Eye Worm, Marek's, Mycoplasma... Cannot figure this swollen eye out.

[TheLittleGarden]

My white cochin pullet has one swollen eye. No other symptoms. Eats, drinks, poops normally. Is active and alert. No discharge. A couple times I have thought she is doing the mouth breathing thing, but most of the time she is breathing normally. This is her second day on electrolytes, probiotics and antibiotics (oxytetracycline). I noticed her eye getting quite red about 2 weeks ago, but thought nothing of it because she was at the eye she would begin to redden out. She is separated from our other pullets. No one else is showing any symptoms of anything yet, fingers crossed.

She sometimes rests that eye a bit, but not often. She closed it, as to be expected, when I tried to touch it and look closer, but it didn't seem to hurt her. Other than being restless from her isolation and a giant swollen eye, she seems perfectly fine!

But, even though there are no other symptoms, I think this must be mycoplasma, Marek's or Eye Worm (what I am thinking).

Any thoughts would be really appreciated!


Swollen eye...



Her standing in my garden... no dropped wings, alert and active...





Her "healthy" eye...

 

[dawg53]

You can see eyeworms in the eye. Birds with eyeworm continually scratch their eye. It's the scratching that will cause them to go blind.
CRD aka mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) shows other symptoms, not just a swollen eye. There would be bubbles in her eyes, nasal discharge, sneezing, wheezing, gurgling and so on.
I doubt it's ocular marek's or marek's in general, there would possibly be other symptoms.
She might have been pecked in the eye by another chicken or might have dirt or debris in her eye. You can liberally flush the eye with saline solution, then put terramycin eye ointment in her eye (neosporin in a pinch) for several days and see if there's improvement. If not, you might have to consider giving her amoxicillin if she has been pecked in the eye.

 

[TheLittleGarden]

It's eye worms. With two people holding her down, we were able to move her eyelid up a bit. About 20 minutes later, it was clearly visible across her eye - white worm with little barely visible legs. We did the recommended treatment using VetRX - pushing it up on her palette, but no puss came out. She is so hugely swollen. Any advice now that we have a diagnosis would be wonderful! Is this something that a vet really needs to take care of, if I can even find a vet for her?

 

[seminolewind]

Wow. I don't think I've ever heard about eye worm. I would think that Dawg53 would know if a wormer can get rid of eye worms. Vet RX is not really an antibiotic of any kind. And maybe a warm wet compress on her eye several times a day can help. And antibiotic ointment.

 

[dawg53]

It's eye worms. With two people holding her down, we were able to move her eyelid up a bit. About 20 minutes later, it was clearly visible across her eye - white worm with little barely visible legs. We did the recommended treatment using VetRX - pushing it up on her palette, but no puss came out. She is so hugely swollen. Any advice now that we have a diagnosis would be wonderful! Is this something that a vet really needs to take care of, if I can even find a vet for her?

Eyeworm do not have legs. They are white in color, thin, no more than 1/8th inch long.

 

[dawg53]

Treatment for eyeworm is as follows:
Purchase Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer. Mix equal parts of water and valbazen, liberally flush the eye. Then use a syringe without a needle and dose the infected bird 1/2cc valbazen orally undiluted, repeat dosing orally in 10 days. If in fact it's eyeworms, you will have to dose the rest of your birds. Your soil will be contaminated with worm eggs. You will have to set up a regular worming schedule to worm all your birds to prevent them from contracting worms.
http://www.wholesalekennel.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=29
http://www.jefferspet.com/valbazen/camid/LIV/cp/16387/

 

[seminolewind]

I would investigate further if Vetricyn is that stuff that contains bleach.

Error: VetRX was mentioned and I am not familiar with that product. Sorry!

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is a link about a study done on eye worm where albendazole (Valbazen) was used twice a day in the eye for 3 days, along with a one time oral doses: http://jivaonline.net/admin/upload/pdf_139.pdf

 

[MistyMountain]

I have the same thing going on right now with one of my chickens. NO other symptoms. Her eye is clear and open, just swollen around the outside. It is soft (water filled it seems) not firm. I can not keep her still enough to look inside, but normal area of her eye is clear. It is not as swollen as the bird pictured above, and seems to have gone down the past day. I hope this is just an injury or bug bite!

 

[TheLittleGarden]

Unfortunately, we believe she had ocular mareks. It became clear it was a tumor and we had to put her down yesterday. She was eating, drinking, behaving incredibly normally, but the tumor was growing daily, she obviously could not see of the eye and was beginning to scratch it. I felt terrible. We have had to put sick chickens down before, but I always knew it was time and they were in pain. With Magnolia, she seemed fairly normal aside from her face being so terribly swollen. But I think chickens sometimes hide pain well. She was not going to improve and I couldn't stand her being by herself and possibly being in terrible pain. It was time.

MistyMountain - hoping for a better outcome for your chick! Mags never went down - just kept growing. So sounds like you may be dealing with a more simple injury or bite.