Rooster that appears to not be able to see...

[Silentrevery]

I have had chickens on our property for close to 4 years now and have had very little issues health wise. But this last week our year old Black Orpington Roo started acting lethargic, standing around kind of hunched, stopped crowing and didn't seem to be eating or drinking. We took him to the vet and with the exception of lice, she could visually see anything wrong with him. She sent us home with an antibiotic. We have been treating him for 3 days now and we dusted him for mites. I tube fed him some electrolytes and probiotics twice now. Its been hot here, over 100 degrees so I have him in a very large dog crate in the house. He woke me at 4am crowing this morning and he is definitely feeling better.....but it appears that he can not see. Pecks oddly at the ground (looking for food) and does not flinch when we come close to touching his pupal. Everything on him looks normal including his eyes....any ideas?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you see any discoloration of the eye?
Any facial swelling, eye discharge?
Was he vaccinated for Marek's?

I really don't have any good answers for you. If you can take him back to the vet or give them a call they may have some ideas.

The only thing I can suggest is giving extra vitamins with A and E to see if it is a deficiency.

Let us know how he's doing:

Here's some info on eye disorders:
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps031
http://joneshamiltonag.com/wp-content/uploads/PLT_Poultry-Eye-Disorders.pdf
http://www.raising-chickens.org/chicken-eye.html

 

[Silentrevery]

Eyes look perfectly normal to me. He is doing so much better the last 2 days, I can feel food in his crop. But...you can literally take your finger and almost poke him in the eye and he never flinches. We bought him at 4 months with a hen from a private party and have no clue if he was vaccinated. His face and the rest of him for that matter look perfectly healthy. He did have a good case of lice....which also has me baffled because we haven't noticed any on the other birds. They will all get dusted in a few days.

Any standard sicknesses that can cause blindness?
I read about Eye strain of Merricks...but those cases seem to hav cloudy eyes and his look just fine...

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Eyes look perfectly normal to me. He is doing so much better the last 2 days, I can feel food in his crop. But...you can literally take your finger and almost poke him in the eye and he never flinches. We bought him at 4 months with a hen from a private party and have no clue if he was vaccinated. His face and the rest of him for that matter look perfectly healthy. He did have a good case of lice....which also has me baffled because we haven't noticed any on the other birds. They will all get dusted in a few days.

Any standard sicknesses that can cause blindness?
I read about Eye strain of Merricks...but those cases seem to hav cloudy eyes and his look just fine...

I'm glad he is doing better.

Ocular Marek's you would notice a change in the eye-it would look different.

Does he ever take a dust bath?