Hen with an eye problem

[Moonkit]

I have a strange problem with my arucana hen.. First of all, a few weeks ago, she started molting. No big deal, I had 3 others start before her, so I guess they gave her the idea. She still looks rather raggedy, but is active, eats, and drinks with everyone else. She has not laid an egg since before she started molting.

However, upon inspecting her a day ago, I noticed that one of her eyes had what looked like a film of mucus over it. The iris beneath still seemed to be the normal color, but she was keeping the eye half closed. Checks on her feathers show that the molted ones are regrowing nicely (about half way grown back), she's still active, drinks, eats, fights with her sisters.. no problems getting on the roosting pole at night. I treated it with Teramycin (sp? It was a little yellow tube) but there has been no change. If anything, the eye looks more filmy now, but I still see good color in her iris. Its only the one side that's effected.

What is wrong with her? Do I need to separate her from her sisters? Dose the flock with Duramycin? I don't really want to separate her since its starting to get cold and the only place I have to keep her is in the garage (which is sadly the warmest room in the house). If I keep her there, I'm worried she won't acclimate properly to the cold and could get cold-shock when I put her back out when/if she heals.

Edit: She does have a habit about sticking her head under her neighboring hens on the roosting pole.. is it possible she simply scratched the eye and I'm panicking over nothing?

 

[Moonkit]

Anyone with any ideas?

 

[dawg53]

It's possible she couldve scratched her eye and caused some type of injury to it. Since there arnt any other symptoms such as respiratory eye problems, nor ocular marek's...I believe it's safe to say it's injury related. You can continue with the terramycin eye ointment if you wish, it may or may not help. However, be prepared that it's possible that she could go blind in that eye if the injury is severe enough.

 

[Moonkit]

Yeah.. I hope I'm panicking over nothing. She doesn't have any visible breathing problems, no discharge around the nose or anything.. and is just as active as the others. She's even putting on weight (something I've always had trouble with her on).. she is one of the more active chickens and always seems to be on the skinny side of things.

 

[ramirezframing]

had this happen a few months ago with a rooster, like yours everything else was fine. I did put him by himself and did nothing else, and his eye went to the point of being totallly grey and him not seeing out if it. But now you cant tell, as his eye and sight is back to normal. Other than that I cant help you as I found nothing to help him on it.

Hope she gets better

 

[dawg53]

I've had to trim the fluff/feathers from around the eyes on my EE (muff.) Sometimes a piece of fluff would get caught in her eye and I had to use a saline flush...to flush it out. Then I put neosporin in the eye to prevent any infection. It's kinda like getting an eyelash stuck in an eye...irritating as heck. Maybe it irritated her in that manner, not sure though, just a thought to be watchful for.

 

[Moonkit]

She does have a muff, but its never been large enough to get near her eyes. She's always been rather clear eyed.. my Polish and silkie have far more issues with feathers near the eye than she did... I see about getting a picture tonight if possible.. Its just hard because its dark when I get home now XD