Could my hen be blind?

[nanawendy]

I know there has been a few with blind hens... so please share with me their behaviors. My hen started to be reclusive about 4 days ago. I felt her crop and she was empty.And I was not seeing her drinking either. So Sunday I started to water her with an syringe of electrolytes and water. Yesterday I kind of forced feed her. I moistened food and put it in her mouth. She gobbled it down. I put some on the table I was working on and she hesitated and slowly went down to peck at it. Miss it by a mile. Didn't get all the way to the table. Just now I went out with her fav. BOSS. She is kind of trying to find it. She keeps her eyes closed a lot and stays in one place kind if puffed up. I isolate her a little each day to check out her poo. Very little white and liquid. she is a 20 week old SLW.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Does she have swelling around her eyes? Are they watery? When you look in them are they hazy or clear?

 

[gritsar]

I'm sorry, it doesn't sound as much to me like blindness as it does illness of some sort.
I have a partially blind two year old hen and as it turns out, one of my rescue meaties is completely blind (just realized this the other day). Both have trouble zeroing in on food.
The part of your post that makes me suspect illness vs. blindness is: She keeps her eyes closed a lot and stays in one place kind if puffed up. I isolate her a little each day to check out her poo. Very little white and liquid. she is a 20 week old SLW.

Neither of my bliind birds keep their eyes closed, stay in one place or have abnormal stools. All of my birds (not just the blind ones) are having rather liquid-y stools with quite a bit of clear water in them right now, but it is extremely hot here and my birds are drinking quite a bit more than they are eating.

I seriously would look at illnesses for your bird. Sorry. Good luck to you.

 

[nanawendy]

No swelling,They are clear and clean when she has them open. Her face is very red as she is ready to lay.

 

[nanawendy]

Thank you both, I almost thought she was egg bound. I did the water bath and vent inspection, no egg within my reach. I love my birds but hate not knowing whats wrong. It was very hot here too.( For the PNW ) Maybe I should keep her apart from the others.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Isolation would not be a bad idea, at all. Also investigate illnesses that can lead to blindness, I believe (but I'm not sure!) that Marek's is one of them.

 

[gritsar]

Here is a list of five syndromes known to occur after infection with Marek's:

Classical Marek's disease or neurolymphomatosis causes asymmetric paralysis of one or more limbs. With vagus nerve involvement, difficulty breathing or dilation of the crop may occur. Besides lesions in the peripheral nerves, there are frequently lymphomatous infiltration/tumours in the skin, skeletal muscle, visceral organs. Organs that are commonly affected include the ovary, spleen, liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, proventriculus and adrenals.
Acute Marek's disease is an epidemic in a previously uninfected or unvaccinated flock, causing depression, paralysis, and death in a large number of birds (up to 80 percent). The age of onset is much earlier than the classic form, birds are four to eight weeks old when affected. Infiltration into multiple organs/tissue is observed.
Ocular lymphomatosis causes lymphocyte infiltration of the iris (making the iris turn grey), anisocoria, and blindness.
Cutaneous Marek's disease causes round, firm lesions at the feather follicles.[2]
Atherosclerosis is induced in experimentally infected chickens.[3]
Immunosuppression Imparement of the T-lymphocytes prevent competent immunological response against pathogenic challenge and the affected birds become more succeptible to disease conditions such as coccidiosis and "Escherichia coli" infection [4]. Furthermore, without stimulation by cell-mediated immunity, the humoral immunity conferred by the B-cell lines from the Bursa of Fabricius also shuts down. Thus resulting in birds that are totally immunocompromised.

 

[nanawendy]

Wow, that's a lot of scary info. I called the feed store and the chicks all came from a hatchery but she didn't think they we're vaccinated. But I did feed medicated feed through their 4th week outside so that was probably at least 12 weeks old more like 14.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yeah, I tend to avoid reading about the various illnesses or I'd be a nervous wreck all the time.
Just so you know, medicated feed has no affect on Marek's. Medicated feed contains a coccidistat. It is effective against coccidiosis only. It prevents overwhelming infestations of the cocci giving the chicks immune system time to build an immunity to it.
Some hatcheries offer vaccinations for Mareks and Coccidiosis, but most offer vacs. for the mareks only.

 

[nanawendy]

I'm going to speak with someone else @ the feed store. This woman sounded bothered and I need a chick expert.

Good to know about the medicated feed. Now I remember the conversation a couple a months ago .

There was several threads on the subject. I also have the name of a vet in Whatcom Co. that treats chickens. I will call her too! I don't was Wanda to suffer. Speak to me Wanda