Chick with swollen, infected eye

[lovetobake]

We have 3 chicks with matted, swollen eyes. We are not sure what this is, what has caused it, and what we can do to help them. Could anyone help us with this? The chicks that have it are 1 1/2 or 2 weeks old. We have some that are a week or so older, but they don't seem to be bothered by this. We have 9 chicks altogether and we separated the one that seem to suffering from this. However, each day we are finding one or two more that have the same symptoms.
They still seem to be eating and drinking fine.
Thanks

 

[Cochin378]

It is most likely infectious Corzya..
The head area, ocular tissue, and wattles are significantly swollen and there is a thick brown discharge from the eye and nares.
The incubation period for IC is approximately 1-3 days. The severity of infection varies depending on the age, breed, environmental stress, and presence of concurrent infections.

In the mild form, typically seen in young chickens, birds may become depressed and have nasal discharge and mild swelling of the face.

In the severe form, typically seen in young adults, there is an acute infection of the upper respiratory tract. Signs may include serous to mucoid nasal discharge, swelling of the infraorbital sinuses, facial edema including swollen eyelids that do not open, swollen wattles and intermandibular space, and conjunctivitis. If the lower respiratory tract becomes involved, rales may be observed. Signs usually persist for only a few weeks, however, if secondary infection occurs, the swelling can persist for months. Feed consumption, egg production.

IC is primarily spread through chronically infected carrier birds. Airborne transmission and contaminated drinking water may help spread the infection to susceptible birds. Chickens of all ages are susceptible; however the disease is usually less severe in immature birds. In the absence of concurrent infection, infected birds typically recover in 2-3 weeks. Hens in lay typically have a shorter incubation period and the course of the disease tends to be longer. Birds that recover frequently become chronic carriers.

IC is distributed worldwide. Both commercial chickens as well as village chickens appear to be equally at risk. The disease can cause significant economic losses in intensive poultry operations, especially in multi-age farms. In developing countries, stress factors and the presence of concurrent infections frequently exacerbate losses.

I had a bird almost exactly like that that I had to put down. Above is just some information that I found on Google.

 

[chicky_mama]

two of my pullets got like this about a month or so ago........i was told it is a sinus infection......the sinus drainage goes into the eye.......it got really swollen and looked like it was going to explose . I had to hold the chicks and open the eye ( after a warm compress was applied to loosen the eyelids) and you could see this big yellow hard mass. After a few days of working on them with tweezers to remove the hard yellow yuck....i was sucessfully able to get it all out. Unfortunately both those girls are blind in the eye that was infected. It took alot of patience with holding the chicks and digging the hard stuff out, but thankfully i was able to do it and they are both fine now.

 

[mamaKate]

I got a couple of chicks at the sale barn last year that looked something like that (after a few days). I gave them minced raw chicken liver mixed with yogurt and they recovered. This was in addition to their crumble. They are a year old now and mostly fine. They each lay about 5 eggs a week and one of them knows her name. They are still more fragile than my other birds. I had to crate them in the air conditioning when the temps were hovering around a hundred.