Eye worm?

[trinacsj24]

So sorry to here about your loss. I had a hen that had eye worms. Scarry looking.
When I finally figured out what it was I researched like no other. And the only cure that was as close to 100% as possible was physically squeezing out the whole worm and lump.
After that I treated her with vetrx, baby saline solution(for cleaning)and neosporen (no pain relief kind) for moisture.
That was 2 months ago and she is doing great. Only side effect from the treatment or the worm was that she has a large cataract that leaves her partially blind.
But worms are gone and she has learned how to keep up with the other girls great.

 

[ChickenMama308]

I'm so glad to have read this! I'm on north shore Oahu as well and our baby chick has these translucent worms in her eyes How old was your chick when you treated them?! Ours is just over a month old... I hope not to affect her too much

We experienced some eye worms in a young chick of ours, and I thought at the time that it was Manson's Eye Worm, although I never knew for sure. The closest thing that I could find that looked like it was this video of a dog, in which it's called Thelazia:

Wikipedia says it exists in birds and mammals, and can affect humans (holy stink).

It was hiding underneath my chick's upper eyelids with a only a few of them hanging down and squirming, which is how I first spotted them (and then gagged a bit). I never knew such things existed and thought she was a goner. We ran to the feed store which recommended eye drops with Tetrahydro Phenyl Imidazo Thiazole. She said people around here (north windward Oahu) got them all the time, and this is what people used to get rid of them.

Oh boy did it work. A drop in each eye paralyzed them instantly. And I was not prepared for the sheer number of them that came out... The massive, thick clump of worms that started coming out when they stopped hanging on, entirely blanketing the eye. I looked it up afterwards, and it seemed that once they were paralyzed, they would stay paralyzed (die). But I'm not 100% sure that happened. I think mostly that was true, but some of them would remain. I suppose it's possible that some new ones were still emerging... Don't know. I did have to retreat multiple times. But it wasn't until I had removed the seemingly dead ones entirely that they stayed away. We removed them by hand very carefully after treating them - one person holding the chick still and the other one dealing with the eye. Although the vet is using tweezers in the video, that seemed too risky to me with a squirmy chick.

Unfortunately, it was too late for one of my chick's eyes... One eye had persistent worms that remained significantly longer than the other despite our attempts. Although we did conquer the worms, in that extra time, the wormy eye went white and blind. So time is of the essence when you get these.

But we discovered by accident a good way to get the worms out. Desperate to protect the chick's eyes from harm from the worms since we started seeing one eye turn white and I was worried about infection, I read around and saw that some people use Neosporin in the eye. So we did that - first the eye drops to paralyze the worms, and then Neosporin under the eyelid. And, I guess from the petroleum jelly base in the Neosporin, the paralyzed worms just slid out of the eye - sooooo much easier than before. Doing that, we were finally able to get all the worms out of the eye. But, unfortunately, the eye had gone white and stayed that way.

I heard afterwards that coconut oil was used in some tropical areas to get rid of eye parasites. I don't know if this instead of the Neosporin/petroleum jelly would work to help the worms slide out after being medicated. Maybe.

A few more important observations... Although the chick got the eye worms and got them bad, the mother never did when we examined her. I don't know if it's because she always gave bugs she found to her chick saving none for herself (these worms are spread through an intermediate host, likely the Surinam cockroach which we have by the truckload here and are impossible to completely eradicate). We did treat her with eye drops just to be safe. Another important thing is that the eye drops DID affect the chick, permanently it seems. Immediately after we treated her, she walked a little wobbly, and then would improve a bunch, but not completely. We weren't sure if it was just the trauma of being held down and having her eyes touched so much, but it never went away. She's now an egg-laying adult, and she is still wobbly... She doesn't perch much, if ever. I am convinced it was the medicine since she was very healthy and strong before. Perhaps she was a little young for the medicine as the adoptive mother never had any side affects we could see. But if we didn't treat the chick, she would've lost sight in both eyes... :/

My methods could probably be improved upon. But I hope this helps if you ever get this disgusting parasite!

 

[dawg53]

It's easier to mix equal parts of valbazen and water, then flush the eyes with the mixture.
Then dose the bird with 1/2cc valbazen orally. Repeat dosing orally in 10 days.

 

[Mowglimommychick]

It's easier to mix equal parts of valbazen and water, then flush the eyes with the mixture.
Then dose the bird with 1/2cc valbazen orally. Repeat dosing orally in 10 days.

I know this is older, but I had a follow up question. Is there egg withdrawal for Valbazen?

 

[dawg53]

I know this is older, but I had a follow up question. Is there egg withdrawal for Valbazen?

Generally 14 days after last dosing.

 

[Mowglimommychick]

Generally 14 days after last dosing.

Thanks