One yucky eye, nothing else

[tikidoc]

One of our hens, a Light Brahma, currently has one runny, puffy eye, and the surrounding facial tissues are puffy. There is some frothy discharge from the corner of the eye. Smells a bit but not terrible. The other eye is normal. No nasal drainage, no other symptoms at all. She's eating fine, no diarrhea. We have her isolated and have a call in to the vet, but I'm not terribly confident with our vet on chicken issues. No other symptoms from any other birds. Suggestions?

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

Just keep it clean until the vet can get there, because you don't want it to get infected.

Best of Luck

-Austin

 

[wateboe]

Flush the eye with a boric acid solution (do a search for "boric acid eye wash solution" for the recipe) twice a day and apply Terramycin eye ointment (lift the upper eyelid and apply a thin strip
on the eye under that lid.) Untreated eye infections (either alone or along with a respiratory infection) can easily lead to blindness in chickens. I have one of these partially blind chickens (untreated) and a handful of her pals who were treated and are still sighted because of it. Yes, it is usually a two-person job!

Boric acid powder can be found at full-service pharmacies... you might even be able to find pre-mixed eye wash.

 

[tikidoc]

Do you get the teramycin at the vet? Feed store? Need a prescription???

Thanks!

 

[wateboe]

I believe that I bought my Terramycin at the local Tractor Supply Company store, but my local independent feed store stocks it as well. I think that it is a pretty standard feed-store item because it can be used for many types of livestock.

Good luck, and watch for other respiratory symptoms, as the eye problems can sometimes be the first sign of respiratory diseases. I hope that it is just an isolated problem for you!

 

[kinnip]

I had some trouble finding Terramycin eye ointment at my feed stores. If you can't find it locally, Jeffers has it on their website as does Premier1.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

You can find it at a vets office too.

 

[MakNat]

I make my own terramycin eye ointment with puralube ointment (walmart) use a 3cc syringe with 1cc of hot water and about a capsules worth of the terramycin power and squirt alittle less than 1cc of ointment in there. The hot water dissolves the powder and melts the ointment. Shake it real hard. I have to warm it up everytime I use it. Sink the whole syringe in hot water. Works good for my chickens!!!