Colobomata in Ameraucana/easter egger

[Eggcessive]

Thanks Wyorp Rock for remembering Microchick for me.

 

[microchick]

C'mon guys I'm not that forgettable.

 

[springvalley123]

Yep, that's me!

Thanks for the tag Wyorp.

@springvalley123 I'm so sorry you are having problems.

I'd be glad to help out any way I can but I'm going to need pictures of both eyes, close up and lighter that will show the details in order to tell if you are dealing with Marek's disease or something else.

As for mareks, the eyes have looked like this for a very long time, and she's in with a flock whose eyes all look normal (otherwise normal also). I'll have to get her from the roost tonight and see if I can't take some closer pictures while holding her with one hand.

 

[Stacaroni]

As for mareks, the eyes have looked like this for a very long time, and she's in with a flock whose eyes all look normal (otherwise normal also). I'll have to get her from the roost tonight and see if I can't take some closer pictures while holding her with one hand.

I would come help but that would require pants.

 

[springvalley123]

I would come help but that would require pants.

Plus I'd have to count my chickens or make sure I don't end up short a black EE when you leave--I know you've been drueling over her!

 

[Stacaroni]

Plus I'd have to count my chickens or make sure I don't end up short a black EE when you leave--I know you've been drueling over her!

Hahaha! That is a fair point!

 

[microchick]

With Marek's disease, specifically the ocular type, what I found in my chickens was that their pupils became very constricted. Medical terminology is pinpoint pupils. and the irises turn a nasty gray/green color that they will refer to as being 'gray eye'.

The birds develop what is the avian form of a herpes infection in their eyes called uveitis.

Iritis (i-RYE-tis) is swelling and irritation (inflammation) in the colored ring around your eye's pupil (iris). Another name for iritis is anterior uveitis. The uvea is the middle layer of the eye between the retina and the white part of the eye.Nov 13, 2019

I have a pic somewhere on BYC of my hen, Sassy's eye when she developed OMD but can't lay my fingers on it so this is off the internet.

The eye on the left is normal. The eye on the right is OMD.

It's a very painful condition. My birds did not like to be out in the bright light and would stay in shadows when they did venture out.

The oldest with OMD lived to be about 3 years old before she developed stroke like symptoms and had to be culled.

It's not a fun disease but the birds with OMD lived longer than the ones I had with neural or visceral Marek's.

 

[springvalley123]

GOT GOOD PICS!!
I snuck up when she was at the feeder and took these while holding her. I admit I was surprised by the shape of the right eye's defect!

 

[springvalley123]

I also meant to answer the question, as to what this girl's vision is like. This morning she reacted to another bird about 8 feet away who was chasing/got a bug. I don't know if this girl saw the bug, the bug move, or just the movement of the pullet but she went over and tried to get the bug!

 

[microchick]

Much better pictures.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this doesn't look like Marek's to me but just pigmentation unique to the hen. Which is a good thing!