Chick with eye problems

[tjmings]

I have a 2 week old chick that seems to have drainage from one eye and is keeping it closed a lot of the time. I don't see any other drainage. Only other symptom is she keeps opening her beak and closing it. Not sure if she might have a respiratory infection or just an eye infection. Thoughts on how to how to treat?

 

[BoomChickaPop]

Sounds like someone pecked her eye
Not sure how to treat it.
Maybe someone else will have a better answer

BCP

 

[Eggcessive]

It could be either, but the chick looks ill in the picture. You can start with applying some Terramycin eye ointment, plain Neosporin ointment, or Saline to the eye. If the chick is sleepy and weak, or sneezing, I would give it electrolytes, then switch to oxytetracycline in the water.

 

[SuperChickRuth]

We had a similar thing happen to our chick, except we thought she was blind, and her eye lids became stuck open with the dried discharge.

So because of that, I just cleaned our chick's eyes/lids every night with warm water, cotton balls, q-tips, and then rinsed her eyes with saline. And then we got her into a vet because we thought she was completely blind, or... one of the hundred things chicks can get that kills them. And we (I) got sooooo attached to her!

The vet gave us Ofloxacin Ophthalmic Solution, (which I gave to her 6x a day for 5 days) and said that it was an eye infection. Right now (a week later) she's doing much better, and there is much less discharge- so it seems to have helped.

Long story short, (If it's not too late to say that) my advice is if it seem to get really bad, take her to a vet. But in the mean time, clean the discharge off, and make sure she's eating and drinking. If she's weak, I strongly suggest giving her Nutri-Drench. It saved our chick's life when she wasn't eating because she couldn't see the feeder that well.

 

[tjmings]

Is it ok to apply neosporin in the eye?

...

It could be either, but the chick looks ill in the picture. You can start with applying some Terramycin eye ointment, plain Neosporin ointment, or Saline to the eye. If the chick is sleepy and weak, or sneezing, I would give it electrolytes, then switch to oxytetracycline in the water.[/quote
Is it ok to apply neosporin to the eye?

 

[NewCluck]

You can apply plain Neosporin, just be sure it isn't the one with the pain reliever in it too.

 

[SJanay]

I have a chicken with a similar problem. Drainage from one eye, a white blob, closes it a lot, weak, dizzy, seems to hurt. Advice?
(((Ignore the beak issue; it was a birth defect that she's been living fine with)))

 

[SuperChickRuth]

Aww, poor girl! I'm not an expert with this, so all I can say right now is: make sure she's still eating and drinking, don't let the other girls peck her, and clean the eye.

You also might want to give her Nutri-Drench, since you said she was weak.

 

[SuperChickRuth]

How's she doing?

 

[SJanay]

She's doing better, thanks! The white blob in her eye is gone. I think she may still have a little drainage, but she's a lot better.