3 week chick closing one eye

[iclairedonaldson]

Hello everyone,
Ive got a chick who up until yesterday evening was acting normal, and lively. But now I've noticed shes got one eye closed and doesn't seem very active at all. She's also been trilling pretty consistently in a way that makes me nervous, and doesn't seem able or interested in food or water.
my hope is she scratched her eye and needs time to heal, but nothing has changed overnight so I'm quite concerned. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thank you!

 

[KiwiandPeachthePigeons]

Hmmm... Trilling usually means that they are content or relaxed. My chicks do this when I hold them and when they are sunbathing, including the eye closed thing and I've never be worried. But not eating or drinking definitely isn't normal.

 

[iclairedonaldson]

Update: chick is opening her eye and back to normal. In case anyone is looking for comparative experiences, in this case I believe she must have injured her eye (they had been outside so it's possible she scratched it or something, not sure) and the behavior was the result of her being disoriented and probably in pain. I've scratched a cornea before and can empathize with the pain, it's very uncomfortable.
Her trilling seemed more like a kind of whiny trill, which is why I was concerned. I'm not sure how to explain the noise. But I decided to let her sleep and heal while keeping an eye on things, and in this case it worked out.
The reading a did told me to watch for other respiratory symptoms and or infection in the eye. I was willing to let her sleep things off because I didn't see any of these things.
I did make an attempt at eye drops, but I had a very hard time getting them anywhere near her eye, and the whole process seemed more distressing to her than it was worth. Had I seen signs of infection I probably would have pressed the issue or looked into alternate solutions.
I got lucky this time, and hope this info is helpful to someone doing the desperate Google I did a few nights ago.