please help....crusted eyes

[lorihadams]

My friend's little girls have a bunch of silkies that are around 7 months old. This morning when S went to go let them out and feed and water them they all came running to her but one. Upon inspection she had one eye that was completely crusted shut and the other was open but had puss in it. I told her to immediately quarantine the chicken and give it separate food and water and put a little ACV in her water bowl. She was going to clean her eyes with a warm washcloth and as soon as I could find out anything I was going to call her back. What else should she do and is it contagious to the rest of the flock?

 

[lotzahenz]

I am sorry about the chick, and I have spent this past week studying eye problems. There are several diseases that cause this, and once the chick is isolated maybe you can see what other symptoms show up. My problem was, and I am so ashamed of myself, was that the bedding was wet underneath, as everyday I was putting one gallon waterers in the brooder area and it was seeing under the apparently dry bedding. Once I got close to the bedding and sniffed, I could smell the ammonia. Therefore, several of my little flock had ammonia blindness and I have so far lost 5 birds. I love my book by Gail Damerow, it is a wealth of information of chicken illnesses. Good luck. Maybe someone else would have an idea. One thing, smell the birds beak, if the smell is bad, you have a disease.

 

[Judy]

There's a whole section on here about chicken diseases, and crusted eyes can occur in more than one. It could also simply be an injury, from pecking or some accident. At any rate, it's a bit late for quarantine; if there is a disease I imagine they have all been exposed already. Separating the chicken will create reintroduction problems.

You can buy antibiotic ophthalmic ointment at the feed store. You can also use plain Neosporin ointment in the eye.

 

[lorihadams]

She put her in a separate cage with food and water so she won't get picked on. I know she has put stuff in the coop to treat for mites (she's 12) and I told her to clean the eyes and put neosporin on them. She just turned up with this this morning....she was fine yesterday. She's gonna check for mites and keep an eye on her. I told her mom to look for terricyclin (sp?) when she goes to the feed store. I've never had crusty eyes so I don't really know what to do for her.

Hopefully she'll be okay...she is just distraught cause a few days ago she had one get in a water feature on the property and drown. She just doesn't want to lose another one but I am pretty sure she needs to thin out her numbers as well. She has at least 3 standard roos that need to go and I think her small bantam coop is too small for the number of birds she has. I just hope it doesn't wipe out her whole flock.