Guinea Keet swollen eye, birth defect or disease?

[guinearaiser]

Hey,

I have used BYC to help raise 15 healthy and strong guineas and have now chosen to buy 9 more to add to the flock. I purchased the 9 new keets 4 days old and have had them for another 5 days. They are all looking strong and healthy except for one who is slow, tiered and has a swollen eye. The eye remains closed most of the time but occasionally when opened looks to be almost growing outside the head. The poop looks to be normal but I have noticed this keet is eating and drinking less often. I have separated this keet from the group but now want to see what solutions are out there and to first establish if this is a disease or if it is a birth defect.





If it is too hard to determine based on these pictures I can upload a few more or a video.

Thanks to the BYC community, I appreciate your help!

 

[GitaBooks]

Wow. That's weird.

Is it oozing? Did it hatched/arrive this way?
I would try treating it for an injury with a salt solution and some ointment just to see what happens. If its a deformity there may be worse deformities inside of its body that you can't see, which may be what it causing its failure to thrive.

I hope it gets better soon. Best of luck!

 

[charid]

I have a keet like this as well. He doesn't look like he is going to make it. I hope I didnt poison the rest of my babies. I did not notice it at first and they are all in one brooder.

 

[charid]

Wow. That's weird.

Is it oozing? Did it hatched/arrive this way?
I would try treating it for an injury with a salt solution and some ointment just to see what happens. If its a deformity there may be worse deformities inside of its body that you can't see, which may be what it causing its failure to thrive.

I hope it gets better soon. Best of luck!

I am new at this, first hatch. When you say saline solution what do you suggest? Would visine or contact solution work or is their something specific to buy? Same on the ointment, antibacterial ointment for poultry? Its Sunday and our only Agri is closed. Also they have to special order anything that isnt feed. It would take a week. Right now I have him seperated, a box within the larger box. His eye does not ooze but it appears the ailment is contiguos with the skull and i suspect brain injury. Will the original poster keep me updated on the keet and perhaps share what you may have done to treat it? Thank you.

 

[GitaBooks]

I am new at this, first hatch. When you say saline solution what do you suggest? Would visine or contact solution work or is their something specific to buy? Same on the ointment, antibacterial ointment for poultry? Its Sunday and our only Agri is closed. Also they have to special order anything that isnt feed. It would take a week. Right now I have him seperated, a box within the larger box. His eye does not ooze but it appears the ailment is contiguos with the skull and i suspect brain injury. Will the original poster keep me updated on the keet and perhaps share what you may have done to treat it? Thank you.

Saline solution is one teaspoon of salt to one cup of water. Boil it and then cool it before using it to rinse the eye. For a swollen or runny eye conjuntivitis drops can be used. For an injury you can use terramycin eye ointment.
Keep him warm, calm, and offer electrolyte/vitamin water along with good quality food. You could even try some scrambled eggs for the extra nutrition and moisture (it's like the chicken soup of the poultry world).

Could you try posting a picture? That might help us to see what could be causing it.

I hope he gets better soon. Best of luck!

 

[charid]

He looks exactly like the pic above. I bought some eye rinse and sprayed it on his eye and rubbed it over the lid. I have some corona multi purpose ointment because the woman at Orshelns recommended it but I think it is simply Vaseline and it doesnt say for use on eyes but it also doesnt caution not to get it in the eyes so I dont know. I just handled him and he is in quarantine so next eye wash treatment I will take a pic. It got worse while I was gone but he is more active. Drinking his water. Eating some. He is only 1 day old though.

 

[guinearaiser]

The bird that I originally posted about and took the pics of ended up having a birth defect and was blind in the eye. This led it to struggle for a while with eating and drinking. He is now almost a full size bird but has taken a lot of special care to get there. Saline wash (Natural Tears) twice a day and a lot of help showing him his food and water. Quarantine until the keet has shown signs of strength then slowly try to integrate back into the flock. Do keep in mind though that integrating a weak bird will be a challenge. The natural pecking order will want to push the keet out of the group. I found having a portion of my coop sectioned off for him with his own water and food allowed for good growth in the later stages of life. My flock free ranged which did make having the blind bird pretty challenging as when he tagged along with the group he would always get lost. I ended up getting a few Silkie chickens who encouraged the blind one to stay back at the coop which worked well. Good luck with your keet and I'd say just make sure that in the next few weeks that it is eating and drinking well. Please feel free to ask me any other questions too if they arise!

 

[charid]

Once I put the mirror in with him I suspected he was blind in that eye. He is eating and drinking. He sleeps more than the others but he is also the youngest and segregated. Actually I made him a kleenex box nest and put that inside another box with window holes that I plasticked over so he can still see his siblings and they can see him. They are curious about the segregated bird but then go about their own business. Its actually quite difficult to see him left out. I believe he is going to live but like you said, his flock may turn on him or one day he may get lost. I dont handle my birds at all except to go in the brooder. So making a pet of him, I dont know, but think it could make it even harder for him as a flock member. The friendly birds always get picked on it seems.

 

[GitaBooks]

The bird that I originally posted about and took the pics of ended up having a birth defect and was blind in the eye. This led it to struggle for a while with eating and drinking. He is now almost a full size bird but has taken a lot of special care to get there. Saline wash (Natural Tears) twice a day and a lot of help showing him his food and water. Quarantine until the keet has shown signs of strength then slowly try to integrate back into the flock. Do keep in mind though that integrating a weak bird will be a challenge. The natural pecking order will want to push the keet out of the group. I found having a portion of my coop sectioned off for him with his own water and food allowed for good growth in the later stages of life. My flock free ranged which did make having the blind bird pretty challenging as when he tagged along with the group he would always get lost. I ended up getting a few Silkie chickens who encouraged the blind one to stay back at the coop which worked well. Good luck with your keet and I'd say just make sure that in the next few weeks that it is eating and drinking well. Please feel free to ask me any other questions too if they arise!

I'm so glad he made it, even though it was a lot of work. I'm glad he has some silkies to be his friends. : )

 

[charid]

The bird that I originally posted about and took the pics of ended up having a birth defect and was blind in the eye. This led it to struggle for a while with eating and drinking. He is now almost a full size bird but has taken a lot of special care to get there. Saline wash (Natural Tears) twice a day and a lot of help showing him his food and water. Quarantine until the keet has shown signs of strength then slowly try to integrate back into the flock. Do keep in mind though that integrating a weak bird will be a challenge. The natural pecking order will want to push the keet out of the group. I found having a portion of my coop sectioned off for him with his own water and food allowed for good growth in the later stages of life. My flock free ranged which did make having the blind bird pretty challenging as when he tagged along with the group he would always get lost. I ended up getting a few Silkie chickens who encouraged the blind one to stay back at the coop which worked well. Good luck with your keet and I'd say just make sure that in the next few weeks that it is eating and drinking well. Please feel free to ask me any other questions too if they arise!

The past few days I noticed the eyelid has sealed around the eye. Despite treating the eye it started to go dull and grey. Instead of frosting over the whole eyelid has sealed it up. Is that what happened to yours? My birds eye was not inset within the skull but on top. Your bird looks as if he just has an enlarged eyelid. Its hard to tell.