Poor Silkie Not Getting Better With Tylan ):

[AnimalHaus]

Hello!

I posted several weeks ago in the emergency thread, but I'm unfortunately still having issues so I thought I would post something separately with a picture. I adopted a silkie from the SPCA, and one of her eyes has been swollen shut since. After taking her to the vet, they gave her Clavamox for 10 days and a nasal saline rinse, which didn't do anything. Since the Clavamox wasn't working, I tried a Tylan 50 injectable for 5 days at 1ml (what they said to do at the feed store). She seemed to be getting a bit better, but now she's back to the same problem

It almost looks like the swollen area that is around her eye is blood (if that makes sense?). There was a bit of blood when I put a wet towel on her eye to open it this morning. The picture below was taken after I cleaned off the discharge that was holding her eye closed. The eyeball itself looks fine. I checked for eye worms but didn't see anything. Several of the other silkies I adopted her with had a respiratory illness as well, but they cleared up just find after 2-3 days of Tylan. She is eating and drinking like a champ and otherwise appears to be doing okay, but when I leave the problem alone her eye definitely gets worse. I don't know what else to do for her. Is it safe to try another antibiotic? Should I treat for worms anyways, in the event I'm missing them? Thank you in advance! I don't know what I'd do without your help.

 

[AnimalHaus]

Also forgot to put that before taking her to the vet I tried flushing out the eye with Vetericyn Ophthalmic Wash and then putting in an eye antibiotic from the feed store for about a week, but that also didn't work

 

[Eggcessive]

Was it Terramycin eye ointment that you used? It sounds like you are doing more than enough to treat her eye if it stems from the respiratory illness in your flock. The antibiotics are good for many types of infection, and the Tylan is specifically for respiratory diseases. I have a hard time seeing pictures of silkies due to the gray skin. Do you see any signs of fowl pox scabs around her face and eyes? You can Google fowl pox to see many pictures of what it looks like. Sometimes with infectious coryza, the eye can be swollen and gunky with a bad odor, but there is usually thick nasal drainage and couging or wheezing at the same time. Did the vet have any thoughts on the disease name"

 

[AnimalHaus]

Thank you for responding!!! Terramycin ointment is what I used in her eye before taking her to the vet. Unfortunately, I have only found one vet around here that even sees chickens, and I got the impression that they didn't know a ton about them. They were super short and didn't answer a ton of questions... and it was $160

I don't see anything on her that looks like the pictures on Google of fowl pox scabs. She also doesn't have any type of distinct smell that would point to coryza, although with that being said would coryza have been treated with the Tylan 50 for 5 days? Would it be bad to try and give her Tylan 50 for another several days? They don't have Tylan 200 at any of the feed stores around here, but I can order it online. She's so little I don't want to give her too much, but I guess at this point what's the harm

Thank you again! I'm really at a loss with what to do at this point. She's a pet, so I'll try my best with what I can... but I definitely feel stuck.

 

[Eggcessive]

She is a silkie, so Tylan 50 would be the one to use, not Tylan 200 which is 4 times as strong. The usual dosage of Tylan 50 for a bantam would be 1/4 ml given twice a day for 3-5 days. You gave more than that already. The clavamox would have treated even more things. The only thing that I can think of is that she could have some other type of bacteria in her eye that is resistant to Terramycin and Tylan, something like E.coli or pseudomonas. It is difficult to get many other antibiotics from feed stores nowadays, or without a vet. You might try calling them for another prescription, perhaps for something to treat E.coli--maybe cipro or similar, but I really don't know which. It comes in eye drops as well as an oral form. Plain neosporin ointment might work, but this sounds like something more for a vet after you have been treating this for so long already. Sorry that your vet didn't seem to be more experienced with chickens.