Bulging eye in chick

[our3boys]

I have a 1 week old chick that I noticed today has a bulging eye. She has always been a little weaker than the other chicks, but eats and drinks well and is growing. The chick has always held this eye lid close, but would open it wide at times. Today the eye is bulging out. No drainage. It does not look like a different color than the other eye. Any suggestions what may be wrong?

They are not around any chickens. All hatched at the same time. Inside in a brooder.

 

[chooks4life]

A picture may help, but offhand it sounds like perhaps there is pressure inside the skull. Maybe it's got some variation on cross beak style deformity which causes the skull itself to be twisted or grow with one side faster growing than the other... If the chick can't close its eyelid over the eye it will eventually lose it. In the meanwhile it will be painful and impact its growth, probably. If you think it's swelling of the eyeball itself, you can keep bathing it regularly in something like perhaps mild saline solution and see if it will shrink back down, but a duct may be blocked and the chick may lose its eye. The other chicks may start pecking at the anomaly so if you see anything like that it may be best to remove it, but if at all possible give it a section of the main brooder to itself, with seethrough walls, so it can continue to see them and hear them.

Best wishes.