Can chickens have allergies?

[wemimew]

Hi everyone,

Trying to figure out what is going on with one of my girls and her chronic recurring eye infection in her left eye. Long story short - if she gets down to the run with everyone else she has a massive inflammatory reaction in the left eye and needs surgery to remove the pus pockets that form during treatment from the conjunctiva. None of my other chooks (current or past) have every had this issue and it seems to take about 15 minutes of time down there to set it off. She receives vet treatment and they have ruled out respiratory issues, no evidence of worms, nothing in the sinuses, nose or mouth - just that spot is an issue.

She has been a house chicken since this first started and comes and goes as she pleases, but sneaks down there (or is escorted by the rooster - thanks Potato). I wont keep her isolated from them and want to figure out what the trigger could be so I can remove it. She roams around the whole property with me, dust bathes everywhere with no issues - I find it very strange.

Anybody every experience this before? The vet is stumped on it and an allergic reaction is the only thing I can put this down to - but then again there seems to always be something new that can happen to our girls.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Trying to figure out what is going on with one of my girls and her chronic recurring eye infection in her left eye.

She receives vet treatment and they have ruled out respiratory issues, no evidence of worms, nothing in the sinuses, nose or mouth - just that spot is an issue.

Can you post some photos?
Did the vet send off some swabs or samples for testing?

 

[wemimew]

Can you post some photos?
Did the vet send off some swabs or samples for testing?

The vet does their own micro testing on site and mostly finds inflammatory cells. Last time we had a biopsy done for cancer but it came back negative. Here is a pic of last time. The swollen eye is the first day after exposuren to whatever it is and the one with the lump in the lower lid is the pus ball that needs to be taken out after the reaction.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Where are you located in the world?

If in the US then I would ask the vet to send some samples to your state lab and test for respiratory diseases (Mycoplasma, Infectious Coryza, etc.). Some state labs allow you to send samples directly to them without a vet, or you can send samples to an independent lab like Zoologix. http://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

For this to continue, I would take a good guess it's Mycoplasma (MG/CRD) which sometimes unfortunately reoccurs. Birds are carriers for life.
Symptoms can sometimes be controlled with antibiotics. The pus in the eye needs to be cleaned out a couple of times a day along with an application of eye ointment each time.

Tylosin, Tetracyclines and Tiamulin can treat symptoms, but will not dry up pus and birds can still become symptomatic periodically.