Little chick with white thing one eye...HELP.

[Sunne73]

One of my new chicks (5 days old) is keeping her eye closed. Its not swollen or pussy but the area underneath the eye which is usually black is red and when I open her eye (much to her dismay) I see a tiny white spot. What is this and what can I do about it?

 

[Chick1043]

Sorry ): bump

 

[Erica]

Hi Sunne73,

A photograph would really help. It's quite hard to know what you're describing or how to help without being able to visualise.

But my thought would be some kind of sharp impact, e.g. another bird's beak, a piece of sticking-out wire... That's only guessing of course.

It may be a good idea to bathe the eye/eyelid with salty water (one teaspoon salt per one cup boiled cooled water). You could also use betadine (iodine) but I'm not sure that's the best thing to get in the eye, so perhaps salt water might be better.

Incidentally, when chicks are quite small, they're pretty vulnerable to wild birds like crows, which will often gang up to chase birds from one side to the other (each taking it in turn to peck through the wire). I had about 10 chicks all get pecked eyes when 2 crows worked together. It amazed me that the crows were able to attack through bird wire and hit each and every chicks' eyes, but they did.

Fortunately in my case the damage was only to the eyelids and eye surrounds.

Hope you can get a pic,
cheers
Erica