Foggy eye, missing feathers, fluffed up chicken isolating herself.

[Bkaye]

Have you checked her crop first thing in the morning? Her head movements could be due to a crop problem, which would also cause the runny droppings.

 

[Lyris]

Apparently she has zero depth prescription! She can kind of recognize the cat food can as food now. It didn't take me as long to get her eating. I tried leading her to the ground with it. This resulted in her pecking at the air at the height I typically hold the dish at. Definitely a work in progress. She's still only eaten about two tablespoons of food. I repurposed my tiny food processor to make her mash. I've mixed in some vitamins with it. It's like 'chick rescue' or something. The store said it has electrolytes and vitamins to help sick chickens. I'm worried she's still not getting enough - her crop is pretty empty no matter the time of day. Since she can see shiny things, I'm thinking of getting some of those cheap cat food dishes that are made of tin. I can't remember if chickens attack shiny things or not, though. She seems to see light and dark okay up until about a foot away from her. There's been less fighting with them free ranging. I completely forgot there's an apple tree in the back of my yard. The other girls have been having a blast. There's unfortunately too many to pick up (they're all mushy anyway) and get the seeds out of, but at least they're entertained.

Tomorrow I'm going to go get stuff for her wounds and any mites she might have. She's a survivor, that's for sure. She's in a much better mood tonight with some proper food and water. She's even staying close-ish to the flock instead of leaving to the other side of the yard. She doesn't jump, so I'm going to build a small fence with all the thousands of those metal squares you get to build cheap shelves. They're bright and easy for her to see, the other chickens can jump over, and I can make it taller as needed.

 

[coach723]

A shiny dish, or a dish that is a high contrast color to the background might help, if she has some vision. If it's metal you can tap a spoon or something on it, to let her know it's there, get her used to finding it. A bell, or something that makes a slight sound in the breeze that can be hung over it or in the vicinity also might help her to find it and get used to where it is. Something that doesn't scare her away. It's going to be a process, and you may have to hand feed her regularly until she's able to find it consistently. You can get hog pans many places, they are usually galvanized, so rust eventually. A better option is stainless steel puppy pans, they come in different sizes, I have several of the largest ones I feed my flock mash in. They will last forever and are not very expensive at all. I got mine from Jeffers Pet online. They are large diameter, and shallow, so she would have a large target to hit, even the smallest would hold plenty enough for her. Raising it up a little would make it so she could bump into it rather than step in it.
She will be at greater risk from any predator, since she can't see them coming, so you will need to make sure she's safe from that.

 

[Lyris]

A shiny dish, or a dish that is a high contrast color to the background might help, if she has some vision. If it's metal you can tap a spoon or something on it, to let her know it's there, get her used to finding it. A bell, or something that makes a slight sound in the breeze that can be hung over it or in the vicinity also might help her to find it and get used to where it is. Something that doesn't scare her away. It's going to be a process, and you may have to hand feed her regularly until she's able to find it consistently. You can get hog pans many places, they are usually galvanized, so rust eventually. A better option is stainless steel puppy pans, they come in different sizes, I have several of the largest ones I feed my flock mash in. They will last forever and are not very expensive at all. I got mine from Jeffers Pet online. They are large diameter, and shallow, so she would have a large target to hit, even the smallest would hold plenty enough for her. Raising it up a little would make it so she could bump into it rather than step in it.
She will be at greater risk from any predator, since she can't see them coming, so you will need to make sure she's safe from that.

Ohh, I like the bell idea. I went out and fed her again today. She has zero depth perception. She just expects the can to be in the air, so definitely raising it up. She only ate maybe half a tablespoon today for her first feeding. Then she got stuck on a tiny branch on the ground and didn't want to jump. After I moved her to a safer area she was too nervous to try again. She definitely won't eat out of the can unless she can see shiny inside the can. If it's too full she won't touch it.

The good news is I got her to eat just under half a tuna can of food later. By accident. I had my old granny cat food set outside since she was of the opinion she was dying (she had been without food for two while hours) her feedings need babysitting from my greedy six year old cat. I set hers outside with me while I worked on the chickens. After I moved the chicken I went to go pet my third cat who is a stuck up princess and was jealous of the chicken. While reminding her she's a horrible little demon and I love her the chicken somehow found the cat food and began pecking at the air over it. Googling says cat food is mostly okay as long as it's not the main source of food. Since she seemed really into the cat food I held up the can for her and she went to town. She jerks her head around a lot and expects the can to move with her, which is a bit frustrating. I have to hold the can over her beak so she finds it easily. She seemed to really enjoy the cat food. It's not the best thing in the world to feed her, but at this point I'll take it. It's very high quality cat food that's easy to digest for my old granny cat, so at least the chicken will get some vitamins.

