Hen is squinting, no other symptoms

[mlcrowley]

I did a search for squinting hens and it seems as though respiratory infection is the usual culprit? How long would that take to show other symptoms? Or for any of the other girls to get sick. When we first brought her home she was squinting, I assumed she got pecked during transport or something. The next day she seemed fine, so I forgot about it. The got in a tussle with our rooster about a week later and went and hid under a very thorny weed and when I picked her up, she had it closed again. Was thinking maybe the rooster got her or the weed she was under. Next day she seemed okay again. Today, it's squinting again, not sure what may have caused it this time. She seems totally fine otherwise. Eating, drinking, bathing, wandering and the usual. No sneezing from her or any of the others. No discharge or foaming from her eye. No foul odors. No one else is squinting either. Any ideas why she may be squinting? I'm thinking if it had been a respiratory infection it would have shown other symptoms by now?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would just look at it daily to see if she has a speck of dirt or any drainage in the eye. If you have some lubricating eye drops or plain saline, you can apply a drop to her eye a couple of times a day when you can catch her. High ammonia odors in a coop can irritate eyes to the point of corneal ulceration, so since you haven't had her long, she may have been subjected to that. Feed stores sell Terramycin eye ointment which is oxytetracycline, an antibiotic ointment, and also they sell Vetericyn eye gel or eye wash which are rather pricey, but somethings you may want to check out. You usually have to ask a clerk for the Terramycin.

 

[mlcrowley]

I would just look at it daily to see if she has a speck of dirt or any drainage in the eye. If you have some lubricating eye drops or plain saline, you can apply a drop to her eye a couple of times a day when you can catch her. High ammonia odors in a coop can irritate eyes to the point of corneal ulceration, so since you haven't had her long, she may have been subjected to that. Feed stores sell Terramycin eye ointment which is oxytetracycline, an antibiotic ointment, and also they sell Vetericyn eye gel or eye wash which are rather pricey, but somethings you may want to check out. You usually have to ask a clerk for the Terramycin.

I will ask for the Terramycin for sure, thank you! Hopefully washing it out will help her. She's pretty friendly and I've looked at her eye as close as I can when I've caught her before, and it doesn't appear that there's anything wrong with it. Nothing in there, no visible scratches, no swelling, cloudiness or anything else that I can tell. It's a mystery! She does open it now and again and will walk around wide-eyed like nothing has ever been wrong. We try to make sure our coop stays clean and open it up to air out every day. If it is from ammonia from her previous coop will it clear up with cleaner conditions? I just want to make sure it's not uncomfortable or painful for her, I don't mind if she walks around giving everyone stink-eye so long as she's healthy. Haha

 

[mlcrowley]

Well she seemed to be totally fine, then we had a couple days of really heavy winds and a bit of rain. Today her eye is bubbly. Our feed store is closed and they don't have the terramycin or vetericyn on their website so I'm gonna order it to be safe. Poor girl she's still not showing any other symptoms at all. In talking to my husband, the people we got them from were not cleaning the coop at all. He said he could smell it from across their yard. Perhaps why they were re-homing them. Anyhow, hopefully with cleaner conditions and this eye gel she'll clear up. Fingers crossed!

Not a great photo, but she likes to hang out outside our back door watching people TV as we call it. Haha

 

[Eggcessive]

I am not a vet, but the bubbles in the eye can be a sign of mycoplasma(MG.) I don't know if that is the only reason for bubbles, but I have one hen who has bubbles occasionally in her eyes on very cold windy days. She has no other issues. I gave my hen Tylan 50 injectable 1 ml twice a day fo 5 days. It can also be given orally.