HI there hon. I'm very sorry about your chickens. Poor little things picked a bad time to hatch, but it can't be helped. And I'm sorry for the loss of your one that has passed.
POX:
I'm going to explain a little about pox. First, it's a virus. Antibiotics won't do anything for it. So you won't need terramycin for it - it's the wrong drug. If it's been 5 days, you can stop it. If it hasn't, continue until 5 days are done. How old are the babies now? And do you have them caught up and brooding inside?
They do get secondary infections (bacterial) from the pox. In other words, they get sores caused by a virus - and then the sores, like any sores we have, can get infected - just like a cut. It's open skin and open skin can get infected.
Because of that, if you see small sores that have a scab, people will often pick off the scab (gross, I know) and dot that little place with a q-tip with iodine on it. The iodine kills bacteria there and helps protect the open skin from infection.
THE OTHER BABY;
I suspect the other baby might have had its breathing effected by the dry pox being near his throat. It weakens them, so he might not have wanted to eat with the sore. it's unfortunate, and I'm very sorry. But I think it was just because he was so very young. The other baby looks very bright eyed and pretty good considering. So let's work on him!
TREAT THE HEN:
If your hen has any scabs on her, I'd do that pick-and-treat thing to her.
TREAT THE BABY:
Now as for the living baby. He looks to have an infection on his skin because of the pox - or a group of pox lesions (sores). I understand from what you're saying that the eye is under that - and what's all swollen is the bottom eye lid, yes? That's good! Very good compared to that being his eye. We'll try to save it, though no guarantees but chickens can live without an eye. You'll need to keep him up away from the hen inside where it's clean. He'll need to be warm enough as all babies, have clean water avaiable (a baby drinker) and baby chick crumbles.
BABY'S NOSTRIL:
I'm a little concerned because his left nare (nostril) is covered by that swelling. You'll just want to watch that and make sure his other nostril stays nice and clean. (Warm water and a q-tip, just barely barely even wet - squeeze the water out before using... just wipe the nostril daily when you check it.
Really of course the best thing to do would be take the little guy to a vet, let the vet give you the RIGHT antibiotics for cuts and skin infections. (Terramycin is for colds, etc., not for skin problems.) If that's a possibility, then I'd do that.
If it's not a possibility, then we'll do what we can.
BABY'S HEAD AND EYE:
First, you're going to need to get some stuff together. Some you can get at a drug store. Some you might have at home. One very important thing you will need to get at a feedstore or a vet just by calling as it's not a prescription item. It's 'over the counter'.
CLEAN THE AREA:
You'll want to gently clean all that area. You've seen what pox scabs look like now. Pick any off. Taking that q-tip, putting it in very warm water, just til wet but not drippy - and 'painting' the area with the warm water might soften the scabs. If they're stuck tight, as they often are, don't worry with them yet. They'll loosen and you can get them a few days later.
You can use a q-tip in the iodine water to carefully clean the area. You might want to tap that q-tip on a papertowel first to make sure it doesn't drip. But just sort of gently clean that whole area on his face. Be very careful above his eye. There you might just use plain clean warm water, and again the q-tip should be damp and not drippy.
In other words, you want to clean the area - but you don't want the water to at all run down his face. I'm afraid the cleaning won't be very effective, but it'll be better than nothing. You want to keep as little area as possible wet. I'd even blot it with a towel as you clean an area. Clean a little spot, blot it. Clean a little more, blot it.
Do it very gently like you'd want someone to be gentle with you if that were your face.
If you don't get it all, that's ok.
On the scabs, throw them away in a bag, not on the floor, as they spread the infection. (Wear gloves for all this).
DRESSING THE SORES AND EYE:
Then get new q-tips and put a little blob of Neosporin ointment on something like a paper plate, somewhere where you can dab from that ointment so you don't contaminate the tube. Use your q-tips to pick up a little ointment and paint the sore area (but not around the eye) with the neosporin.
DRESSING THE EYE:
If you can get saline eye wash, from the drug store, get that and gently rinse his little eye there under that eyelid. Do that once only. We want to make sure there aren't bits in there. I suspect that there aren't.
