Chicken pink eye?

[orionburn]

I have some Milles Fleurs that hatched out this past Thursday. One of the chicks has been a little more unbalanced than the others. Starting yesterday it started to get some eye bugers. It has gotten to the point where its entire eye crusts over. With some drops and a q-tip we can get it out but it is really starting to bother the chick. We are going to isolate him to be safe. Any ideas on what this is and what, if anything, will treat it?

Thanks in advance!

ETA: does this sound like something the other chicks could catch? We did add Polyvisol to their water yesterday.

 

[MissJenny]

I don't know nothin' from nothin' -- but there is a homeopathic pink eye medication for people sold in most pharmacies. I don't know if this is something that can be safely used on chicks or not, but I wanted you to know it exists if you don't get any better answers. (I certainly hope you do.)

Jenny

 

[orionburn]

Quote:
Thanks. I hope the little guy will be ok, but I'm more worried about it spreading to the rest of the chicks. We'll keep an eye on him and se what happens.

 

[orionburn]

Checked on the chick this morning. His left eye looks good and it didn't close up over night. The right eye is still giving him trouble, though. I put a bit of eye ointment on it last night and appears to have helped a little bit. It didn't close up completely over night, but he can only open his eye part way.

Still looking for some ideas on what this could be or other meds to treat it.

 

[icemanchicken]

Not sure if its pink eye or not but my chickens have the same problem time to time, i usually flush the eye gently with water then put triple antibiotic cream in and around the eye. Are the feathers on the side of the infected eye matted or wet at all?

 

[orionburn]

Quote:
I don't believe so. It was harder to tell this morning due to the ointment we put on last night, but from what I recall on Saturday it seemed like it was dry. We had a hard time getting the dried clump of the discharge off of his eyelid. Otherwise he seems to be doing fine, but he is what p.o.'d chicky right now. He is not happy about being isolated at all.

 

[orionburn]

I'm going to stop by Rural King and/or TSC tonight to see if they have anything. Any suggestions on a particular med to look for? Is there a good overall antibiotic to try, at least one that the store would carry? The chick is still in the same boat - left eye clear and right eye swollen & partially shut. Other than that he is eating, drinking and running around like a normal healthy chick.

 

[orionburn]

I checked online and TSC has a product called Duramycin. The guy said that would work well for the problem I described. Has anybody used this for treating chicks?