Eye lid pulling away from eye in 16 week old chicken

Littlemoonrising

Hatching
Joined
Jun 29, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
6
My Americana chicken recently recovered from a respiratory infection of some kind (bubbly eyes, scratching at his head, and runny poop). He/she was and is still eating and drinking well, but does seem a little lethargic. Also, not sure if related or not but he’s recently started smelling oddly sweet. It’s pretty gross smelling to be honest, and the smell fluctuates how strong. No other sick birds smelled th
I noticed they were sick about a little over a week ago, along with 3 other birds in my flock. Everyone else has long since recovered but this beautiful bird is struggling.
The bubbles are gone but he’s started making some weird moaning type sounds, little lethargic and occasional runny poop, but his eyes are what’s concerning me. I was wiping them every day to get them open from bubble gunk clouding his eyes. ( I say he because it’s recently started making what I think are crowing noises... hopefully not crazy sick noises)
I was also using VetRX internally and externally per bottle instructions. I’ve stopped internal because he seems over the bubble eye stage. I’m worried though that the skin seems to be stretching away from his eye more and more every day. My local feed store is awful and has been out of terramycin for weeks but I’m hoping to get the ointment soon to try putting on this area.
I’m worried his eyes are going to be permanently effected by this if it keeps progressing the way it is. No one near me or on Facebook groups has been able to give me advice.
His eyes don’t look swollen to me. I don’t understand what could be pulling his skin from the eye like this. The picture below is from a couple days ago, it’s sadly worse today.
I’ve had him for 2 months now, no new birds since getting him. He is still quarantine.
D78FB149-7C8D-4CAD-A8D9-C2D0823626A5.jpeg
 
recently recovered from a respiratory infection of some kind (bubbly eyes, scratching at his head, and runny poop). He/she was and is still eating and drinking well, but does seem a little lethargic. Also, not sure if related or not but he’s recently started smelling oddly sweet.
The bubbles are gone but he’s started making some weird moaning type sounds, little lethargic and occasional runny poop, but his eyes are what’s concerning me.
Welcome To BYC

I see bubbles in the eye. Bubbles along with the sunken eye, I would suspect Mycoplasma. If you have a vet that can perform testing or you can send some swabs to your state lab they may be able to confirm it.

Flush the eyes with saline and apply an eye ointment like Terramycin. You may also need to treat with an antibiotic - Tiamulin (Denagard) is used to treat Mycoplasma only. You can also use Tylosin for treatment as well.

The sickly sweet smell - have you looked inside the beak - any mucous, lesions (white or yellow pasty material). Check the crop first thing in the morning - it should be empty - she may have a sour crop.

Antibiotics may be hard to source - most were removed from shelves over a year ago. You can still order online, but a lot of places are sold out. If you do have vet care, they may be able to get you something faster(?)

Of course prices have gone up, but here's a couple of links to the antibiotics I mentioned - search around, you may find them cheaper somewhere else.
Keep in mind that respiratory diseases make birds carriers, even if they get better. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=7EF2885F-8F22-495D-A6C5-12069F4B5712
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07f7f-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom