Please help! Cloudy has white foam coming from her eye!

[ChickLover98]

This is the first day she's shown any symptoms. There is nothing wrong with her ear. She has bluish feathers. My grandma said her eye is looking better. She is acting normal and eating yogurt and drinking and eating food. Putting her down on her first day of showing an eye irritation, but acting normal, wouldn't be the best option, I do not believe.

 

[speckledhen]

Okay, your call, but you asked for opinions and you got them. You pick which one you like best and go with it.

 

[ChickLover98]

Shes isolated for the night, but I know I'm not ready to put her down. She laid her egg today and is acting normal (except of course for her eye) so I don't want to jump straight to that too soon. I'm praying she will feel better in the morning so I can check into getting her some medicine. I have connections with a dlavian veterinarian in Penn state and I will email her in the morning.

 

[Cetawin]

Lets not put her down so fast. This could be something that she got in her eye or ear or ate even. I would separate her and see if she showed more signs and symptoms before I actually put her down. Have a look down her throat. Shine a flashlight up her nose holes and see if there is something in there. Is she acting like she is suffering, clawing at her head or anything like that? Is she eating and drinking? Put her someplace quiet so she doesn't start stressing and keep calm. From the looks of the first post this was something that came on rather acute?

Hope she get better

You cannot be serious? Sheesh


For the OP


I am coming into this thread late and have far less experience than Speckledhen but from your description and the picture...good grief. Put that hen down. White secretion from the eye is a symptom of disease not something in her eye or the heat. Normal secretions from having something in her eye would be clear and watery like tears. More importantly, her ear is obviously being attacked by a massive infection...not only is the covering missing but the tissue is inflammed and huge. A normal ear looks like this...this is a close up with the cover flap removed so you can see the difference in the tissue I was referring to...your girls ear opening has even been mis-shapen by infection or disease. Look at the picture you posted and the left side of the ear...it is being eaten away or attacked by infection causing its opening to be mis-shapen in the wrong direction.



MG commonly has concurrent secondary infections along with it such as sinusitis, various occular assaults, trachea infections and upper respiratory infections.

You are putting your entire flock at risk keeping this girl alive and she is clearly very sick. You have her in the house but most likely still have your flock at risk because people do not think about the following things...

You carry diseases on your hands, clothing and shoes. Do you wear disposable gloves when you handle her, change clothes and shoes before going outside or around your other birds? Do you do all of the same when you come inside from being around the flock? Do you do it each and every time?

If not...you are risking your flock. For the record...your girl did not just suddenly appear to have those symptoms overnight...this girl has been symptomatic and sick for awhile...you may not have noticed the signs or symptoms but they were there. Also...it is not the habit of most people here to say "Oh running eyes...cull her" but the picture speaks louder than your description...she is very sick.

Good luck in your decision but the right decision would be to cull this hen yourself or take her to a state lab and let them cull her and test her before your flock suffers. You could already have an infected flock that has not become symptomatic yet. Your girl may be eating and acting normal right now but that will change.

Good luck to you.

Check out Cornell University - Veternarian avian disease website

 

[ChickLover98]

I promise, her ear is perfectly fine. That is a really bad, blurry picture. This is the first day she has exhibited these symptoms. She was up in the nest this morning and laid an egg and she is her sassy self. I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with her, I just don't want to cull her if she could get better. I don't want her to suffer, but she isn't seeming to care. I love and care about my hens, I don't know if I'm coming off as a mean person who won't listen and wants her hens to suffer. There's not much I can do at 12 am.

 

[ChickLover98]

She has feathers covering her ear and she is a frizzled hen, so they look different from other hens too.

 

[satay]

Maybe your right and it's just a bad photo but I have frizzles and none have an ear like that so I tend to agree with speckled hen one this one.

 

[Cetawin]

You did not come across mean whatsoever and I hope that I did not. I am very direct and that sometimes is perceived as mean but I really do care and feel very sad for your girl. Something you should know as well as a few of those lurking on this thread....neither Speckledhen or I are cull happy ladies. We have both nursed sick and injured birds, sat up with them all night, hand fed them, consulted vets and I have even taken three of mine to the vet, paying far more at the vet than what I would spend buying 20 more birds each time. Speckledhen worked diligently on a little cockerel with an injured hock that had a will to live like no other bird I have heard of...she got him healed and he was crippled for his entire life thereafter....from 20 months old until his death recently...4 years she cared for him daily. She has also sat on the phone with me listening to me cry because I could not save one of my birds. So trust me when I say that telling you to cull her is not just an off the cuff statement. We are not "production breeders", we love our birds and enjoy them and raise babies for the enjoyment of it.

I had frizzled seramas and bred them....yes your girl is different in that respect but it has nothing to do with her ear. As you say her ear is normal and I being open-minded to it being a bad picture, we will lay that issue aside but her face and eye are another story completely.

Information I have received from not only my two vets I have seen over the years but vets I have consulted with over the phone....several things that are signs of illness or disease are

Colored and/or thick discharge from eyes and nostrils;
Congestion, wheezing or gurgling in the respiratory system ie with breathing;
Consistence discolored or unusual feces;
Swelling of facial tissues, comb, wattles, and inside the mouth and throat.
Suddenly changes in behavior, activity level, appetite and appearance.

They also gave me the constant reminder that genetically, chickens are predisposed to hide illness until they can no longer do so. They are in essence a prey animal so any display of weakness makes them vulnerable. It is simple rules of nature. So most often when a chicken begins showing symptoms, they are already pretty sick. They hide illness plain and simple. I watched my silver laced wyandotte recently wither away before my eyes from internal laying issues...running around like normal, eating like a pig as usual and no symptoms except she stopped laying and felt a little thinner until 3 days before she died.

So what does all this mean? It means your girl may have just presented symptoms for you to see but it has been ongoing for much longer. The other issue that you should be aware of is that while you may "cure" her eye discharge, it will most likely not be cured but merely made dormant. Chickens can be carriers and show no signs or symptoms of disease but spread it to others. Some may die and some may not but they will always have the disease and will give it to ever other bird they come in contact with. Worse...you could unknowingly pass that disease on to flocks nowhere near your own simply by going into your coop and doing chicken chores, leaving and going to the feed store and taking micro bacteria with you on your shoes or clothing, leaving it where you go. Some other chicken owner comes in and walks through it, goes home to their flock and walks inside their coop and voile' you have just spread it to their flock. Very few people take the time or trouble to practice good bio security which is really simply to do. For example...have one pair of coop shoes. Those shoes are the only ones you wear into your coop and you do not wear them inside the house or vehicle. Clean clothing also...I have "chicken clothes" and these are specific clothes that I wear for chicken chores and such and I do not wear them any other time. When I visit friends who own birds (Speckledhen, Braclin or swaps) I have shoes in my vehicle just for that. Shoes that get disinfected before and after I wear them. I actually have two pair..one for Speckledhen's and one for Braclin's. They are in ziploc baggies in my Jeep. Yes it can seem like a pain in the arse but I love my birds and I do not want to risk them or my friends birds. Sadly, it has nothing to do with how much you care about your birds or how well you care for them, it is just like taking precautions when flu season comes around...disease is everywhere so you do the best you can.

As far as your girl is concerned...only you can decide but make your decision knowing that you could well be deciding the fate of your entire flock and future flocks with your decision. Is one bird worth your other beloved birds? That may seem like a drastic statement but it is simple fact.

Good luck to you, I know it is not an easy decision because the tough ones never are.

 

[Nutz245]

Sheesh YEA!!! I'm serious Cetawin!

The OP is obviously not a poultry farm owner and this is a pet. So yea, lets NOT be so fast to grab the axe and start wackin because of a blurry photo. Besides if this is MG at this stage the others are probably contaminated anyway.

 

[Cetawin]

Sheesh YEA!!! I'm serious Cetawin!

The OP is obviously not a poultry farm owner and this is a pet. So yea, lets NOT be so fast to grab the axe and start wackin because of a blurry photo. Besides if this is MG at this stage the others are probably contaminated anyway.

Well no kidding. Of course this is not a production breeder...did ya read my last post at all?

That is my point...that this is serious and most likely contagious. Oh nevermind.