Eye getting much worse, I'm scared we're losing her!

[TenTanToes]

I posted a few days ago about this hen who had some kind of bugs on her and had scratched her face. I used Sevin5 and got rid of the bugs, but can't get a handle on her infection. I felt like we were making progress, but then over the last 24 hours it has gotten much worse. This is an ORP, and we have 2 RIRs who appear perfectly fine. Please help us...

 

[onthespot]

Looks like fowl pox. Make sure she gets plenty to eat. You may want to make her a wet mash so she gets hydrated. They rarely die of it, even though they look horrible. If both their eyes get it at the same time they can't see to eat and they starve to death. put her beak in a warm mash several times a day. DON'T pic the scab or open her eye. Nothing is wrong with the eye under that mess, no matter how ugly it looks to you right now. It will mess it up and scar and take forever to heal if you pick the scab. It will dry up and fall off in a week or so if you leave it alone. Good luck with her and keep us posted. THanks for posting pics, and so sorry about your girl. I have lost a couple to pox, so it can happen, but not likely to.

 

[TenTanToes]

So there's no medication I need to be giving her? Are the other 2 RIRs likely to get it? Is there any reason to be nervous for the sake of my 3 young children (ages 5-4-1)? Thanks so much for the reply, I very much appreciate it.

 

[loralei]

Awww poor baby! That's got to be uncomfortable! Pox is a virus carried by mosquitos so medication will not help. You can dab iodine on the lesions with a q-tip to help dry them up but I wouldn't try this so close to her eye. You can treat secondary infections with antibiotics if they develope. Look out for wet pox which has respiratory symptoms that usually start with a bubbly eye. About half my flock of 22 had pox. A few developed wet pox which I treated with Tylan-50 for 5 days. I did not lose a single bird tho. There is a lot of info here and a simple search will turn up a lot of great pox advice. Basicly just keep her warm, offer her yummie foods and keep your eye on her.

God bless,
Laura

 

[sookiesmom]

How is your hen? Mine just got diagnosed with wet pox & your story sounds so familiar. She had/has watery eyes with bubbles too. Hope she made it ok. Also how long til she started to get better?

 

[TenTanToes]

Thanks for the concern! First off, "she" turned out to be a "HE"! Secondly, he did pull through and became healthy again in just a few weeks with me doing nothing to him at all. I could not imagine that there was nothing I could do for him but that's what the fine folks here at BYC assured me of, and they were right. He did lose the eye that I posted a picture of, but when he lost it almost immediately he was perfectly fine and healthy... until he ended up in the stew pot. We tried hard to give him away but no one seemed to want a one eyed rooster, and he was starting to crow and we couldn't have that with our neighbors.

 

[sookiesmom]

That's funny because we ran into the same problem twice!!!! And for the same problem as you.....neighbors. Luckily we were able to find good homes for them. Can even go to see them whenever we want. Glad to hear it was somewhat of a good story.