Chick with swollen goopy eye and drooping head.

brandislee

Songster
8 Years
Feb 15, 2011
510
18
133
Southern Minnesota
I have a sick three week old buckeye chick- he/she's always been a little runtier than his siblings, but today I went out to check on them and his eye was all swollen. He looked okay otherwise at first, but then he started drooping his head and rubbing it on his leg/the shavings, like it itches.

The chicks were in a 2.5 x 3.5 brooder with good ventilation, but in a shed with a bit of a dust problem, so I'm hoping it was just dust. I have him in a cat carrier in the house with clean shavings, food, and water and a heat lamp, and I put some neosporin on the eye. He's obviously not weak, because he is chirping for his brothers and sisters like CRAZY. He is eating and drinking and other than the weird rubbing is acting okay.

I moved the other chicks (I was going to do it today anyway, but the possibility of dust causing problems added a reason) to the broody tractor (it has a good shelter and a heat lamp), so hopefully they will all be okay.

Has anyone seen anything like this- am I right to assume it is dust? And how does one control dust in a huge shed with a dust floor? I mean I could scour the whole thing top to bottom (and it's big, 30x30 ish) and it would be coated in dust the next day, but other than that it's the best place for me to brood chicks.



It looks worse than it actually is in this pic- I know the pic looks like the chick is near death, but it's a lot more lively looking than that when I'm not holding it. That's a good pic of the eye, though.

I'm off to check on the healthy chicks I just moved outside, I'll be back later to check on this thread!
 
The chick looks a little better, but the more I read (of course, that's how it goes...) the more I think he might have crookneck. He has been holding his head down almost under him, and he has had these little rolling fits a few times.

I put some Polyvisol in his water- I figured it can't really hurt, and it may help. Is there anything else I should do/watch for?
 

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