Eye crusted shut, not eating or drinking. (Pictures added)

[Andora]

I feel like my birds are never going to be healthy! Now that we're over the cocci, I went out this morning to find that my white polish pullet was asleep (head drooped but standing) in the corner. I picked her up, and one eye is totally crusted shut. The other eye looks fine, though it's not open all the way. She won't walk around, eat, or drink, but she's not laying down...just drooping her head.

What should I do? Should I try to put warm water on the eye and de-crust it? Should I give her Tylan to fight infection? She's always been the weakest and smallest bird.

 

[M@M@2four]

Hello...I would seperate it of course. You can open the eye with a warm wet wash cloth. I would put some vaseline around the eye to kep it from sealing shut. If it stays shut the infection will get worse. Definitely get some strong antibiotics in the water and you can get some antibiotics for it's eye as well. Give her a nice quiet place to rest and stay on top of the antibiotics. If I ever have illness in the barn, I always wait to clean and feed the sick chickens last, so I don't accidently spread anything. I keep bleach spray always at hand and spray everything when cleaning it. Good luck!
God bless!
Tracey

 

[Andora]

I just went out there and put neosporin on the eye...we don't have any vasoline on hand. Then I realized that the other birds are sick too! One hen has foam coming out of her eye. My houdan pullet has a very runny nose and eye, and my BLRW pullet just looks not well...

Should I go ahead and inject them all with Tylan? There are two other birds in there that don't seem sick at all. I don't have anywhere to isolate them though, because I already have some new birds isolated in my chicken tractor for 30 days.

Why would they all suddenly get sick?? They were all healthy seeming yesterday, their food and water are clean, their coop bedding is fluffed regularly and there are no drafts or dampness. Their run is also scooped every day. They all had a cold when I first got them a little more than a month ago, but then they recovered. What would make it come back?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

Hi,
Ilive in north central area of KY.
Follow this thread to about page #9
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=69444
Then check out this site to see if this is what you are seeing.
http://showsilkies.com/content/view/187/77/
Our state Avian Specialist at the University of KY is Dr. Anthony Pescatore. I'll Pm his number to you.

 

[M@M@2four]

Bubbles in the eye??? Yeesh...that sounds like infectious Coryza. I hate to tell you that because it's really hard to get rid of and spreads like wildfire through a flock. They have to be treated with strong antibiotics that can only be prescribed from a vet. You can contact the Chicken Doctor, Peter Brown and he can tell you what types of medicine you'll need. Anyhow, I wish you all the best.

 

[Andora]

Thanks so much for that info PeeperKeeper! Can I just call him and ask my questions? I feel annoying.

I wish he would offer to come look at my birds and tell me what's wrong exactly...

After doing some googling, I am 99.9% sure that they have CRD. This is the second round of sickness, I guess something made them stressed though I have no idea what? Would they get stressed just from hearing the new chickens I got? The new birds are isolated in a chicken tractor about 30 feet away. (I live in a suburb, so that's about as far away as they can get!)

These are the CRD symptoms I found from here-- http://ultimatefowl.atwiki.com/page/CRD
* Rattle in the chest while breathing. (Sometimes the rattle doesn't show up until the birds are on the roost in the evening, and that is the best time to check for this condition.)
* Bubbles in the eye.
* Runny nose.
* Coughing or sneezing.

Mine have all of the above, except rattles in the chest. (One of my new birds in the chicken tractor has rattles in the chest though

)

The link says to treat with Tylan. Should I treat every bird, or just the ones with symptoms? I wish I could isolate them, but I have no where else to put the three healthy birds. I'm sure they've already been completely exposed anyway, since this is the second time in the past two months some in the flock have gotten these symptoms.

The Polish pullet is the worst, droopy head and not eating or drinking. Should I give it a dropper full of sugar water to perk it up, or maybe something else? I put neosporin on the crusted eye and earlier when I checked on the bird, the eye was open! This poor bird seems like the runt of my flock, if there is such a thing as a runt chicken.

The hen with the foamy eye no longer has foam, now she's just sneezing. I wonder if the foam was just from her nose, pushed up into her eye? It looked like a ton of tiny white bubbles between the bottom of her eye and her nostril. She's molting too, but she's active and eating and drinking.

The other sick pullet just has a clear runny nose/eye on one side. She's also still active, eating, and drinking.

I gave the two pullets 1/4cc of Tylan 50 this morning, but I couldn't do the hen by myself. I need my husband to help when he gets home. I'm going to give her 1/2cc since she's plump.

Is there anything else I can do?

I have three more birds I want to add to the flock next month, after their isolation is over, plus some chicks I'm raising in a brooder that would eventually join the flock. I'm not sure what to do now. If I add them to my CRD birds, will they catch the illness for certain? Can I vaccinate them? Should I add them anyway and then treat their symptoms when/if they get sick? That seems like a sad thing to do, but I already have them and I wouldn't want to give them to someone else in case CRD has accidentally been spread to them across the yard...

 

[Andora]

Here are some pictures...the last pullet I had who got to this point a month ago (same symptoms) died over night once she looked like this.

Each eye:

She's doing the what I call the turtle pose...I've noticed that the next step is finding them with the face planted into the dirt, then shortly later stiff and dead.

 

[TubbyChicken]

She looks so sick.

I really hope she pulls through!

 

[Wynette]

Have you decided if you will treat your flock or not? I've had an awful year with illness; I have found that the water sol. Tylan works really well for respiratory issues; HOWEVER, if they are so sick they don't feel like eating (or drinking) you will need to hand feed via syringe. That seems to be the difference on whether you lose them or not - if they are getting enough nutrition while they are being treated. JMO. GOOD LUCK!

 

[BayCityBabe]

Mine had the crud a couple of weeks ago. I injected the worse off with Tylan. I also made soup for them! Seriously. I took a very small amount of leftover meat, a massive amount of leftover spaghetti, water and peas and boiled it up. Served it up on an old foil sheetcake pan. I think it loosened up the mucus for many of them. My very sick roo had the death rattle going in his chest and the soup was the only thing he'd eat. Twelve hours after his first Tylan injection and his soup, he was back to crowing.