HELP!! My young hen has a gooey eye!!

[chicken tender lady]

Hi, I would like to give some backround first before explain my problem with my hen. So you can fully understand what's going on. I just bought two new laying hens (approx. 13 months old). My husband and I bought them from a private party seller. We throughly looked them both over to check their overall health. Outside of some feather picking and feather loss they looked fairly healthy. So we brought them home did a 30-33 day quarantine. (Not exactly sure how many days but definitely more than 30). Then we did a 2 week intro process and carefully examined all birds for potential diseases. Everything at the time seemed okay so we proceeded with fully integration. Then pecking order took place and still is almost two months later after full integration. Which I know is normal.

Here's the problem: I have an easter egger. (One of my new hens) She's still laying, eating and drinking normally. About a week ago I discovered she had a very watery eye. (Her left eye). I thought it was just allergies or an eye irritation of some sort? So I started cleaning her affected area with eye wipes and using veteriycn antimicrobial eye wash. Then I applied terramycin ointment to her eyelids. Cause they seemed a little swollen. After that I couldn't take care of her for a couple days cause of work, drs appts, and other things coming up. I was still checking on her everyday when I go to feed them in the morning. Now I noticed that she has clear discharge running out of her eye down her beck and even getting on her feathers? I don't know what's going on or how to treat her? I'm trying to treat her at home myself being that we have no chicken vets in the area. I also can't afford vets at this time so that's not an option for me. If anyone has any suggestions on how to treat her? I don't want to lose my little girl! I have 7 lovely hens total most of them lay and I love them all! I'm a chicken mama! TIA! I will post pics too! So sorry such a long post!

 

[Debbie292d]

That yellow stuff on the first picture looks like infection. That has to come out. I'm surprised the Terramycin didn't clear this up, so maybe it's a sinus infection. For that, I'm pretty sure she'll need antibiotics. I've seen videos here on how you remove that infection, but basically, they rinsed it with saline and carefully used tweezers to pull it out, then softly push around the eye a little bit to push more infection out. Just be very careful not to poke her eye and wear latex/nonlatex gloves.

I'll see if I can find more about this or perhaps @Wyorp Rock or @Eggcessive are on and know exactly what to do.

 

[Debbie292d]

I found that Baytril and amoxicillin are two common antibiotics for infections like this.

I know the latter can be ordered and sometimes, like what we have, is called Fishmox or similar name. The Baytril can be ordered as well, and here's one place.

https://allbirdproducts.com/products/baytril-10

That same place has amoxicillin. https://allbirdproducts.com/pages/search-results-page?q=amoxicillin powder

Good luck with your pretty hen! I hope she gets better fast!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

For how many days did you apply the terramycin for and how many times a day? It should be applied for 7 days 2x a day to clear an infection and make sure it stays cleared.

 

[Eggcessive]

The yellow is most likely crusty eye drainage. If there is pus, then yes that should be removed. For an eye or respiratory disease I would use saline or eye wash twice a day, plus apply the Terramycin or plain Neosporin ointment to the eye twice a day. For respiratory infections which may be mycoplasma (MG,) the antibiotic she be able to treat mycoplasma that doesn’t have a cell wall. That would be Tylosin, Denagard, or oxytetracycline or doxycycline. Amoxicillin is not the best choice.

 

[chicken tender lady]

So sorry for my delayed response. I've been very busy! Thank you everyone for all your helpful advice! I tried my best to take care of her last week. And implementing some of the treatments mentioned above in your comments. But I had surgery on Monday so I've had to take a break from my chickens! Which has been a challenge for me cause I love my girls and look forward to seeing them every day! My husband has taken over taking care of the chickens while I recoup. He said her eye was shut yesterday. I haven't seen the chickens since Sunday. I did tell my husband to keep in eye on her to see if she gets worse. I don't expect him to take care of her like I was. It's not really his thing and he's busy taking care of me while I recoup and still trying to work! I just hope she can hang in there a little longer until I can get back on my feet! ❤