Hi everyone, A friends chicken has recently become quite ill. Her eyes are both swollen and she has a sticky white 'pus like' liquid surrounding her eyelids. She isnt walking much and is mostly puffy and sleeps a lot. Anyhelp would be appreciated.... We think it may be contagious as another rooster has recently shown the same symptoms.
Welcome to BYC. It sounds like a respiratory disease, such as infectious coryza or mycoplasma (MG.) Do either of them have any a bad odor, nasal drainage, cough or sneeze, or noisy breathing? Are there any signs where the eyes could have been pecked or injured? Coryza tends to smell rotten. but both MG and coryza can cause sinus infection and conjunctivitis with pus in the eyes. The eyes need to be cleaned with saline and cotton, and the pus has to be cleaned out. Apply either Terramycin eye ointment or Vetericyn eye gel. Also an oral antibiotic such as Tylan or oxytetracycline should be used in the water if they are drinking. Sulmet or Sulfadimethoxine are used to treat coryza. Testing can be done before antibiotics to find out what disease it is. These both can cause the whole flock to be carriers for life, so the sick chickens should be separated from the well chickens. Here is some reading about those and other common diseases: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
