Peafowl with a swollen eye - HELP!

[RoseRanch]

I have a peahen who has had a swollen eye for several weeks. It must not be contagious because my other 6 do not have this problem and never have. I had her since last year and this is the first time this has happened. I read that you could give 2cc of Tylan in the muscle then repeat in two days. Did not help any.
Then I read to give 1cc orally for 3-4 days in a row, and wash the eye with Tylan. Also said to inject Tylan directly into the swollen area. When I did that it basically drained bak out and some blood drained out also. not sure what that means. It helped a little but not much and it is now swollen up again.
I have also tried using Gallimycin in the water. Its been about three weeks now it is still swollen about the size of a golf ball. I read somewhere that you could lance below the eye and drain what is in it, but I was afriad to try that.
Several people have told me that this is probably becasue of all the wind we have had lately and that they get eye infections easily. She looks terrible! I feel so bad for her. She coughs and scrathes at it.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

Give her an injection 2cc of Tylan 200, Baytral (well I can't spell it) would be best. If it is already hard like a rock you may have to cut it out

, I have never had to cut one out so I can't help you there, you can go to this website www.peafowl.org go to there forum and on the Health section someone else had the same problem and I think they told how to do it.

It is in the Health section, under Cyst Removal Process has step by step instructions also has pictures of the process

 

[chickenzoo]

Please post a pic if you can. Their are different Respiratory illness that require different treatment. Baytril is a good last resort med, but you don't want to use it too often or not enough that the illness builds tolerance to it, because then your... screwed. You can order from allbird products.com and get it in a liquid form for parrots....

 

[afeatherfan]

My male peacock had a swollen eye for 2 or 3 month and I think it was sinus trouble ( me thinking) anyway I gave him one shot of tylan 50>> 2 cc or so and it fixed him right up. I would have gave him a shot sooner but that little brat wouldn't let me catch him, an then one day i was walking by him an snached him right up >>go figure. I caught him off guard.

 

[RoseRanch]

Thanks so much for the info!! We will get her caught and try to cut it. Should I maybe put some iodine on the cut afterwards? I will try to get before and after photos to post. Thanks again for all the advice. Will let you know what happens, thanks guys!

 

[barryk]

Most likely this is the remaining fluid build up from it having sinusitus witch has hardened . With you treating it and it didnt go away it has probly gotten hard in wich you will have to surgicaly remove the lump it is a very easy procedure if you pm me I will go through the it with you.

 

[RoseRanch]

Thanks for all the replies!! We cut her and got some hard yellow stuff out about the size of a pea. I thought we would get more than that as swollen as it was. I gave her an antibiotic shot and put some iodine on her where we cut it out.
Is there anyway to know how long it will take for her to heal and sweeling go down. Shes just a little puffy now. I assume it will be several days to a week. I hope we got it all out.

Thanks for all the help, i will keep you posted and let you know how she is doing!

 

[Resolution]

I don't know why people always suggest using antibiotics without knowing for certain what the illness is. This is very dangerous for everyone involved.
As long as I've been at this some thirty years I've heard people say to use this antibiotic and that one but having spent some time working in animal health, and very specifically with birds, I can assure you that we generally are doing so much more harm than good, it's just not worth it. I don't want to come off like one of these jackalopes that rides roughshod on one opinion either.

Prevention is the best medicine. If that fails, do cut out the infected sinus pocket but what I might do differently is to irrigate the site with three in one saline solution for contact lenses. It's really important to gain an understanding of the source of the infection and just how and where it starts and you'll understand why a shot of antibiotic is only going to knock some symptoms until the bird's immune responses are overwhelmed again.

Pelleted food that disintegrates in ambient moisture-mashes and crumbles- this is one half of the source of your biggest trouble.
If you raise birds you probably are probably already familiar with the avian respiratory system . Some of the information out there can be intimidating but if you give it a chance and a few careful read throughs- you'll be relieved how much information is out there.

At any rate, here are some issues worth thinking through. Peafowl tend to be fed in captivity like domestic turkeys or worse yet chickens. They are unlike either of these species obligatory predators of both invertebrates and small animals. They cannot digest vegetable protein with the same efficiency as these domestic species.
This often results in nutritional deficiencies during critical periods within their life cycles. Immune functions are disabled when the birds lack certain key amino acids and micronutrients.

Getting back to the pellets and crumbles. When chicks are very small they are fed mashes so fine that they are easily inhaled. Naturally, a good deal of this ends up in the bird's respiratory tract. What is more, feather dander and fecal material tend to mix with the dust created from these feeds to generate a bacteria rich grime termed poultry smut. The birds generally ingest this and get it in their eyes and nares through preening as it covers everything.

Regardless, the chicks inhaled feed particulates as chicks and this when they got into trouble as feed particulates are lodged throughout their nasal passages and even in their air sacs. Eventually, this will lead to infection. Many birds will be able to shrug it off but those with nutritional deficiencies or under duress, or those that are in reproductive mode will not.

Feeders need to be located as far off the ground as possible- on a table with a vinyl tablecloth for example. Never let the birds fecal material come anywhere near their food. Sanitizing roosts is very important as well because the birds will track their own manure onto the perches and then end up preening their plumage- thereby ingesting fecal material.

So here are a few solutions.

1. switch away from pellets and mashes. Look for an extruded kibble. You'll feed half as much feed and save money over time. There is no waste involved and no dust.
The birds digest their food more efficiently, even the vegetable proteins because it has been cooked entirely. MAZURI makes an exotic pheasant extruded kibble in several different formulations. This could be a very good maintenance diet for them but Peafowl are not pheasants and actually require a higher percentage of animal protein than the pheasants that the feed is formulated for. During the period leading up to the breeding season it will be important to supplement the peafowl with animal fat, for example, bird suet, not much- just a bit every other day for a few weeks just before breeding commences. About the same time, supplement the kibble with good old fashioned cat food. When the birds are about to moult it will be important to put them on a diet that is as high in animal nutrition as possible. Some people raise guppies just for that purpose. There is a product called Ultrakibble that is by far the best product for peafowl on the market. It's 40% protein and that is almost entirely digestible protein in an extruded kibble versus a dusty pellet formulated for the largely vegetarian turkey and ring neck pheasant. You've never heard of a turkey or ring neck pheasant eat snakes or lizards have you? But its common knowledge that peafowl are excellent reptile hunters. This is just one example of why peafowl tend to suffer badly in close confinement- its largely the diet. Many zoos use Ultrakibble as the maintenance feed for rare birds like Congo Peafowl and Argus. They used to use cat food until the product came onto the market. So you have three choices, cat food, mazuri pheasant kibble and ultrakibble- but whatver you do get off the pellets and mashes until you own a power washer and can sterilize your enclosures on a regular basis.

2. provide a fantastic dust bath- grab a wading pool and fill it with DE, powdered lime and wood ashes from the fireplace, some playground sand lots of cinnamon powder, black pepper, curry powder, cumin etc. These spices can be purchased at a dollar store for loose change. Why spices? They're natural antibacterials, anti inflammatories and send parasites a running. They can be inhaled to some degree and unlike feed particulates, they bind on to mucus so the offending material can be expunged.


3. Cover the ground with leaf litter and or pine needles to help the birds avoid coming into contact with manure.

4. Sterilize the water containers every few days- would you drink out of it? If so do so. If it passes your taste/slime test you're good to go.