I really hope she doesn't become a picky eater. I already have four picky eater cats, a picky eater cockatiel, and it seems like my Betta fish is going to be picky too. The other chickens just don't care about any food at all no matter what it is, which is fine. They can be picky and just eat grass.

 

[coach723]

The B vitamins and the E may help with the head movements. Vitamin deficiencies can cause weird neurological symptoms, and it wouldn't be surprising in a bird that hasn't been able to eat well due to vision. So hopefully that may improve as her nutrition does. But do give the supplements, once they're deficient it can take higher doses to reverse that, and then once reversed the feed will maintain it again. It's also possible there may be another cause and it may not be fixable. As long as they are able to eat and drink, they can adapt and survive in many cases.
When you have a special needs bird, or any animal really, you have to think outside the box and do and try things that are different, see what works for that particular animal, to make their quality of life as good as possible.

 

[Lyris]

I got her drinking!! I bought a huge water thing that looks like a giant hummingbird feeder. She recognized the red but wasn't sure. Coaxing her over only worked a bit. She's a bit scared of the dish I got with food for her. She's rejoined her flock and they were by the water, which helped her confidence. She was still struggling with it so I finally took the red part of the dish, filled it with water, and put the chicken into the water so she could feel it. She froze for a solid forty seconds. She doesn't seem to process things well. After she finally processed what was going on she shoved her entire head into the water to drink. It went up her nose so she tried putting her chin and bottom of her beak into the water. Still went into the nose. Finally she decided the best way to make sure she was getting the water was to bend her head so her nose was pointed at her toes and drink from right beside her toes. She seemed to be able to judge depth better that way. Once she got a handle on depth she tried going in with the bottom of her beak and scooping it again. She sat there for a solid five minutes shoving in as much water as possible. Her crop looked bloated once she was done. We're making progress with hydration!

She seems to be more alert today. She's rejoined her flock and responds better when I talk to her. I could be wrong, but I think her vision is a bit better as well. Her booty doesn't seem as itchy today, which I'm grateful for. I'm still looking to see if someone can do gunk removal from her eyes. If not, it's been suggested that faster oil might help? Has anyone had any experience with that? As she gets more vitamins and liquid in her is it possible she will get more alert? She seems to be able to follow her flock around today. I would love to see her get more alert and independent.

In case she can't find the food/water dishes easily I bought some really bright and contrasting vinyl I can put around her food/water. It's bright pink and bright yellow. (Not too bright to scare her though) I can't imagine she would find anything similar in the yard. I know from having a mostly blind friend that they can see bright colors well. If I have to I'll make a tall pole to stick beside her food and water.


The other chickens hate me, but that's okay. They're not very friendly. They also don't like treats of any kind. At least I have ONE friendly chicken. My cat appears to be jealous of the attention the chicken is getting and has declared herself a chicken. I found her outside last night eating chicken pellets. So my chicken eats cat food and my cat eats chicken food. Great.

 

[Lyris]

In case someone else ends up with a blind chicken, I've found a way to help them know where the food is. I started by holding a tuna can mostly sideways and forcing her beak into the food. After a while she got the hang of it and realized shiny = good. (She's limited to being able to see about sic inches away, and not clearly at all) I then switched to a large shiny dog bowl. She didn't understand it at first. I ended up luring her to it by tapping my finger on the side and mimicking a chicken pecking. She heard the noise and came right over. It's now been twenty minutes and she's able to hit inside the dish all the time. If she misses she now knows how to aim. She listens for sounds from the flock to know it's safe. If the other chickens flap and startle her she stands up and sometimes turns, getting her lost or distracted. When that happens I tap on the food dish again. Since there's a 'chicken eating food' all must be well and she comes right back. When she digs a hole in the food I push it towards her when she stands up to swallow. (Quietly so it doesn't startle her)
After she spent a solid 40 minutes stuffing herself I tapped in the water right beside the bowl. She heard the water sounds and started walking towards it. Once she saw the red ring she recognized what it was and promptly splatted face first into it. Halfway there she decided that she really wanted to roost in the dish for the night and tried to stand on the edge. She wasn't about to abandon her food for water, silly thing. Once she was fed and watered she listened for flock sounds and went to go roost with them. She's so different from the chicken who showed up yesterday. You can tell she's starting to think and figure things out instead of sitting in the middle of the yard shaking.

