Blue eye all of the sudden

[BarbuDeWatermaelLover]

Today I suddenly noticed my chicken Fauna has one blue eye.

Fauna is a Chabo hen that's close to celebrating her 10th birthday. She has never been sick except a few years ago shes had an ear infection and in juli she had a nasty chronic conjunctivitis on both eyes. She also developed dyspnea over the years, a chronic bad kind of breathing that gets worse on some days. The vet couldn't diagnose it, doesnt know what it is. She also crows like a rooster sometimes and fights my little rooster.

The eye works normally, she looks at me with it and the pupil dilates in the dark. She's eating normally and was recently moulting. Nothing out of the ordinary for an elderly lady.

Has anyone seen this? I don't think it's mareks because why would it appear after 10 years?

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I do think this is ocular marek's as it does cause a graying of the iris. Marek's can occur at any point in a chicken's life starting from 3-4 weeks and beyond but is most common between 12-30 weeks old. Here's my source for that.

 

[BarbuDeWatermaelLover]

Thanks for your reply! I guess we will find out if it's truely Mareks in the next few weeks... If it's that she will become blind probably. I only added vaccinated chickens to my coop, she is too. I hoped I wouldnt ever see Mareks again, but I am already so proud she almost made it to 10.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

10 is a very impressive age! If she does end up blind, they are very resilient. I've got a partially blind hen myself and she is thriving.

 

[BarbuDeWatermaelLover]

She still hasn't become blind. But the blue is still there with a normal pupil mechanism.

I got the chance to ask an avian veterinary professional who said it can be an intra ocular abcess or another type of infection in the eye. She said the chronic conjunctivitis of this summer is a possibility too. Fauna keeps on thriving and even fighting my little rooster for the first bite of meal worms (even though they're scattered around lol). So I'll let it be.