8 day old Duckling won't open eye

[Neverglow]

Hi All,

This is my first post to the forums. My little boy decided about a month and a half ago, he would bring an egg home from the duck ponds near our house without our knowledge. He's 4. Needless to say, we bought an incubator and hatched this cute Crested Duck.

Today I noticed it's left eye isn't open. It's a little gooey, but not much. I can open it and see the eye, but I don't want to hurt the poor little thing. I only found one thread here on an eye not opening and didn't think it applied to this situation very well.

You can see it's clearly trying to wash it out in it's water bowl as that side is wet and the other isn't.

Needless to say, any advice would be happily received.

Thank you,
Mathew~

 

[Eleanor C]

My chicks had an eye infection and someone advised me to wash it out with saline and that helped

 

[Neverglow]

My chicks had an eye infection and someone advised me to wash it out with saline and that helped

I can definitely start with that.

 

[chickens really]

Ducklings need water deep enough to duck their whole heads in and clean their nares and eyes...What are you feeding that baby???...

 

[Neverglow]

Ducklings need water deep enough to duck their whole heads in and clean their nares and eyes...What are you feeding that baby???...

We're feeding it (I say it, I don't know the sex yet) starter feed, non-medicated. We got it at our local feed shop.
She definitely has water deep enough. We've even let it swim here and there (always supervised) in an empty fish tank I have!

We wiped her down a bit earlier and it'll open here and there, but it's still very shut most of the time.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You have a 4 yr old could the duckling gotten poked in the eye? ducklings are pretty fragile and can't take rough handling. Not saying you'd intentionally let your child be rough but young children can be rough with out meaning to be. You can also try and find some Terramycin eye ointment some feed stores carry it and use that on the eye.

I am giving this link to you valuable info and some things you need for a healthy duckling, like supplementing with niacin is very important.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings.750869/