My hens eye is completely covered and she is acting weird

[Hunter81103]

I’m relatively new to having chickens and I have 6 and I noticed one that doesn’t move much at all, it will leave the coop but sit in one spot for quite a while, it won’t jump on the roosts either just sleeps on the floor, but she has stuff covering her eye and she can’t see out of the right one. She sits there with her head tucked and when she moves she lifts her head up and opens her mouth and repeats , any idea what is wrong ? I just got them a few weeks ago so I’m not sure what it could be

 

[Peaches Lee]

It's just the one eye or both? She's most likely not moving around a lot because she can't see and doesn't want to get hurt. You could try something like Artificial Tears ointment or another eye safe ointment and place a glob of it right above her eye, her body temp will melt it and should help her open her eye.

Not sure why it is closed, perhaps injury. I would place her on the roost at night. Good luck.

 

[Aapomp831]

She needs to be separated to a quarantine area for further observation. I would not place her on a roost at night, as she may injure herself trying to jump down. Also, well chickens are not nice to sick chickens and they may begin to bully her once they notice something strange. I would rinse the eye with a saline solution so you can get a better look, then determine the following.... does she have bubbles forming in the corners of her eyes? Is there a nasty smell coming from her face?
You can also get something called terramycin and slather that on the eye (it’s an ophthalmic antibiotic) after you’ve cleaned it with saline and see if that helps. But the first step is isolation - esp since she may be carrying something contagious.

 

[Hunter81103]

I may be wrong but I think it is an upper respiratory infection, she has all the symptoms but I may be wrong

 

[Hunter81103]

I may be wrong but I think it is an upper respiratory infection, she has all the symptoms but I may be wrong, I’m guessing like an antibiotic ?

 

[coach723]

Is vet care an option for you? They could test to see if it's viral or bacterial and try to ID what it is.
I would crate her now while you try to figure it out. Did all your birds come from the same place, at the same time? What other symptoms are you seeing? If you can contact the person you got them from, I would ask if they have respiratory illness in their flock.
If there are/were no other symptoms then it could just be an eye injury, but since you say there are other symptoms, then likely respiratory. She does not look like she feels well.
Use sterile saline to rinse the eye, apply warm, wet compresses to loosen the gunk and clean her up. See how the eye itself looks.
If you suspect a respiratory virus then you can try treating with a tetracycline medication (Doxycycline and Tylosin are common ones used depending on illness), and I would use some terramycin eye ointment in the eye a couple of times a day, most tractor supplies carry it. If you can't find that you can use plain neosporin in the eye same way.
Some respiratory illness's are chronic and treatment only treats the symptoms, the birds remain carriers, so they will become symptomatic again during times of stress. If it's one of those they remain contagious and will expose any other birds you bring into your flock.
You can get some medications for respiratory treatment here:
https://www.jedds.com/product-category/poultry/healthcare-poultry/medicine-poultry/

 

[Myrshine]

This looks like the classic start of the Mycoplasma Gallisepticum bacteria, also known as Chronic Respiratory Disease or MG/CRD. MG is an incurable disease. Antibiotics will help ease the symptoms, but this disease is chronic and may resurface within times of stress. Birds that “recover” will be lifetime carriers, spreading the disease to any new or healthy birds you may get. Infected hens can pass the bacteria vertically to the offspring, making newly hatched chicks sick with the disease. Chicks that end up surviving, will have stunted growth and will also be lifetime carriers of the disease too. I recommend that you keep a closed flock, meaning that you don’t take in any birds from others or giveaway/sell birds or eggs for hatching until all the infected birds die on their own.