommended maybe trying a little peroxide on the birds eye , we tried it , but I am thinking after reading some that it is far more serious then that .

I am hoping to try and see if it is fixable ourselves . My problem here is that we ordered 20 more chicks from an online store but we wont receive them until the first week in april. I am feeling that we may have to put the four birds down to be able to clean up for the new chicks. Not sure

We have them in a totally enclosed coop with a house and a screened area . The floor of the coop (house ) we have hay as a bedding . And the outside are is dirt. We try to keep it somewhat clean as I have read that hay isnt a real good bedding .

I know this one may be a hard one to diagnose as there are a few diseases that have these symptoms . Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"Bubbly eye" is usually a sign of bronchitis or LT. Have your bird swabbed and send it in to the avian health lab.

You don't want to get chicks with this stuff going on. Bronchitis will spread fast and can last up to six weeks, but LT is slow spreading, and if the live through it they will be carriers.

Another example of why "not to buy adult/started birds", especially if you don't know or can't see where they came from.

Do the birds rattle when they breathe, or have runny noses? If so, it is probably CRD. Either way, you need to get these birds on an antibiotic. I would start off with Tylan, and see where that gets you. Tylan is a very good respiratory antibiotic, and usually when bubbles show up in the eyes, it is from a respiratory problem. I use Tylan 200, and inject a 1/4 cc in the breast for three days in a row, in different spots of the breast, and just under the skin. You should see signs of this improving after the first day of treatment. Good luck!

The bully eye is a sign of conjunctivitis which is comony associated with Infectious Bronchitis(IB) or Infectious Laryngotracheitis(ILT). Your best bet would be to havea necropsy done on your sickest bird, you will not get it back since it will be killed to perform the necropsy.

But immediately get them on an antibiotic like Terramycin, it is specifically formulated to treat respiratort infections. mix it 4 teasponns to 1 gallon of water, keep them cooped up with no other water source and darkness seems to help. keep them on the antibiotic for 10 days and off for 2 weeks, if it comes back retreat,

In the meantime it is best to vaccinate your entire flox except the sick birds with LT-IVAX and an IB vaccine. Do not vaccinate with both the same day, do one then wait about a week and do the other.

Good Luck,

mike

If you can smell a putrid odor coming from the drainage it is most likely Infectious Coryza, if that is the case, you need to put them down immediately and disinfect everything they have come in contact with with bleach and water. Look on the www and see if the symptoms match.

The eye and conjunctiva are infected. That is not in dispute. Perhaps there is a respiratory infection as well. Before lab work, begin treating with antibiosis empirically now.
For the record, never ever ever put regular household hydrogen peroxide (3%) in any animal's eye. It will burn off all corneal epithelium, down to bowman's layer, and leave it susceptible to the worst opportunistic microbes available. Then you can wind up with a corneal ulcer and blindness. True for humans too.
For now, and speaking only for the eye, apply polysporin, neosporin, erythromycin or bacitracin antibiotic ointment to the affected eye 3 times a day. This can be over-the-counter ointment. It will say not for use in eyes. Use it anyway. Trust me...I'm an eye doc, you can use it.

Brian

I would not put off lab work. In my opinion this is just not some bacterial thing. You can treat the bird, but definately get them tested. You have just brought something on to your property that may never leave.

You need to find out exactly what it is to either decide to cull or treat the animals since you have chicks on the way.

You do not have to cull your animal at this point. I believe they can test for IB, ILT and coryza with a swab, or they could also just take blood.

As pointed out in other threads most chicken viruses are herpes type viruses, they are there for the life of the bird. Herpes does not go away.

I agree that you should have your bird tested before you start randomly treating it with antibiotics. You really have no idea unless you have experienced these things first hand exactly what bacteria or other problems are now in your flock. You also may cause resistance to antibiotics if you give them and they are not the correct meds needed.

I do not treat chickens with respiratory infections.

If it were mine and I knew it was a respiratory problem I would take the bird to a lab and have a necropsy done.

flush the eye gently with sterile water..see how it looks..
apply the ointment, as Brian suggested, or antibiotic eye drops.(human kind ok, if you have any)

I'd go for the Tylan 200..
it's available in most farm/feed/livestock stores.
if you are unable to get the Tylan 200, there is Tylan 50..but the amount you'll need will be different.
you'll need syringes (the smallest you can find..1cc if possible), and 25 gauge needles.

best to have a test done..
and if this is CRD..or IB, or ILT...survivors become carriers.

it's possible this is just an eye infection from injury..this bird looks like she's been pecked.
if no other symptoms the eye treatment might be enough.

observe closely for other symptoms..
swollen wattles
wheezing/gurgling/rattling
mucus from beak

please describe the color of the diarrhea.
are they eating and drinking?

they could probably use some vitamins and extra protein, but will wait for droppings description.

You can get the terramycin in an ointment form at some feed stores with the other antibiotics. wish I would have bought it the other day when I saw it. It might actually be a better form of the tetracyclene than the powder form. I have never used Tylan personally so I don't recommend it for that reason only. I would try it if I could find it.

I have dealt with ILT and IB and it is not a death sentence per se. there is some mortality with ILT and IB. If you treat with antibiotics and vaccinate as I have discribe above you can get it under control and keep it under control.

mike

P.S.
there is not a blood test that can detect ILT or IB, a necropsy is the only way to definitely diagnose.