Help Me!!!

[iThOuGhTfLuFfYwAsAgIrL!]

Hi, I'm new to this forum (I was recommended it by some of the people on pigeontalk.net xD)

Anyway, I recently was given this pair of silkie chicks who are about 2 months old, give or take. One of them has a swollen left eye, which i treated with antibiotics but there is still a swollen upper lid and some white discharge which is slightly worrying. Is there soemthing seriously wrong with her?? The other one seems fine and is very (!) dominant and has perfectly normall eyes.

Also, they live part-time with 3 quails and a pigeon...Are there any risks there?

When can I move them out into the quail/pigeon cage permanently? Also (sorry long post) when will they grow big? They are literally so small I can cup them in one hand!!!! How big do they grow to? And when do they start laying eggs?

Thanks

♫ fluffy ♫

 

[easton coop]

Hi, I'm no expert, but I have read that keeping different birds together can be a problem. Quail and carry disease that hens can catch and vis-versa! I would keep them apart, maybe also the chicks, however as I said I'm not an expert, but am sure some one will be on BYC. Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

 

[elmo]

If there is still a white discharge, I'd suspect that the infection is still present. You may not have given the antibiotics for long enough. Can you take this chick to a poultry vet?

Many people keep birds in a mixed aviary with no problems but you do have to be careful about which species you mix and how your aviary is set up. First of all, it needs to be large enough so that every bird has enough space. Different species mix best when they occupy different levels of space. For example, ground birds like chickens tend to work ok with pigeons because the pigeons tend to stay up high while the chickens stay down low. Your quail and chickens will occupy the same level, so you need to make sure there's no bullying going on. And since one of your birds has an unidentified infection, I'd be concerned about possibly spreading this disease to your other birds.

When you move your chickens depends entirely on what your other housing arrangements are. I'm not sure what you're really asking about with this question.

I don't have Silkies, myself, so I can't answer any of your questions about the breed. But here's a link to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie

Not sure about Silkies, but many breeds of chicken start laying at around 5 months old.

 

[iThOuGhTfLuFfYwAsAgIrL!]

Has anyone encountered this problem before? I tried using the eyedrops which I have to apply 3 times a day but does anybody know if an ointment is better? I don't want to blind her! :O

@ elmo- I mean, they sleep inside at night because it's winter where I live and i am worried they will freeze.

♫ fluffy ♫

 

[elmo]

iThOuGhTfLuFfYwAsAgIrL! :

Has anyone encountered this problem before? I tried using the eyedrops which I have to apply 3 times a day but does anybody know if an ointment is better? I don't want to blind her! :O

@ elmo- I mean, they sleep inside at night because it's winter where I live and i am worried they will freeze.


♫ fluffy ♫

I wouldn't try to move birds from indoors to outdoors during the winter, even full grown ones. They won't be acclimated to the temperature and they could very well die. Move them when the outside temps are closer to what they're used to indoors.​

 

[Swampwood]

How long have you been giving the eye drops and, how long has birdy had infection? You got to give it some time to work, if no improvement in a few days/week, you may have to switch ATB gtts. as the infection may be resistant to that ATB.
Should be no difference(work equally well) in drops or ointment.

 

[iThOuGhTfLuFfYwAsAgIrL!]

@ Swampwood

This chick had the infection when I got it...probably for a month or so
I'm not sure when it started but it almost disapppeared at one point then it came back! The other chick shows no sign of infection