Closing, sunken eyes on mature Buff Brahma

[SarasotaClucker]

I have a chunky buff Brahama maybe six years old, still laying, but her eyes are getting very squinty and somewhat sunken. Her crop is full (she can find the pellets) but her pecking accuracy is diminishing. If this continues she will be blind. Any ideas?

 

[froggiesheins]

Poor sweetie, Wish I could help you, but have never seen this before......at least I can give you a bump.. WOW, 6 yrs old and still going....

 

[Suzie]

Probably of no help to you but I had a blind chicken ( as have others here on BYC ) and I put her food in a metal dish and tapped it to attract her attention, the feeder was easily within her reach and I slowly took it further away from her ( tapping the dish all of the time ) she learned to react to the noise and headed in the direction of the dish... her water container was placed next to the feeder and she would eat and then drink - it takes a long time and there is no guarantee that it will work for your girl - I mixed some grit in the feeder too, she was housed with three others and lived happily. Every time I went into her "house" I would tap the dish and she would find her food and water.

I hope somebody else with experience of having a blind chicken can give you some ideas as to how to help your girl live a happy and long life with you...

Suzie

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

If she is 6 years old she could be losing her eyesight, not necessarily blind, but maybe cataracts. The lids look a little swollen to me. Maybe try researching a disease that causes swollen eye lids? Most likely though it is probably due to age and not disease.

 

[ellyn]

Thank you for raising your question/concern. I have a 2 year old SLW who I have noticed that her eyes look like they are sunken too, the lids are not puffy like I see your hens are; makes my Pepper, look like an old lady--. I am going to look back and see if I have any pictures of her to see if there really has been a remarkable change or not. She also just looks scruffy and I can tell that she starting to grow new feathers, maybe it's just part of HER molting process, more energy being put into getting back in to shape....well that was chicken ramble.