Chick can’t close eyes

[EbonyKate]

Hi,
I had some chicks hatch a few days ago, and one had constantly watery eyes but is otherwise healthy, I had started bathing the eyes in case it just had some debris or something lodged in the them, but after watching it closely it even sleeps with it’s eyes open and doesn’t appear to have enough outer skin or eyelids to actually close them? Has anyone seen this before?

 

[aart]

Have you tried manually closing them?

 

[EbonyKate]

I have, there seems to be not enough skin to stretch across

 

[Shadrach]

Hi,
I had some chicks hatch a few days ago, and one had constantly watery eyes but is otherwise healthy, I had started bathing the eyes in case it just had some debris or something lodged in the them, but after watching it closely it even sleeps with it’s eyes open and doesn’t appear to have enough outer skin or eyelids to actually close them? Has anyone seen this before?

No, I haven't seen this in any of the chicks here.
A couple of points that may help.
A chicken has 3 eyelids, a top, closed for full sleep, a bottom, translucent, close when napping and an indication of pain, and a third wiper eyelid that travels accross the eyeball from one side to the other. It's this third eyelid that keeps the eye clean and when I've had chickens here with eye damage if this third wiper eyelid is damaged the prognossis for repair isn't good. The chicken can't keep its eye clean.
I would check to see if the third wiper eyelid is working.
You may be able to encourage the lower eyelid to at least partially close with gentle finger pressure at the bottom of the eye.
Once you have assertained which eyelids don't function you should be in a better position to decide on what course of action is best for the chicken.