Interestingly she seems to know I'm still here, even though she can't see me. Another chicken came over and bullied her a bit. She turned and walked right into my side, then followed my hand to the food dish and went back to it. We haven't bonded or anything. I've been outside with her maybe an hour in total. She's getting used to me picking her up though! Talk softly and make slow but steady movements.


I still have no idea what to do about her eyes. Though expensive I'll probably see if I can borrow the money to get her to a vet. Assuming we have a chicken vet around here. I'm still worried about a white chicken who is possibly sick as well. I'm watching her carefully.


So much for a cheap and mostly hands free way of keeping bugs down in the yard!

 

[Lyris]

Final update:

I had a lady who specializes in chicken rescues come by today. It was worse than I thought. One chicken is almost completely blind. Another has a blind eye. A third is partially blind in one eye. I think a fourth might also have a partial blindness. It's not caused by an infection like I thought. It's also not fowl pox. We also found two chickens with bumble foot, the chickens lowest on the pecking order either had incredibly long claws, or their claws have completely snapped off. They had some of the worst scaly leg mites the lady had seen in ages. One might have a deformed foot. They all had various injuries from fighting. One of them is mounting the others to the point of feather loss. One has sour crop (I think? Super hard crop, and it felt like she maybe swallowed something she shouldn't have) a different one was super dehydrated.

Considering all the damage they have, and the fact that they don't really know how to interact with humans, or even know what treats are, we are pretty sure these guys have been through some stuff. The blindness is likely due to an overcrowded coup and fighting. The nails are because the tougher chickens aren't letting the shyer chickens dig in the probably limited space they had. It's likely they didn't have proper roosting places, or had weeds in their space which caused the bumble foot. Mites are just because they weren't suffering enough.

The end result is that the three chickens that were getting picked on and will have sight issues went home with the rescue. That includes the sour crop one. She's already got a setup for blind chickens, and has had several before. They all got mite treatment, an antibiotic (I think. One was blue, the other white. Corrid I think?) They had their nails filed down. The dehydrated one went home with the rescue lady and will likely be force hydrated. I have a feeling the blind one will be force fed for a bit until she's healthier. She was fantastic at getting the syringe way down their throat. I also have iodine for the various wounds from fighting. The five chickens who remain with me are apparently very well bonded and behave very well together. The lady said the alpha will be an incredible protector of the flock, and the fact that the alpha has a Mini Me is wonderful. They work very well together from what she saw. The three she took are also very close to each other and will make a very nice small flock. I highly doubt any of them have been allowed to free range. They stay in an area about six feet by eight feet. Non of them know how to eat pellets. They'll eat mash okay, but pellets seem to confuse them. I'm going to start mixing some with their mash so they get used to it.

So in the end it wasn't pus in their eyes, it was a very unfortunate situation where their owners were ignorant and neglected them. They're lucky we happen to have a chicken rescue expert around who was willing to come over and take care of them. They deserve peace and a place to just be a chicken.

The good news is apparently one of the chickens I have is a breed that absolutely loves to destroy your lawn and will turn it all into dirt piles. She meant it as a caution, but I'm thrilled. Once I teach them how to be a chicken I'll expand their roaming area and let them loose on the grasshoppers and snakes. It's likely I'll have to catch grasshoppers for them for a bit, which is okay. Currently they've discovered the hundreds of fallen apples outside and basically only eat those and mash. If the one chicken gets back on her feet and feels the need to make a mess, she's welcome to it. If not, she still has a home with me. I can add the rescue chickens to my rescue fish, cats, cockatiels, a dog, six kittens, and a ferret. The universe doesn't listen when I say I'm through rescuing things.

I guess the main takeaway is that chickens get cataracts which look like white spots in the middle of their eyes. Don't overcrowd your space people!!

 

[coach723]

I'm glad you were able to find help, information, and a good home for those who needed it. Best of luck with the rest of them, hope they all do well. Sadly, there are chickens living in those kind of conditions all the time.