Then you'll use terramycin ointment on the inside of the lid. When I do this, I like to think of painting the ledge of the bottom lid with a little string of the ointment. That's ideal. But ideal doesn't always happen, so it's ok if it doesn't go that easy. Just try to get some from the tip in his eye. It helps if you point the tube towards his tail rather than towards his eye. that way if he wiggles, you don't poke him in the eye.
I'm sure NEITHER of you would like that. Probably you'd take it worse than he would.
It won't take much - about a "ribbon" (that's what you officially call that string of ointment as it comes out) that is about 1/16" inch long. Just a dot.
What you want to see is that the ointment melts a little into the eye area, onto the surface of the eye itself. Do that once daily - that will help keep the eye itself from getting infected. Eyeballs don't usually get a pox sore. Usually in dry pox it stays with the unfeathered parts of the skin, not the "mucus membranes" which is wet pox. usually it's one or the other.
SUPPORTING HIS HEALING:
Now - you'll want to make sure that baby eats because he can't see out of one eye - so that's one less eye to make him interested in food until he heals. he also doesn't have his brother with him, so it's up to you to keep him active and interested.
THE GLOP:
He'll need crumbles - "chicken starter crumbles" like any baby. You'll want to scramble your fingers around in it to get him interested. You can feed him his first daily meal a little damp mash. I'd give him a tiny bit of yogurt - about the amount you'd put in a sewing thimble. Give him a little boiled (not scrambled) egg yolk. Get one boiled, slice it into thin slices, take one slice and put the rest in the fridge. Mix that with the yogurt, a little water, and a tiny bit of crumbles (about a spoonful). Give that to him as the first meal of the day. You might have to 'pretend you're eating it' with your fingers - as if your fingers were a chick.
THE VITAMINS:
He should also get some vitamins for healing. You can get baby vitamins from the drug store when you're picking up other stuff. Get "Enfamil PolyViSol" vitamins. There are two kinds - one with iron added, one without. You want the one without. You'll put two drops of those in his beak every day for 2 weeks. (The usual pox healing time.) You just put them on the side of his beak where his mouth opens - one at a time. They usually swallow them. If he spits one out, just replace it. The vitamin A in a non-water form will help his eye healing and all his little insides of his mouth, etc. That's what it's best for! The yogurt will help him to not get a stomach problem from all the stress and the stuff from his eye. The other vitamins in the vitamin will help him heal quicker. The egg yolk is a really rich food and will give him fuel for healing his little eye and body and keep him stronger so the pox doesn't make him any more sick.
THE SUMMARY;
Take the baby and keep him up in a normal brooder.
Daily, give him "glop" in the morning as a first meal.
Once:
Clean the head as directed (q-tips) blotting dry as you go.
Dress the head with antibiotic ointment and iodine.
Rinse the little eye - only if you can get sterile saline eye wash. If not just skip to medicine for it.
Daily: use terramycin ointment in the eye. (In a pinch,, you can use Neomycin but really in this case please try to get the terramycin.
Daily: give 2 drops of Enfamily PolyViSol Non-iron vitamins in the beak.
THE SHOPPING'/GATHERING LIST (You can write this down if someone is shopping for you):
q-tips
warm water
iodine
Neosporin ointment (no pain killer, no cortisone - drug store)
Enfamily PolyViSol baby vitamins (without added iron - vitamin section,
walmart or drug store)
Terramycin Ophthalmic (eye) Ointment (feedstore or vet)
Boiled egg yolk
Plain unflavored yogurt - small cup's worth is fine. If you buy more give to the other birds, too.
I hope this helps. You can email me if you want, or just send a message to this thread. I'll be subscribed to it.
I'll just let you know i had a baby with a very bad eyelid - worse on the eyelid part than your baby, better on the face. It took 2 weeks for him to heal. It's scary because it's so near the eye. But since the eye is fine underneath, there's hope. You're a great poultryman to try to help your flock. And there's good news! If you can get him through this, he will never ever get pox again! So just hang on, let's get that baby worked on, and see if we can't get him well for you.
