8 week old chick with milky eyes, very limited vision

[DarkWater1929]

Hello! I have a cuckoo marans hen that hatched two chicks about 8 weeks ago. One of the chicks has always looked smaller, and kind of puny. About a week ago, I noticed that the small chick's eyes are milky and bluish. She has to search to find food and water, often missing. I don't know if her eyes have always been this way, or if this is a developing condition.

Neither mom not sibling show any sign of illness. This chick is energetic, and shows no other sign of trouble, except for the small stature. I have never seen this in my flock before.

Any suggestion as to what could have caused this, and if it can be reversed? All input will be welcomed! Thank you!

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard to find much info on eye disorders in poultry. A couple of old internet links I used to post have long disappeared. The pictures look like cataracts. Many things that can cause eye disorders are vitamin A or E deficiency, ammonia burns from dropping in a coop with poor air circulation, cataracts, injuries, infections, Mareks disease, and exposure to avian encephalomyelitis virus (epidemic tremors) as a baby chick.

 

[Waves]

I envy you your bilingual abilities! I know only one language, and some would say that I am not quite fluent in that one.

Only italian and english studied at school this forum helps me to improve my english [and a lot of stuffs about chickens ]

 

[DarkWater1929]

We had a legbar that had an opaque eye, along with a possibly deformed upper eyelid. This is her around 3 months old:
View attachment 1957696

She must have had something else going on bc she developed what looked to be tumors, first near the good eye, then one the bad eye. We had first thought she had an infection, and tried a multi course treatment, which included using Gentian Violet (at the time of this pic). This is her at 4 months of age:
View attachment 1957698
And the opaque bad eye at the same time as above pic. These tumors developed rapidly.
View attachment 1957697

So no one else in the flock ended up with any tumors or illness, so it may have been a congenital type disease (she was hatched with an opaque eye) or something that was not a contagious illness . We culled her shortly after the above pic. Nothing was helping and clearly tumors were growing, so we didn't think she needed to have her suffering prolonged.

I don't think yours looks quite this bad (the eye opacity), and ours was bale to get around pretty well for the duration of her life, although she did often seem to have moments of hesitation when something occurred in the run on the side of her bad eye, where she couldn't see.

That must have been awful! I am so sorry! I sincerely hope that we won't be headed down that path! I wonder, they say that inbreeding is not really an issue in chickens. I always had my doubts about that. I wonder if it could play a part in either bird's situation. My birds do have some of that, I believe.

 

[Acre4Me]

We had a legbar that had an opaque eye, along with a possibly deformed upper eyelid. This is her around 3 months old:

She must have had something else going on bc she developed what looked to be tumors, first near the good eye, then one the bad eye. We had first thought she had an infection, and tried a multi course treatment, which included using Gentian Violet (at the time of this pic). This is her at 4 months of age:

And the opaque bad eye at the same time as above pic. These tumors developed rapidly.

So no one else in the flock ended up with any tumors or illness, so it may have been a congenital type disease (she was hatched with an opaque eye) or something that was not a contagious illness . We culled her shortly after the above pic. Nothing was helping and clearly tumors were growing, so we didn't think she needed to have her suffering prolonged.

I don't think yours looks quite this bad (the eye opacity), and ours was bale to get around pretty well for the duration of her life, although she did often seem to have moments of hesitation when something occurred in the run on the side of her bad eye, where she couldn't see.

 

[Waves]

oh yes i understand! i had to do a lot of tries to make a picture of my Giada's cataract. They love to pose but hate to show milky eyes, maybe because they can't see much and have fear to be attacked? i don't know
sorry i dindn't want to be unkind, i'm italian and i don't know english very well

 

[DarkWater1929]

That's interesting.
I wonder if she may have been poked in the eye with some wire or something. Oh, are BOTH eyes like that? Possibly genetic, I don't know.
@Eggcessive knows more about various eye conditions, hopefully she will be on soon.

Thank you so much for your time! Yes, both eyes are the same. I have wondered if it could be a deficiency of some sort? Some mineral she doesn't get? Is there a chicken version of scarlet fever, I wonder. I had one chick that was sick, early on. It recovered, and I no longer recall which it was. So many hens had chicks this season... Anyway, thanks again!

 

[DarkWater1929]

oh yes i understand! i had to do a lot of tries to make a picture of my Giada's cataract. They love to pose but hate to show milky eyes, maybe because they can't see much and have fear to be attacked? i don't know
sorry i dindn't want to be unkind, i'm italian and i don't know english very well

Lol! No, I did not take your comment as unkind. Honestly! I am just self conscious about asking for help, and then not providing what is needed to obtain it. I envy you your bilingual abilities! I know only one language, and some would say that I am not quite fluent in that one.

 

[Acre4Me]

That must have been awful! I am so sorry! I sincerely hope that we won't be headed down that path! I wonder, they say that inbreeding is not really an issue in chickens. I always had my doubts about that. I wonder if it could play a part in either bird's situation. My birds do have some of that, I believe.

thanks. We have 2 other Legbars from the same hatch, along with 23 other chicks from same hatch across 9 other breeds. All seem fine, no other tumors or other concerns.

 

[DarkWater1929]

i don't know... i'm giving carrots for example, to Giada, because of the cataract.
but i'm not seeing improvement (...i think in her case it's because she's 6 years old. your case is very different)
Waiting for other answers, i'm very interested!

Has the chick much difficult to eat and drink? she would have a personal place in the coop with food and drink (always in the same place)

Sorry for the long delay! The chick is now an indoor pet. After watching how the other chickens attacked her, the hens with violence, the roosters with lacivious intent, despite her age and small stature, I realized that she needed to be apart. She has a sibling, who is twice her size. They called to one another so urgently, that I brought the sibling in to visit, and discovered the cause of our little girl's stunted growth. Her sister grabbed every morsel of food she got close to, before the little one could manage to find it. The bigger one ignored the other available food completely, focusing instead upon robbing her sibling. The wretched little snot! She was banished at once.

To answer your question, yes, she has trouble, unless the food is in her own pan. She has a skillet full of food, that is always in the same spot. She will stand in it, and have no trouble eating. The same is true of her water. She knows she is in the right place to drink, when her feet are wet. If she is not in her own space, however, as when someone is holding her, she doesn't seem to know enough to aim down, to get food. She smells offerings, I guess, because she knows when there is food handy. But, she stabs forward, into the air, not down to where it is set for her. I have tried holding treats (she loves frozen grapes, cut up) in front of her, but despite my best efforts to put the food where she is pecking, she nearly always misses it. The only solution, short of putting the food in her pan, is to offer a lot of it, on a small dish, spread out so that, wherever she connects, she hits a bit of food. It makes trying to spoil her dismayingly difficult.

She is a bottomless little thing, though! She is always hungry and thirsty, it seems. Making up for plenty of stolen meals.