2-wk old chick with weepy eyes

[bantiesrule]

My little chick has weepy eyes that keep drying shut. I take a warm wet paper towel and wipe it but next time I check on it, it's dried shut again. There doesn't seem to be any swelling or pus just clear liguid. After I wipe them out, he eats and drinks and shortly after that sits with his eyes closed almost like it hurts to leave them open.
This chick is from eggs that a broody hatched out and they are free ranging. There have been no new chickens added to the flock (other than chicks they hatched out) for over 6 months. Any thing else I can add to help, just let me know.

 

[bantiesrule]

Any ideas to help the poor little thing? Anything I can put on to keep them from drying shut again?
He follows after mom except when another cluck comes by and he gets confused and lost. Poor baby.

 

[johnkang]

tylan 200, good for use as a eye drop, and for very sick bird.

 

[threehorses]

I wouldn't recommend the Tylan orally quite yet but as an eye drop, it could work. Clean drainage, crusting of the eyes - those are signs of a vitamin A deficiency. I would rule that out by putting the chick up (with another buddy) and giving her 2 drops of Enfamil PolyViSol in her beak daily for a week then tapering off.

Also, it's very important that these babies still receive a starter or starter grower (which ever is appropriate for their age) as their diet. They really need good nutrition to keep illness from happening. I'd rather see a hen eat starter/grower with her babies than the babies eat laying feed. Be sure to provide her free choice oyster shell just in case.

You should keep cleaning the eye. Personally, I like using diluted VetRx for cases like this in case a respiratory problem is starting. You use q-tips dipped in a mixture of VetRx and very warm water. Use a different q-tip end for each spot, a different q-tip for each bird. Swab the nares, swab the opening in the roof of the mouth, swab under the tear ducts - that helps clear up congestion in the ducts so that they drain well.

Because this is draining into her digestive tract (through the roof of her mouth), you will also want to give this baby and her buddy yogurt daily - 1/2 teaspoon for two little chicks (unless you decide to medicate with a -mycin or -cycline).

If you treat with Tylan, I would still recommend the Vitamin A (through Enfamil) supplementation highly because of the clear drainage. Also because of our lack of information on diet, etc and particularly because she's free range which brings nutrition into question. Vitamin A, unfortunately, is usually one of the first nutrients to degrade from even a well designed feed. They put excess amounts in to cover for usual degradation during storage. But if the food is in the light, stored in anything other than dark cool air-tight containers, then A is at risk of going away.

It would help, as well, if you could answer the questions in the second sticky of the forum - but into here - to give us a better idea of diet, etc.

In the mean time, I'd check your feed and make sure it's appropriate, the feeder is in a shadey area, and possibly supplement the entire baby group in case they're deficient, or in case they're fighting some respiratory illness and not showing symptoms yet.

 

[bantiesrule]

I have chick starter available to them at all times. I just bought a new bag, I was wondering if there might have been something in it to cause this problem. Our fed store in town doesn't cater to chickens a whole lot and I was in a neighboring town so I stopped at their feed store and picked up Purina chick starter. About the only thing our feed store has for medication is terramycin powder and I already put some of that in their water yesterday. What is Enfamil PolyViSol? Enfamil is baby formula, is this the same thing? I'll call the vet and see if they have VetRx.
I should also tell you, I have OEGB and Seramas so the chicks are quite tiny. There was also 2 more this morning with watery eyes, they aren't as bad as the first one but I'd like to nip this in the bud before it gets any farther.
Thanks so very much for the help. I didn't even think vitamins, I was just thinking some kind of infection but didn't know because it wasn't pusy.

 

[threehorses]

The vet won't have VetRx as it's not something a vet would have. Feed stores have it, TSC carries it. If you can't find it, an almost identical product is Marshal Pets Petter Rabbit RX from Petco/Petsmart or petstores - call before you drive out.

Enfamil's PolyViSol is a soluable vitamin liquid. You'll find it in the vitamin section of most Walmarts, etc. Non-iron fortified, please. The iron fortified says "Iron-fortified" on the box - avoid it.

On the terramycin, if you use it, please make sure you're giving the treatment dose correctly - not to little. There are sometimes two dosages per package. Can you tell us what the name of your Terramycin is? If you use it, we want you to have the right dosage so that you won't be stuck never being able to use it again.

I'm glad you switched food. Slow turnover is likely to cause vitamin degradation. They're made to store for a certain period of time, but the longer they store - the worse they are nutritionally. I use my nose to smell how fresh.

Purina's an awesome product anyway - you should be happy with it.

I hope it was only vitamins, but maybe if it's one of the bacterias that terramycin handles (it doesn't handle all) maybe the illness is still weak enough that it will actually work.

Let us know how it goes, will you please?

 

[bantiesrule]

Would any liquid vitamin work? Any of the stores you are talking about are all over a hour drive away. They might have liquid baby vitamins in the grocery store.

 

[bantiesrule]

The terramycin I have is from Pfizer and it is a 6.4 oz. bag. It states 400-800 mg/gal. I really don't know how to measure out mg. Would you know how many teaspoons or whatever common measurement that would be?

 

[threehorses]

Well first off, I'd check the expiration date; Pfizer is no longer making that product so we don't know how old it is.

I found the manufacturing information on drugs.com (I need the number of grams per package - is it 10 grams per package?)

If so - 10 grams / 6.4 ounces = 10,000 mg/6.4 ounces

There are one 12.5 800mg dosages for one bag. (10,000mg/800mg = 12.5)
There are 20 500mg dosages for one bag (10,000/500 = 20)

6.4 ounces/20 = 0.32 ounces per serving at 500mg

0.32 ounces = 1.92 teaspoons. Since you can go up from the 500mg dosage, I'd do 2 level kitchen measuring spoon teaspoons per gallon of water.

That should be their sole source of drinking water daily - keep out of light if possible. Replace fresh daily. Do no less than 7 days, no more than 14. 10 is a good medium. Do NOT stop the medicines if you see the symptoms decrease - that means the meds are working and you should continue them.

If you see no cessation in symptoms after 48 hours, they say this:
"If improvement is not noted within 24-48 hours, consult a poultry diagnostic laboratory or poultry pathologist to determine diagnosis and advice on dosage." I'd go 48, not 24. That does not mean to stop medication - it means to check with maybe the local ag college to see if your dosage is too low.

Unfortunately these measurements are done in dry weight. But there's room both ways to keep the dosage in the right range to avoid problems with resistance. So you should be good.


Note: If you have a postal scale, it's a better source of measure. 0.32 ounces = 9.07 grams.

DO NOT USE yogurt with this - or milk products.

Because of the length of treatment, however, you MUST use some sort of probiotic. I recommend acidophilis capsules from the vitamin section of walmart, the grocery store, pharmacies, etc. Or Probios dispersible powder from the feed store. Acidophilis = 1 capsule or tablet's contents per bird per day (empty the capsule, crush the tablet). Mix in a quickly eaten treat like cooked egg yolk (1 teaspoon), applesauce, or cooked oatmeal - whatever they'll eat quickly that is a little sticky. Do every day of medicating, and then ever other day for 2 weeks thereafter to replace the good bacteria in the gut that are unfortunately going to be killed in some part with the bad bacteria you're treating.

 

[bantiesrule]

I think I'll just skip the terramycin and try the vitamin route instead. They only had terramycin for a day and a half, do I have to wait a while before giving them yogurt? I gave them fresh water tonight.
And , again, thank you for all the info!