7 Week old chick has wierd shaped pupiles

[pwand]

I have a 7 week old chicken that I noticed her pupiles are not round, they are oddly shaped. I was looking another baby over and she seems to have one that seems somewhat off. The one that is very noticeable, when I got her as a baby chick she would spin in circles. yesturday I finally got them outside. She started going around in circles. When she calmed down she was fine. Can having odd shaped pupils be normal.

 

[Mandalina]

I would bet she has limited sight.

 

[pwand]

I'm not to sure about her vision yet. Here pictures of what her eyes look like.

 

[Mandalina]

pretty girl, but those are deffinately not normal. spinning usually indicates blindness of some degree.

 

[LindsayB]

Not at all trying to scare you or anything...But was she vaccinated for Marek's Disease? I have recently been reading up on it bc I was unsure if one of my girls has it. One of the things it states is that the iris turns grey and they can slowly go blind. I would research it or maybe someone else can chime in with some more info.

 

[pwand]

I tried to order chicks that were vacinated and was not able to get them done. Now I exposed my older hens to the babies yesturday and today. I had put a run next to theirs. I wonder what I may be dealing with now and the other four chicks. I had two chicks that their toes went crocked on each side. This batch doesn't seem as healthy as my past chickens.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

I dont believe its mareks as the OP suggested this has been going on since she got the chick at a day or a few days old...If it had had mareks at that age it would have long been dead. Though eye issues are a common thing with mareks, it was how I had discovered it in my old flock of birds I had to cull last year. But when their eyes got funny looking there was also swelling by the eye and on the head as well, also bubbly looking mucus in the effected eye.

I agree that the spinning in circles is one of two signs : blindness in one eye, or brain damage. Slow walking, stumbling, doing the spinning only when excited or everytime you pick up and put down definately makes me think of brain damage...Spinning occassionally, alot of head tilting, or spinning at noises makes me think
blindness as the chicken would be trying to quickly get a glimpse of whats around it.

good luck with this bird! if it is blind or even brain damaged if its survived at this age, I wouldnt see why it wouldnt have a happy life. I've seen and heard of completely blind birds living a few years and also I've kept my own duck and rooster that had brain traumas before and the duck lived 2 yrs the rooster lived 4 yrs before I culled because of the aforementioned marek's outbreak I had last year.

you said you got these chicks directly from a hatchery after hatching? and they've only been on your land/property since? I seriously doubt mareks unless you've recently come in contact with a sick bird yourself and spread it to not only the pullets but your other chickens as well, but if the spinning and eye issue have been around awhile, again i can't see it being a symptom of mareks.

 

[LindsayB]

last night i posted a thread about my production red not acting right and someone thought it could be marek's. They attached links about it and they were very helpful. One link was to a previous byc post and they had the photos of what the eyes look like. If you go back to page 3 in the emergencies/diseases index you can find my post and get the link from it. I hope I'm wrong about it being Marek's though

 

[pwand]

The spinning around in cirlces was from the very beginning, the eyes I just noticed today, however I really haven't been looking at their eyes that closely until I just happened to notice it was odd. I suppose maybe she has been that way from the beginning were she just gotten bigger it became more noticable. I sure hope its not mareks disease. I haven't dealt with this before.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

hm.... OKAY, so is this bird or any of your birds exhibiting any of these symptoms:
Swelling of the eye or head area
issues with walking
issues jumping and landing or roosting
toes or feet bent/crooked?
stiff legs
poor feather condition
bubbly eyes
runny poop

these issues by themselves could be anything, but they are all listed as signs of mareks and other diseases...Dont want to scare you, but again I personally after having had a flock outbreak of the disease don't think its mareks. It is treatable but not curable, as the 'carriers' will potentially spread it to every other bird they come in contact with. So I myself went with my state vet's opinion and culled my flock because I was keeping most of the birds as breeders and I had neighbor's with poultry and fowl so I just made the hard decision that was best in the long run and culled my flock.