Ailing wee Pea

[casportpony]

Modified eye picture with arrow pointing to injury:

 

[KsKingBee]

We use trip. antibiotic ophthalmic ointment. Neomycin, Polymyxin B and Bacitracin called "Vetropolycin", may be the same as Terramycin Opthalmic, just marketed for dogs and cats versus poultry???

About a year and a half ago DW had some cocks get into it and one had some pretty bad damage to the eye. She posted to our Consolidated Kansas group on BYC and they told her about Neosporin, so in a pinch that is what we had on hand and used it. She then used it on a lot of chicken wounds until it was gone.

The tube we have been using lately for eyes is an Equate product called Triple Antibiotic. It has Neomycin Sulfate and Polymyxin B Sulfate and Bacitracin. Both products have worked for us although I am sure that a product made for eyes would be more appropiate.

@Garden Peas mentioned in the Show Off Your Peas thread that her little hen had been hiding in the coop during the day so it has been pecked on for more than a day. The poor thing was hiding from the other peas picking on it.

 

[DylansMom]

What worries me is that the little hen seems very light for her age.

-Kathy

Considering the details of what was going on when the eye problem was discovered, I'm wondering if this girl isn't at the bottom of the pecking order. She may have been suffering some abuse from the dominant birds for awhile now without the severity being known. If they have been chasing her from the food and otherwise stressing her she may be underweight as a result. The poo certainly looked healthy. If it were me I would feed her well and track her weight while treating the eye. And if possible return her to an outside pen by herself and slowly move the other Peas in with her(not her in with them), one by one, if possible, I know we don't always have extra pens to do this though.

 

[zazouse]

Modified eye picture with arrow pointing to injury:

I did a quick fix to clear the photo a bit, looks like an injury to me.

 

[DylansMom]

About a year and a half ago DW had some cocks get into it and one had some pretty bad damage to the eye. She posted to our Consolidated Kansas group on BYC and they told her about Neosporin, so in a pinch that is what we had on hand and used it. She then used it on a lot of chicken wounds until it was gone.

The tube we have been using lately for eyes is an Equate product called Triple Antibiotic. It has Neomycin Sulfate and Polymyxin B Sulfate and Bacitracin. Both products have worked for us although I am sure that a product made for eyes would be more appropiate.

@Garden Peas mentioned in the Show Off Your Peas thread that her little hen had been hiding in the coop during the day so it has been pecked on for more than a day. The poor thing was hiding from the other peas picking on it.

Agreed and we were both writing at the same time again!

 

[KsKingBee]

Agreed and we were both writing at the same time again!

 

[casportpony]

I'm not saying that this pea should continue to be treated with Baytril, but Baytril is a great antibacterial for the eye, so treating her with it was not a bad thing. If she were mine I would keep here separated, weigh her daily, apply ointment or drops and keep a close eye on her. If keeping her isolated is too stressful, I would find a buddy for, but keep an eye one the two because that injured eye might as well have a target on it.

-Kathy

 

[thndrdancr]

Poor thing. I wonder since that one hen has been laying if that has mixed the dynamics up a bit. My normally sweet bs hen gets mean as a harridan when she is laying or about to go broody. Confuses everyone!

 

[Garden Peas]

Wow, lots of posts to go through this evening, thanks!

Miss Topaz had a busy day today! She got to go for a ride in the car

in her spiffy new blue carrier. She likes watching things out the window of the car.



Then Miss Topaz got to see the nice avian vet. After another car ride to the vet supply store, she came home and got MORE oral baytril (0.22 ml this time), and some nice opthalmic erythromycin ointment in her eye. Her eye is looking somewhat better. (The goopy stuff in the photo is the ointment.) There is less redness and a reduction in the swelling.



She practiced standing on the cold, slippery scale after she went back to her big dog crate temporary living quarters, but the scale refused to cooperate. We don't know today's weight, but she is eating and drinking.

She is starting to feel better, as you can tell from the way she is standing in this photo:



She's walking around now, rather than standing stock still in a ruffled huddle.

The good news: the vet thinks there is an excellent chance we can save her eye, and although she will likely have impaired vision in it, she is probably still going to have some sight in that eye. The vet thinks the injury had not been there for very long -- maybe a day or so.

The bad news -- it was a fairly significant laceration to the cornea, and the vet thinks it pushed bacteria down underneath. She is trying to keep the internal parts of the eye from rupturing. It also lacerated one of her eyelid membranes. She's a lucky hen to be this okay.

The vet was pleased that Miss Topaz had already had some Baytril, although she thinks a more appropriate dose, hypothetically speaking, would be 15 mg/kg, so 0.22 ml once per day rather than 0.30 ml. She says it's hard on the kidneys. She was especially pleased that Miss Topaz has access to her very own personal supply of Baytril, because she says the FDA considers peas to be poultry, so she cannot prescribe it for them. However, hypothetically speaking, if a peafowl like Miss Topaz had an injury like the one that Miss Topaz unfortunately suffered, that hypothetical peafowl would benefit from having 7 full days of Baytril to help treat the eyeball and the infection that apparently was starting underneath the cornea.

I'll write more about the pen situation in a different post. Thanks so much, everyone! You were all exactly correct, it was a significant laceration, apparently from being pecked in the eye.

 

[Garden Peas]

Terramycin ophthalmic ointment, Here in the USA its available at TSC usually. Its sorta pricey at ~ $15 for a couple of grams, but it works. While you've got her separated, if she were mine I would put a couple of teaspoons of acv/liter in her water.

Everybody- You really need to stop using baytril as a cure all. It will cause it to lose its efficiency. Baytril is a heavy duty drug, not an all purpose booster.

Terramycin opthalmic ointment is good stuff. I've used it on horses before, and I have no doubt it cured whatever was in Zaz's eye.

My understanding is that for prescribing purposes, the eye ointments have to be the opthalmic versions. However, I think that regular neosporin would even go into my own eye if I had a crisis and couldn't get the "real" stuff. But yes, the others are formulated specifically for eyes, and safer to use in the eyes, and priced accordingly.

The Walmart triple antibiotic ointment is essentially generic neosporin ointment. We have completely stopped using the ointment version, however, and are only using the vanishing cream formula on humans any more, because we seem to get better results... it seems to penetrate the skin a little better. The ointment just sits on top. But the cream (which only has two antibiotics in it) can't be used on peas, I don't believe, because it also has that pain relief stuff in it.

Not sure who "everybody" is who's supposedly using baytril as a "cure all" or an "all purpose booster." I've had peas going on four years now and this is the very first time I have ever broken it out and used it. I'm glad I did... it looks like that may have saved this hen's eye, and helped her retain some sight in it, as well as helped her keep her eyeball.

We get posts here about the sickest of the sick peas, often from people who have already tried desperately to cure them, and who don't know what to do. I have not noticed a pattern of recommendations for indiscriminant use of antibiotics, including Baytril. I get a lot more concerned about routine use of various antibiotics in livestock feeds to boost weight gain than some poor pea-brain or chicken owner making a last ditch effort to save a beloved pet. Seems to me this is one of those areas where walking a mile in somebody else's shoes and having empathy for their efforts might go the farthest towards education and responsible care.