Help Chicks Eye Has Stuff Coming Out Of It & Won't Keep It Opened!

[ambermarie]

I'm out of town, and won't be back until Friday evening, and my sister just informed me that my baby Black Australorp, who is about 10wks old, had its eye halfway opened & half shut, so she opened its eye a little, to see what the problem was, and stuff came out...WHAT IS THIS? PLEASE HELP! I don't want my chickens hurt or anything to happen to them!

 

[threehorses]

This could be anything from a simple vitamin A deficiency, to an injury, just some dust in the eye, or a respiratory condition.

For us to best help you, we need a good bit of details. Could you answer the questions from the link below into this thread? That helps us establish a basic flock history so that we can more accurately help you. Right now we would be making very uneducated guesses which would only waste your time.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569 <-- the post

Also, add any details at all that involve your birds. NO details are too small or insignificant. Bedding type, how many birds per the coop and how big it is, if it's been rainy there, anything unusual that has ever happened, where the birds are from - all of your birds as they all impact this baby, etc.

The more info we have, the better able we are to give you a good accurate answer that you deserve.

Thank you so much and I look forward to your reply.

PS: As soon as you can, rinse the eye gently with saline eye wash. Get some Terramycin ointment from the feedstore or vet (it's over-the-counter) and start appllying that to the eye daily. She should be eating crumbles, a little yogurt or another live-bacteria probiotic, possibly some boiled egg yolk. Baby vitamins (Enfamily PolyViSol non-iron) 2 drops in the beak daily will help with healing as it's a very good source of vitamin A, essential to respiratory and eye health and healing. Giving it in the beak not via water is more effective as it's sensitive to light. I got my vitamins at Walmart, the vitamin section.

 

[ambermarie]

Bird is a Black Australorp apprx 10wks old
Won't open eye completely, when eye is forced opened, stuff comes out of it
No bleeding, or anything...just stuff coming out of the eye
I don't know what could have happened...chicks got out of the coop this morning, but were put back in
I feed my chickens a mix of oats, chicken pellets, and a purina chicken feed...I just switched them to this mixture, were on grower.
I don't know about poop, all my chickens are together, but all the poop looks normal.
I haven't done anything, but try to find chicken vets near me, and mobile barnyard vets..still can't find any

I want to take to a vet but I can't find one near me! I'm in Charlotte, NC
I use Pine Shavings as bedding, just put a little hay in the 2 nest boxes, over the shavings. They have a chicken tractor which is 4' wide X 10' long X 4 1/2' tall...I have 6 10wk chicks, and I recently purchased a female chicken & a rooster (have no idea of age or anything) from the flea market. I figured out I should have quarantined them after I had already adding them to the coop. The coop is in a 20'x20' chain link kennel...so they can free-run in the grassy area. I know I need a bigger coop, but can't afford to build anything right now, which is why I purchased the kennel, so they'll have more room. I'm only 18, and doing 2 schoolings, so can't afford the wood & everything to build my big dream house for a chicken coop

But do have some money to pay for vet bills or medication...will post pics as soon as I can! I'm not home with them right now, my mom is taking care of them & she told me about the eye...I'll be home Friday & take & post as soon as I can!

I REALLY WISH I COULD FIND A VET OR SOMETHING NEAR ME! ANYONE KNOW OF ONE? IM IN MOUNT HOLLY, NC....NEAR CHARLOTTE, NC
I don't mind driving, just want my chickens to be healthy & everything! PLEASE HELP!

 

[ambermarie]

Oh yeah, I have 8 chickens total...6 are the younger ones, that I bought at a feed store...she said they've had all their shots, and they looked extremely healthy & clean...the 2 I bought from the flea market, were dirty...and the female for some reason her 'butt (or is it where eggs came from) is red, and maybe looks swollen...their is also no feathers there...anyone know anything about this?

 

[threehorses]

I suspect that bringing the new chickens home also brought home some "bug". Alternately, it could be that the new chickens in the barnyard caused a bit of a pecking-order change and there might be an injury.

