Please Help-- Chicken with swollen eye- is she sick?

[noisycottage]

1) Buff Orpington, about 1 year and nice big girl not sure of actual weight but a normal big range.

2) She is acting normal accept for SERIOUS broody behavior for about 2 weeks now despite kicking her off the nest a bunch. She has a swollen eye on one side and is scratching her eyes and comb and beak like they are itching her. She also has some almost blister looking marks on her waddles and on her comb. I can't tell whether she is scratching herself like crazy or whether I should be worried she is sick.

3) There is a black mark at the corner of the eye on the side that is swollen.

4) Because she is broody the other hens have been pretty annoyed with her and have opted to sit on her and try to kick her off the nest.

5) She hasn't been doing much since she took up the brooding but when I kicked her out and locked her out of the hen house this afternoon she went straight for the scratch and water. She normally eats scratch, organic feed and greens from our garden.

6) Luckily she pooped in front of me and it was regular consistency with some bright green but also white and otherwise looked like chicken poo.

7) We put triple anti-biotic cream on her eye this afternoon when I discovered it but we can't see whether it is working quite yet.

8 ) We would like to treat this ourselves since we usually do that but I don't know what I am dealing with and it is making me nervous.

9)see below for photos-- taken like 5 minutes ago.

10) We have a small hen house- it gets cleaned regularly and has pine chicken bedding. They have a perch and are quite happy. They also have a small hen yard though they do free range but can't for the last month due to us reseeding our yard. When the lawn is back in they will free range again on our tiny property.
We do NOT use chemicals so they would not have come into contact with feritilizers or anything like that.

We have had chickens before (when we had a small farm) but a sick chicken is new to us. It is giving me a tummy ache worrying about it. I can't tell whether she is sick or just got poked in the eye or whether sitting broody in the hen house has caused mites or something to irritate her skin. Research on the internet isn't helping at all-- it just keeps saying all the awful diseases she could have.

She is itching herself on her comb and rubbing her beak on the ground like it is itching her. If you look closely at the photos you can see there is a pale spot on the rear of her comb that is bit swollen that she keeps scratching (it now has a couple of small scabs back there) and she keeps scratching her eyes and beak and there is a pale almost blister looking mark on one of her waddles- you can see this well in the second photo. Oh and she has been FIGHTING to stay on that nest and won't go outside. She was kicked off today and promptly grabbed the egg our other hen had laid and tucked it under her neck and took off with it. She also won't tolerate being handled and is fighting if we try to do that. Probably because we keep taking her off the nest over and over and she is very annoyed about it.

Here are the photos I just took of her-- the ones where you see the black dot are the ones that show the swollen eye. Now I am paranoid that the other side looks swollen but I can't tell whether it is or not.

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

I hope someone with more knowledge can answer this soon, to me it looks like coryza cuz my chicks had it too. Please look up coryza and see if the symptoms match.

separate her from the flock asap just incase :x

 

[NotTheMomma]

wet foul pox???

I can't remember the treatment (fibro fog!) So search the site here. Contagious, isolate that hen. Good luck!

bright green but also white and otherwise looked like chicken poo. THIS ISNT NORMAL!! Gonna go look for site that lists symptoms and tells ya what it could be. and how to treat. BRB!

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS044

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/toc_200000.htm

check out the reference tab at the top of this forum and see if the other link is tehre!!

Edited to add links

 

[NotTheMomma]

coryza link:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206600.htm

 

[NotTheMomma]

eye disorders:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS031

This is the one I've been looking for!

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS031

 

[noisycottage]

THANK YOU for letting me know.
I am going to separate her but if there is no treatment, what do we do? Can we still eat the eggs, Will she always look like this? Is it going to be like herpes where they get outbreaks once in a while?
The hen house is small-- chances are that the other hens have it-- what do we do?
So sorry to just start asking questions-- I am SO GRATEFUL to have people to ask since I am just sort of freaking out.
I do well with people getting sick probably because I am a person but when my animals get sick, I just freak out and get stressed out so much since I don't know what I am dealing with.
Should we cull the whole flock? The links all say that you can't do anything for them.
Ugh, again, sorry for the questions I am just so worried.
How have other people dealt with this?

Edited to add that I am guessing it is the pox one though she has barely any lesions at the moment.... crossing fingers.

