Hen with sudden blindness

[CluckNDoodle]

My neighbor has an older flock, many of the chickens are 7-8 years old and she's starting to see weird ailments.

One of her hens is suddenly blind as of yesterday. There were zero symptoms prior to yesterday. She took her hen down from the perch and she started to walk into the back of her legs repeatedly. She checked both eyes and there doesn't seem to be any response with either eye. Any ideas what could cause this or how to treat it?

The other hen she's treating right now has canker if that could somehow be related but so far that hen has been the only one with canker in her mouth (she's being treated with antibiotics), the blind hen doesn't have any signs of canker or any other symptoms that she has noticed.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Pictures of the blind hen in question.

 

[azygous]

Have you and your neighbor isolated the hen to give her an exam? It's important to know that each eye works independently of the other, the right eye is for closeup, finding food, etc, and the left is for distance, watching for danger. Test both close and distance vision to accurately assess the degree of blindness, and to tell if both eyes or just one is affected.

Does the hen have any balance problems? Is she at all wobbly when she walks? Have you tried shining light into the eyes to see if the pupils react? Are both eyes equal in color of the irises and the shape and size of the pupils?

 

[azygous]

Sudden blindness like this has been reported here on BYC in the past. In the instances where the OP has thought to come back and update their thread, the blindness has just as suddenly reversed.

Meanwhile, a few tips on dealing with a blind chicken may be helpful. I have a blind hen and she needs her food and water to be in reliably the same place so she can find it. She also cannot compete for treats, so I segregate her to hunt and peck for her treats without the interference of other chickens. She takes ten times longer to eat than other chickens.

She may need help roosting at night and getting down.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Sudden blindness like this has been reported here on BYC in the past. In the instances where the OP has thought to come back and update their thread, the blindness has just as suddenly reversed.

Meanwhile, a few tips on dealing with a blind chicken may be helpful. I have a blind hen and she needs her food and water to be in reliably the same place so she can find it. She also cannot compete for treats, so I segregate her to hunt and peck for her treats without the interference of other chickens. She takes ten times longer to eat than other chickens.

She may need help roosting at night and getting down.

Thank you! I'll be sure to update the thread if that's the case. Fingers crossed!
My neighbor already pampers her fluffy butts quite a lot. She found that she was blind when taking her down from the perch so I'm confident that won't be an issue for extra attention. Thank you again for your assistance and hopefully it reverses!

 

[CHlCKEN]

Did you get an update on this gal? I'm wondering whatever happened.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Did you get an update on this gal? I'm wondering whatever happened.

She seemed to improve for a short time and then experienced complete blindness again. Even with additional special care, she seemed to no longer be thriving so the owner decided to put her down for lack of quality of life.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Have you and your neighbor isolated the hen to give her an exam? It's important to know that each eye works independently of the other, the right eye is for closeup, finding food, etc, and the left is for distance, watching for danger. Test both close and distance vision to accurately assess the degree of blindness, and to tell if both eyes or just one is affected.

I haven't been over to handle her blind hen myself but I did explain this to her yesterday and she said there wasn't any response from either eye.

Does the hen have any balance problems? Is she at all wobbly when she walks? Have you tried shining light into the eyes to see if the pupils react? Are both eyes equal in color of the irises and the shape and size of the pupils?

She hasn't noted any balance issues. I'll ask her to try a flashlight right now and to check the size of the pupils.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

It started pouring rain and her hen is under her truck so she's going to wait until it lets up some to check with a flashlight, thank you.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Have you and your neighbor isolated the hen to give her an exam? It's important to know that each eye works independently of the other, the right eye is for closeup, finding food, etc, and the left is for distance, watching for danger. Test both close and distance vision to accurately assess the degree of blindness, and to tell if both eyes or just one is affected.

Does the hen have any balance problems? Is she at all wobbly when she walks? Have you tried shining light into the eyes to see if the pupils react? Are both eyes equal in color of the irises and the shape and size of the pupils?

No reaction to the flashlight and the pupils are the same.