In any case, I would get saline eye wash or sterile eye wash from the drug store and clean out the eye thoroughly. The eyes drain into the choanal opening (cleft in the roof of the beak) which in turn drains into the digestive tract. The drainage (which might contain bacteria) will drain into the digestive tract. So to prevent secondary diarrhea, I would give him some probiotics. In fact, I'd give that to them all because of the stress of new birds. You can use plain unflavored yogurt (as long as you're not medicating with -mycin or -cycline drugs), or you can use a prepared probiotic like acidophilis capsules from the vitamin section of the pharmacy or some grocery stores, or Probios brand dispersible powder found at many feedstores.

Whichever probiotic (living bacteria - not a medicine) you choose, add it to smoething that the bird will eat quickly as a treat. Eggs, the powder sprinkled on bread, the yogurt mixed with a little water and then mixed with crumbles and left to set til it absorbs, etc.

On the eye, if you can get a small tube of Terramycin Ophthalmic (eye) ointment from the feedstore or a vet (it's over the counter) then I would use a small "ribbon" of that in the eye daily. Clean the eye about 10 minutes before medicating to remove the gunk, then put the ribbon on the bottom eyelid's shelf so that it melts into the surface of the eye.

If you're not seeing any more respiratory symptoms, and picking him up and listening carefully to his breathing reveals no rales, wheezing, hiccups, rattles, or 'snicks' (small cough/sneezes) you might get by with just boosting his immunity and treating the eye topically.

To be safe, I would pick up a package of antibiotics while at the feedstore. Duramycin is ok, Tylan and LS50 are fabulous. Sulmet's another good one to have on hand for its effectiveness against Pasteurella and Coryza. I don't believe this is that - just some respiratory something or eye injury.

Some birds also get what is colloquially called a "one eye cold". And there's also "eye worm" to consider. Really it's nearly impossible to tell without further investigation. But in all cases, buying a small bottle of VetRx at the feedstore (even the rabbit version, or Marshall Pet's Peter Rabbit Rx from Petsmart or Petco) will help somewhat. When I have a bird with an indistinct eye issue, possibly respiratory, I will use diluted VetRx on a q-tip and swab the roof of the mouth where that opening is. The fumes to into the eye's sinuses. It also helps the chicken to breathe better in case there's something respiratory brewing. It won't harm if there is an eye injury alone. I would use the terramycin in the eye, but the VetRx to clean the nostrils and that roof opening just in case. One bottle (2 ounces) lasts ages as you usually dilute it.

In fact, I used that this year when I brought home some new birds and one bird developed a bit of a swollen conjunctiva of the eye and sneezed once. I treated as I've described to you and never saw another issue with it.

As for the vent and cloaca (the rear end and the anus/reproductive opening), you'll want to check the bird carefully for mites to rule them out. They're nearly microscopic, and they only get on the birds some nights, so check at night a few times this week - with aflashlight (and the coop lights on) to help you find them. Check every inch of her body.

She could also have 'vent gleet', basically a fungal/yeast infection. That can cause problems including vent reddening, irritation, and feather loss. Feeding her and the others the probiotics can help with this.

Giving them all some organic apple cider vinegar in the water will also help if there's a yeast/fungus issue inside due to bacterial inbalance or a nasty environment where she came from before the flea market. It might also help if your eye-sick chicken has excess mucus in his throat. 1 teaspoon OACV (organic only for the bacteria in it please) to 1 gallon of water. It compliments the yogurt's or probiotic's activity, helps correct gut acidity, helps them digest their food better, and helps them be more thrifty. I'd do it every other day this week, then just weekly or monthly as a "tune up" along with the yogurt.

In the old days, they used to recommend feeding milk products to chickens - but in the old days, they weren't pasteurized clean of the lactobacilli in the products. Now, they do clean them of bacteria - but they replace those bacteria into yogurt which is why birds can eat a little (1 teaspoon per bird) without problems, and with good effects instead.

Just watch the young one - separate him just in case, keep him warm, make sure he eats as a lot of their feeding drive is visual. Then let us know if you see anything different or any changes.

