3 yo hen wont open left eye and neck is drooping - WITH VIDEO

[tamtam84]

This morning my husband let the chickens out around 6 am and he said everyone was ok. I went out around 9:30 and my almost 3 yo speckled sussex (named Tubs) was sitting in the corner and looking very lethargic. I brought her inside to inspect.

She will not open her left eye at all. It looks normal to me, no discharge or gunk or wound like it was pecked. But more troubling than that is she will just stand there and her neck either droops straight down or she pulls it back to one side almost like she is falling asleep.

I had a hen pass away (almost 3 yo easter egger named Cleo) yesterday after I believe an egg had broken inside her and I think she had sour crop as well. Her symptoms are nothing like Tubs's, so that makes me think it's nothing contagious, but I'm not sure.

For the past 3 days my rooster has had a rattling noise in his chest and he has been sneezing. His crows sound really low and different from normal. Not sure if there's some type of respiratory thing going around my flock? I'm freaking out.

Only other thing I can think of is for the past week I've been putting vitamins/electrolytes in their water since it has been over 100 degrees for like 10 days straight. Is it possible I overdosed them with vitamins? I think I may have been putting too much in their water.

Here is a video of what Tubs looked like this morning when I brought her in. She is now quarantined inside away from everyone else and in the A/C so she stays cool. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!


**You may have to click on the link to watch it on YouTube...for some reason it cut off the right side of the video when I pasted the link.

 

[tamtam84]

Update 5:00pm - My husband gave me updates throughout the day and said she was getting slightly better. I just got home to check on her and she is MUCH more lively. I put her food in front of her and she started pecking at it like crazy. She is walking around and her head is not drooping anymore, but her eye is still shut. She opens it slightly for a few moments then shuts it again, almost like it hurts or something. I guess it is possible that she got pecked in the eyeball. But that doesn't explain the droopy head this morning.

Since it's so hot out I'm going to keep her inside overnight so I don't shock her system by putting her back into the heat and just pray that she makes it til morning. If so, I think she has a good shot at recovering. She's a pretty tough ol' bird, so I think she can pull through

 

[tamtam84]

Tubs made it through the night! She got better throughout the day today and now has her eye open most of the time. She isn't drooping her head at all anymore and seems just about back to normal. She gave me a good scare, though.

 

[Battlechicken]

Hi I also replied to the thread I started...Sounds like maybe a minor eye injury that both of our hens had? I'm thinking they act all weird because they can't get around that good with only one eye...mine would cock her head to the side and look at me all crazy with her "good" eye...who knows!?!?!

 

[tamtam84]

Yep, I'm thinking exactly what you said. It was probably a minor injury and was hard for her to get around with only one good eye. My husband thought maybe she was in pain from whatever happened to her so that's why she was just standing there and drooping her head. It makes me so sad to think that!

But whatever happened, she seems almost back to normal now. Yesterday she was still keeping her eye closed a little bit, but this morning when I let them all out of the coop she was running around with both eyes open. I think in a few days she'll be as good as new. I hope so anyway!

How is your hen doing? Any better today?

 

[Battlechicken]

Yeah mine seems completely normal now! Thank goodness!

 

[tamtam84]

Oh good! So happy to hear that.

 

[tamtam84]

Just wanted to update to say that Tubs is back to normal now! She's actually been good for the past few days. She's not closing her eye anymore and is keeping them both open all the time like normal and laying eggs. Now I'm pretty sure she just got pecked in the eyeball and needed some time to heal. So glad that's all it was because I was really freaking out!

 

[Nonnie195]

I did not notice any problem yesterday or this morning, but this afternoon, I noticed that one of my hen's left eye is only partially opening. I have read several posts. Some say sickness, other say it could be eye worms and they used Neosporin, gentamycin eye drops, or terramycin ointment. My sweetie has been sitting on five eggs since Saturday and it has been a pain to try to get her to eat, drink and poop. She ate better this morning and then hurried off outside. My rooster kept trying to chase her so I suppose he could have pocked her in her eye, but I don't want to wait too long if I need to treat it. Did you do anything specific to the eye such as a wet cotton ball or medicine?

 

[tamtam84]

@Nonnie195 - It sounds to me like your hen may have gotten pecked while sitting on her nest. When hens are broody, sometimes others can peck at them if they want to get onto the nest. So I bet someone pecked her. I didn't do anything at all to my girls eye and she just healed up on her own. I did separate her until she got more energetic and seemed fine, but that's it. If your girl is acting really lethargic and not moving much I'd separate her, but if she is acting like normal other than not opening her eye I think she will be fine in a few days. However if she is broody she will be acting different as a result of that. I'd just monitor her eye over the next few days and make sure there's no discharge, funny smell, or anything else abnormal.

Good luck!