4 day old (shipped) chicks BLIND!?

[TwistedTayy]

So I’ll admit I didn’t closely inspect my chicks when they came on Tuesday but they seemed fine and stressed so I made sure they all drank and knew where the food was at least. I have electrolyte water AND normal water in with them. Most were drunk and wobbly with slits for eyes. Yesterday one had made no progress at opening its eyes so I tried a bit of coco oil with a q tip and I made no progress. I just went out to do a check for pasty butt and two had it (a buff and a black silkie) so I worked on that. Decided to give a good once over to the others… (total chicks = 5 fayoumi, 2 buff bantam, 1 buff silkie and 1 black silkie). 2 other chicks had eye issues! The first chick, a fayoumi… I don’t even know if it CAN open its eyes. Iboth eyes and now it’s very weak and looks like it won’t make it. Another fayoumi has one eye partially shut and a buff bantam has one eye sealed like the first chick! Is this contagious?! Did I get a weird batch of chicks? Like wtf?! It’s weird that it’s two different breeds. I’m using the same brooder that I used for my ducklings and geese without issue (sanitized in between) but the only change is that there’s a hardware cloth cover on it (you can see in background of pics)

chick 1 fayoumi

chick 2 fayoumi

chick 3 buff bantam

 

[Eggcessive]

Did you get these chicks from a breeder? If so, my guess is that they came with a possible respiratory disease, mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG, crd.) Symptoms are swollen eyelids, bubbles and crusty sticky drainage from eyes, and conjunctivitis. Tylosin is one of several antibiotics that treat symptoms, but it is a lifelong disease. Have you contacted the seller? This is not a good way to start out with chicks, but if you already have chickens, do not add them to your flock. If you lose any, contact your state vet and ask for a necropsy on 2 or 3 to get a diagnosis.