 

[ambermarie]

Hi, okay I've noticed today my older female hen (that was red and feathers missing) has alot more feathers gone! Around her neck area, her legs...I can actually see almost her whole leg on one side....under her wings, etc! I also noticed some diarrhea in the coop...I don't know who it came from, but I'm guessing her, since she has the feather issue as well.

Please help! I have the one with the eye infection inside, in a cage. I gave her food, water w/ vinegar, and yesterday cooked an egg, and mixed it with some prepared baby milk, and gave that to her. At first she wouldn't eat anything, she just layed their...but I opened her beak a little and put some milk in it, and it came out her nose. I finally got her eating out of the bowl, and she ate almost all of it, so thats good.

Her nose is crusty...their was some orange/yellow colored 'snot' on the outside nose holes.

The other eye is starting to get bad too! The puss is a cloudy white color....we push all the puss out, and then clean her eye out.

I have my camera but not my uploader! So I can't upload pics if I take them!

I hope nothing is wrong with my chickens! The others appear fine! The female with the feathers missing is eating and everything...when I bring her scraps, yogurt, fruits, etc. she comes running..but she just looks horrible..and I also wanted to know if it is contagious...because I don't want her spreading it to others.

 

[threehorses]

The milk of the yogurt wasn't the beneficial part - it's the bacteria in it that you want. Milk itself isn't necessarily something you want to give much of because the lactose is still intact. And also you don't want to pour anything in their beaks - if you have to give some, get a dropper and dribble it against the side opening of their beak. Now you'll want to watch her breathing in case she inhaled any of the liquid milk. The eating is good news though!

Keep her nose cleaned - with q-tips, q-tips laced with VetRx is the best. But at least warm water. The more air that gets in there, the better she'll heal.

And yes - she definitely has something respiratory. Smell her - see if the stuff in her face smells "fetid" or nasty. You should honestly at this point put her on an antibiotic. Duramycin is what most people have available. You will want to give it full dosage as her only source of water. No sips, no light solutions of it. When you get the package, email me or post here and we'll figure out the true dosage for it. There are a lot of "oh 1 teaspoon will do" things going around the internet. But you want to go by the specific package for the specific age for treatment, not prevention. For Duramycin 10 by Duravet, it's 2 teaspoons per gallon for prevention in chicks, but 3 teaspoons per gallon for adult or for treatment in a bird who won't be drinking much and is young. Measuring spoon teaspoons.

Other (better imho) options are LS50 or Tylan. Sulmet will work for some illnesses such as coryza (the smelly one) or pasteurella. It's nealy impossible to tell exactly what bacteria this is without a "culture and sensitivity" but those are some drugs to have in your cabinet for emergencies.

Definitely keep him apart from the others, making sure to do his chores last so you don't spread what he has to others unnecessarily.

On your older hen, did you check for parasites, etc? on her skin? As for the diarrhea, the probiotics (Yogurt - not milk, acidophilis capsules, or a prepared probiotic like Probios brand) should help until you can figure out if the diarrhea is actual diarrhea, not just a cecal dropping, etc. It will also help through treatment if it is indeed an illness - not just a cecal dropping (which looks like diarrhea, no white urates on top of it, usually rusty brown or like bad chocolate pudding).

By the way, the baby will have to have probiotics during medication but you can NOT use yogurt if you use any medication whose active ingredient ends with -mycin or -cycline. For those cases, you'd want to use Probios (from the feedstore) or acidophilis capsules or tablets from the vitamin section of the grocery store or a pharmacy or health food store. I would **highly** recommend either the acidophilis or Probios for all of your birds.

If you treat with antibiotics, it often overwhelms the good and essential bacteria of the bird's gut and kills them off. When they die off, there's less competition for the bad bacteria and fungi/yeast and they bloom and make the bird more sick. So boost his good bacteria any time you find one sick with something that has **live** lactobacilli in it - just not yogurt during treatment.

This is very very important.

I'd get that baby on antibiotics today while he still can breathe to try to help avoid lower respiratory involvement.