 

[noisycottage]

I just ran out and seperated her-- luckily we have an old rabbit hutch nearby that is perfect for protecting and isolating a chicken! Wahoo!
She has no nasal discharge and she is in fine spirits. I will also be able to monitor her poo since she will be the only one pooing there.

Argh. I am so sad about this. Thank you so much and any info people have, I will appreciate-- please keep it coming-- I am very freaked out about my small flock. I also have small children and they will be so sad if our hennies all get sick...

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I think you all need to research "wet fowl pox" before you tell this person he may have it.

I would NOT use triple antiobiotics on an eye. I use terrimycin, the expensive stuff from my local feed store that has to be refrigerated.

This is the same stuff one uses on dogs and cats.

Here is a blurb on "wet fowl pox"...................

Fowl Pox
Synonyms : chicken pox (not to be confused with chicken pox in humans; the human disease does not affect poultry and vice versa), sore head, avian diphtheria, bird pox
Species affected : Most poultry -- chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks, psittacine, and ratites -- of all ages are susceptible.

Clinical signs : There are two forms of fowl pox. The dry form is characterized by raised, wart-like lesions on unfeathered areas (head, legs, vent, etc.). The lesions heal in about 2 weeks. If the scab is removed before healing is complete, the surface beneath is raw and bleeding. Unthriftiness and retarded growth are typical symptoms of fowl pox. In laying hens, infection results in a transient decline in egg production (see Table 1 ). In the wet form there are canker-like lesions in the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and trachea. The wet form may cause respiratory distress by obstructing the upper air passages. Chickens may be affected with either or both forms of fowl pox at one time.
Transmission : Fowl pox is transmitted by direct contact between infected and susceptible birds or by mosquitos. Virus-containing scabs also can be sloughed from affected birds and serve as a source of infection. The virus can enter the blood stream through the eye, skin wounds, or respiratory tract. Mosquitos become infected from feeding on birds with fowl pox in their blood stream. There is some evidence that the mosquito remains infective for life. Mosquitos are the primary reservoir and spreaders of fowl pox on poultry ranges. Several species of mosquito can transmit fowl pox. Often mosquitos winter-over in poultry houses so, outbreaks can occur during winter and early spring.
Treatment : No treatment is available. However, fowl pox is relatively slow-spreading. Thus, it is possible to vaccinate to stop an outbreak. The wing-web vaccination method is used for chickens and the thigh-stick method for turkeys older than 8 weeks.
Prevention: Fowl pox outbreaks in poultry confined to houses can be controlled by spraying to kill mosquitos. However, if fowl pox is endemic in the area, vaccination is recommended. Do not vaccinate unless the disease becomes a problem on a farm or in the area. Refer to the publication PS-36 (Vaccination of Small Poultry Flocks) for more information on fowl pox vaccinations. ....................

Isolate of course. Look for other signs of other diseases. Do some research and try not to read alot into this.

This could be a simple peck from another bird.

Diseases, especially ones that can not be easily contained are a real concern. However, look back on what you have brought into your flock, where you have been in the past 10 days and any signs on ANY other bird. Wiat until the night time and use a strong flashlight. My bids are used to being "interogated" by the flashlight at nite nite time. It is amazing how much you can get done at night. I even get to pet my Guineas at roost.

Make this a common practice. The birds do not care, they just go back to turning their heads around and sleeping.

 

[noisycottage]

It is definitely hard to tell. The lesions could be because she is scratching like mad at those specific areas. Also, the other hens were sitting on top of her and pecking at her to make her move from the nest. Otherwise it does look like the pox one-- the dry pox.
She is isolated-- and she was upset and started clucking at me-- a relief since she sounded normal-- no hoarseness or anything like that. We will keep a close watch and hit the feed store tomorrow for the terrimycin. We didn't have any here and my husband said that they used the triple antibiotic in a pinch when he worked on the farm (way back in the day). The feed store should be open tomorrow and we will get that and try it.
You can see some scabbing in the pictures on the waddles and the comb where she has been scratching away at herself.
Hubby thought it might be mites, I am a total hypochondriac with my animals so I had to stop doing research before I got too freaked out. Weird- I am way mellow about other things.
Thank you again-- all of you. All these suggestions give us things to look into. So far pox is the closest match to her symptoms.....

Edited to add, I hope it is just some mite irritation from cooping herself up for brooding combined with being beat up for hogging the nest... but I am thinking possible pox.
Has anyone had this?

 

[NotTheMomma]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS031

This is the link I was looking for! Hope it helps hun!!!