Hen won’t open eyes

[Natmer]

My silkie hen (about 5-6 months old) refuses to open her eyes. It’s been like this for around 5 days now, and while at first she opened them occasionally, now she doesn’t at all. 3 days ago I moved her inside with food, water, and a heat lamp, and gave her a scrambled egg which she ate. I made another egg yesterday and she hasn’t even touched it. She’s also now making odd head movements and has gotten much quieter. Does anyone have any ideas as to what illness she has?

 

[The-White-Elephant]

My silkie hen (about 5-6 months old) refuses to open her eyes. It’s been like this for around 5 days now, and while at first she opened them occasionally, now she doesn’t at all. 3 days ago I moved her inside with food, water, and a heat lamp, and gave her a scrambled egg which she ate. I made another egg yesterday and she hasn’t even touched it. Does anyone have any ideas as to what illness she has?

@MysteryChicken @azygous @Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

 

[Natmer]

She may have a vitamin deficiency, or possibly an injury somewhere, possibly a head injury.

She did get attacked fairly brutally by one of my americaunas not long before this happened. Are there any treatments I could try?

 

[azygous]

It won't hurt anything to treat her for shock, dehydration, and hunger.

You didn't answer my question - is she able to drink on her own? This is very important.

 

[azygous]

That's a huge plus. Do this right now - Mix a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar stirred in. Do you have Poultry Nutrid-drench on hand? Squirt a little into the water and give this to her to drink. It's sweet, so she should have at it if she's strong enough to drink on her own. If she won't drink this, you will need to tub it or syringe it into her. Can you do that?

 

[MysteryChicken]

My silkie hen (about 5-6 months old) refuses to open her eyes. It’s been like this for around 5 days now, and while at first she opened them occasionally, now she doesn’t at all. 3 days ago I moved her inside with food, water, and a heat lamp, and gave her a scrambled egg which she ate. I made another egg yesterday and she hasn’t even touched it. She’s also now making odd head movements. Does anyone have any ideas as to what illness she has?

She may have a vitamin deficiency, or possibly an injury somewhere, possibly a head injury.

 

[azygous]

All we can tell you about a chicken that won't open her eyes is what you already know, she's sick. We can't tell you what's making her sick. We need clues for that. To get clues, we need more information and we need to start ruling out possible causes to try to arrive at a possible reason she's sick.

You just gave us a clue in your last post. Describe the attack and what you found in the way of injuries. When was this? What was her behavior after the attack? Has she been eating and drinking since the attack? Or not?

It's possible she's injured and is suffering delayed shock as well as dehydration and hunger if she stopped eating and drinking. Will she drink on her own? Or not?

 

[Natmer]

Any update on how she is doing?

Not much better. She only opens her eyes when she’s picked up or in a dangerous situation, and even then only for a second and keeps her third eyelid closed. I can only get her to eat/drink by feeding her eggs with nutridrench water

 

[Natmer]

Good to hear about the pinkeye that explains a lot. I so hope she gets better with antibiotics please keep us updated on this cutie.

The test results got back and she doesn’t have mycoplasma. The vet’s next best guess is Marek’s but she doesn’t really have any symptoms and as far as I know our flock doesn’t have Marek’s. Might go to another to get a second opinion

 

[Natmer]

All we can tell you about a chicken that won't open her eyes is what you already know, she's sick. We can't tell you what's making her sick. We need clues for that. To get clues, we need more information and we need to start ruling out possible causes to try to arrive at a possible reason she's sick.

You just gave us a clue in your last post. Describe the attack and what you found in the way of injuries. When was this? What was her behavior after the attack? Has she been eating and drinking since the attack? Or not?

It's possible she's injured and is suffering delayed shock as well as dehydration and hunger if she stopped eating and drinking. Will she drink on her own? Or not?

The Attacker jumped on her, chased her, and pecked her. Afterwords, she was very scared, like a hawk had just attacked. For a few days after, she didn’t travel much beyond the coop but still ate and drank. I thought maybe she needed her crest trimmed again. When I trimmed her crest, I noticed that she kept her eyes closed and thought it was just her being scared of the scissors, as she did open her eyes after, but her behavior didn’t change, it just got worse, though she still drank and ate some. After that, I brought her in.