Foam in one eye - only one bird

[MrsBrooke]

Poopy butts can be a sign of worms, yes. Valbazen or Safe Guard are my picks for wormers and can be used in a twice-yearly, preventative rotation. It's a good idea to worm between Summer and Fall to get them "ready" for a molt and again sometime in Spring as the weather starts to nice-up and get warmer.

I had a chicken with an eye peck/scratch. It was bubbly, turned crusty around the edges and really kinda alarming. It was my first "medical emergency" with chickens.



It started like this ^. You can see the bruising under her eye on the lid.



Then it got worse ^.




Then it started to get better.



And then she opened her eye. <3

I used diluted Tylan drops in her eye along with saline rinse and Neosporin. Looking back on it, I would probably use something geared towards a generic antibiotic as opposed to one that treats respiratory infections, since she didn't have that.

She lost her upper and lower eyelids, but still has the third eyelid, and she's outside blinking up a storm now!

I hope that is all it is for you, too.

MrsB

 

[sphinxface]

I put neosporin in her eye last night and my fiance said it wasn't foamy today but I'm still gonna do it for a while, but only once a day since he doesn't seem to think it's that bad

and I can only do it at night.

I don't think it's wound related, since she has had it for over a month and it hasn't really changed except when she itches off her fluff there. I can try to get a picture of her tonight but she's really feisty (and frankly hard to catch, I took her out of the coop last night since it's easier...).

Can worms affect egg production? I might still get some vitamins for the water, but it would be nice to solve 2 problems in one treatment?

 

[MrsBrooke]

Have you checked her for mites and lice around her ears? If she's constantly scratching, that could be a cause.

Yes, worms can affect many things including egg production.

MrsB

 

[sphinxface]

Have you checked her for mites and lice around her ears? If she's constantly scratching, that could be a cause.

Yes, worms can affect many things including egg production.

MrsB

I got my fiance looking out for the goat wormer at the store we buy our food. I haven't checked thoroughly for mites, it might explain why her face got better after feeding her some food dusted with DE if it splashed up and got on her feathers, but would itching cause her eye to produce foam?

 

[sphinxface]

I also have another random question about worms, do they live in the dirt? I turn over rocks for them a lot and am noticing a lot more small worms there than I ever remember seeing before.. but I don't know if that is possible XD I don't actually see any worms in their poop

 

[MrsBrooke]

The worms you are seeing might be carriers for intestinal parasites, but tapeworms, roundworms, gapes, etc don't just "live in the dirt." I know insects are the largest host body for various life stages of parasites (the eggs, mostly)... Since chickens often eat insects, they are at high risk for worms. Chickens shed the eggs, insects eat the eggs, chicken eats the insect, worm hatches inside chicken, chicken sheds eggs... So on and so forth. That's a little rudimentary and probably not very accurate, but you get the idea.

It's why worming twice a year with a rotating wormer arsenal is a really good idea. They are easier to prevent than to treat.

MrsB

 

[sphinxface]

Alright, got some pics of her eye (it's really hard to get pics of a fidgety chicken but I did it!) first is her good eye, then her bad one which she's itched all the fluff off of again, and it's goopy with neosporin. I suppose an infection in her eyelid or something could make sense since it's only in one eye? But do infections like that make the tear ducts foamy?

 

[MrsBrooke]

Alright, got some pics of her eye (it's really hard to get pics of a fidgety chicken but I did it!) first is her good eye, then her bad one which she's itched all the fluff off of again, and it's goopy with neosporin. I suppose an infection in her eyelid or something could make sense since it's only in one eye? But do infections like that make the tear ducts foamy?

Oh, yes. My chicken from my previous post had the bubbly eye and it continued for a few days into the treatment until the meds started to work.

You're still not hearing any wheezing, sneezing, coughing or seeing discharge from her nostrils?

I just read that Neomycin (I believe I have seen that at Tractor Supply) treats conjunctivitis caused by bacteria. If you decide to get it, let us know what form it's in (liquid/powder) and we'll do our best to help with dosage and application.

MrsB

 

[sphinxface]

I saw the chickens looked a little wet around their nostrils last night? I haven't noticed it before and it was really hard to tell because they move around so much, and also some of the chickens dunk their whole beaks into the water to drink.. I told my fiance to keep an eye out but it's not really something I've seen. It made me think maybe I should dose them all with some antibiotic powder I bought? I will have to look at what it's called when I get home. They also sneeze, but I mostly hear it when their eating, the buff orpington tends to sneeze randomly and it's really cute cause it sounds like a honk <3 but not too much sneezing, it's not a constant thing, and their all full of energy! Either I keep up with the neosporin and see how that goes or just dose them all... IDK it's hard to decide ;(

 

[MrsBrooke]

Neosporin and wait and see.

It's never a good idea to throw antibiotics at your chickens if they don't need it.

MrsB