Chick with swollen bugged out eyes

[NuggetsNuggets]

I've got all go them on antibiotics. Can you tell me what is causing this or what it is, please?

 

[chicknmania]

Hard to say. Lots of things can cause it, respiratory ailments with swollen eyes are pretty common in chickens. good that you got the chickies on antibiotics, what are you using? Keep then on it for seven to ten days, you should see a big improvement. Just keep a careful eye on them...make sure they are not declining. But they shouldn't be.

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

I've got them all on Durmycin, this will be their second full day on it.

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

Here's a couple of photos from his morning. Last night, I flushed his eyes out with saline and put some antibiotic ointment on/in them. This morning, I also made a slurry or chick starter, meal worms, electrolytes with a dash (like 7 granules) of Durmycin. He was pretty hungry... Then when he was done eating, I flushed the eyes out again and put more ointment on them.

 

[chicknmania]

If you use Duramycin, you should use like four teaspoons to a gallon of water. It's a very weak antibiotic. Oxytet is better and you can get a more accurate dosage. If I were you I'd switch to that, you might see if the feed store carries it, our feed store does. You are treating him correctly as far as the flushing and ointment, and feeding. There are more powerful antibiotic eye drops available, but I've never seen them in feed stores, you have to order them on line. The eyes look pretty good but they are weirdly buggy....what breed are they? You can also try a sinus flush...you can use Oxine, or injectable Tylan mixed with water, I'm just not sure of the proportions, you'd have to research it some. It is easy to do, it sounds horrible, but you just tip their head down , keep their beak open a bit, and drip the solution in their nostrils and it runs out the mouth They don't seem to mind, they don't choke or anything. It sounds like the chick is improving? Are the others showing any symptoms?

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

Well.. I thought the little guy was improving and looked better last night. However, he died this morning. He was alive and his little body was cold when I found him. I tried to warm him up and get some fluid into him, he took a few swallows, then a few breaths and was gone. Since this was the first one for me, I buried him in a warm, sunny spot in my flower garden.

Of course... I have the what ifs right now and am taking this pretty personally. But, I hope he didn't suffer too much -and he's no longer suffering now.

Thank you for the info and I will take your advice to heart in the future.

 

[chicknmania]

Oh, I'm so sorry.

And every single one of us on here gets the what if's...we all blame ourselves when we can't save these guys.
But don't. You took excellent care of the little one, and did everything you could, in the amount of time you had. This is how we learn. If I were you though, even if the others
look healthy, I would continue with the antibiotics for a few more days. Make sure you keep everything as disinfected as possible, and just go forward. I don't know how
many times I've shed tears for the ones we've lost...lots. My adult children don't know how I stand it. But we've saved several, too. And you will no doubt run into more problems
at some point, and do your own share of saving. We have a whole chicken graveyard in our field.....but we've had chickens for a lot of years.

And we have a lot of our chicken
friends left, and they keep making new ones, lol.

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

Thank you. I spent the better part of the day feeling sad about losing the little guy, but I still have 14 other babies to take care of and worry about their health... One of the first things I did was clean the brooder box, pure clean wood shavings, disinfected everything and re-did their waterers with fresh doses of antibiotics, just in case. I think everything will be ok and it's something I won't get used to, but it's part of the cycle of life, I suppose. Thank you for your kind words and advice - I have learned from this and will keep learning.

 

[Shabana]

So sorry to hear about your little guy.
My mum used to say that sometimes you put all the cake ingredients in and for some reason they just don't rise
Sounds to me like a birth defect.

It's hard when they touch your heart like buggy did, but I'm sure your other babies will be fine and give you years of fun and happiness.

 

[chicknmania]

I think Shabana is right. And no, you won't ever get used to it. I just lost our old Silkie rooster Tweety on April 30, and now my personal pet rooster is sick. Different symptoms, I think he might have a heart problem, he is older, too.. I am so sad as there was nothing I could do for Tweety, though I tried my best, and I am worried we are going to lose Doodle, too. I am so sad. But the only thing I can do is keep trying.