Chickens with swollen eyes

[heerchickchick]

We have had several birds getting what we call sleepy eye..one or both eyes become swollen shut with some having a frothy like discharge..some get really lethargic, they still eat and drink but are very frail. some have recovered and some have died (they linger on for a very long time). Some of the roosters become lame in one leg and just eventually give up. I have read up on all the diseases that it could be..but can not pin it down to just one thing ..so many of the diseases have the same symptoms..We are stumped..we have given antibiotics in water..I have tried injectable antibiotics. we have used VETrX.we have wormed them and treated them for mites. Every time we find one with the "sleepy eye" we separate them and put them in the "sick ward". I feel bad I dont want them to suffer, but I also dont want to put them down in case they get better. Most of my birds are free range and all get fed very well. we keep their coops, roosts and cages really clean and they always have fresh clean drinking water. Any ideas...anyone?

 

[karithatswho]

Go to the feed store right away...they have eye worms. Ask for the herbal remedy that they have...it smells like vicks vapor rub. You heat it, and then squirt it on a Q-tip and then apply it to the inside of their beak. I had to do some chicken anatomy research cause it has to go in a specific spot...in the diamond part of their pallet. The meds worked like magic...

My flock got eye worms when we were out of town... two died while we were gone, but the meds saved the rest!

 

[karithatswho]

Just saw how old this was... I super late.

 

[heerchickchick]

no your not late..if you are looking at the date when I registered..this was posted late last night..Thanks for your info tho..would eye worms make them get sick and lethargic? And is the stuff your talking about called VetRx..will that get rid of eye worms?

 

[heerchickchick]

Also they have a certain odor to them..almost like an infection (pretty smelly).

 

[foxypoproxy]

Quote:
Normally with eye worm, you can actually see the worm if you look close enough, its tiny.
The smell coming from them is a big sign of coryza.
With some of them dieing, having their eyes swollen, discharge and smell.
I would definitely think Coryza. Look up the disease and see if it fits.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Then I would suspect coryza:


http://www.peafowl.org/ARTICLES/15/

 

[heerchickchick]

That certainly sounds like what it could be..I have alot of birds..Sounds like I might loose them all to this crap if thats what it is..This is very upsetting.

. I love my birds..and dont want to start over..

 

[heerchickchick]

is there a possibilty it could be fowl pox? A couple of my birds had some on their combs and I treated it with iodine..

 

[foxypoproxy]

Quote:
I understand your situation.
It looks like my flock has mycoplasmosis which pretty much has the same result as coryza...i'm worried i'm going to lose my whole flock too.
I got my chicken tested the other day and i'm waiting for the results to come back. If you want to keep them, you will have to have a closed flock meaning no selling/giving away birds so you don't give the illness to other peoples flocks.
And if you want to add new birds you will have to come to terms with the fact that they will also become infected and will all need to be on antibiotics like denagard for life.
If you don't want to keep them on antibiotics for life and have a closed flock you will have to cull them all.
Mine started out with lesions that looked like fowl pox. I'm not sure if it was fowl pox but it sure looked like it.
We think what happened is the illness made one of my chickens more susceptible to fowl pox, so she had both mycoplasma and fowl pox.