Sick 10 week old pullet

[Jezzebel]

Hi guys, I have an approx 10 week old lavender Orpington pullet. We believed she had a sinus infection, swelling under the eye, no discharge or other symptoms eating and drinking normally. She is in with 7 other chicks her own age, no signs of illness. I put electrolytes and probiotics in their drinking water. I will attach a pic of when it started about 12 days ago and now. I tried duramycin for a couple days in their water no help, so I did bring her to my vet who believed it was a sinus infection and prescribed her clavamox 3x a day .9cc. We also did warm compresses and flushed the area with warm water daily. My question is she is finally showing improvement with her eye, it has opened slightly and I can see her actual eye again but she seems more lethargic not eating and moving around as much the last couple of days. Would getting that much liquid, the antibiotics, every day cause her to feel full and not be eating as much as she needs? I backed off the clavamox to twice a day and now once, were on our second bottle and at 7 days today. I guess my question is should I seperate her and start feeding her boiled egg, yogurt etc? And give her time alone to recoup? I hadn't seperated her yet as I feared it would cause her more stress. Any suggestions to get her through this would be greatly appreciated. I will try to get better current pics tonight. Thank you!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It looks like her eye is filled with pus. Try flushing the eye with saline and/or use some warm compresses and start working the pus out of the eye. Some people use qtips, tweezers etc., to help get the gunk out. Apply some Vetericyn eye gel or Terramycin eye ointment in the eyes or if you can get it use ciprofloxcin eye drops.
Hydration is important so encourage fluids, offer her wet chick starter to see if she will eat, you can also use some scrambled/hard boiled egg, tuna, salmon or meat to see if that will interest her.

 

[Jezzebel]

Would you try working it out up towards the eye? There is no way for it to drain, we were thinking of lancing it on the bottom but it had improved the last two days swelling wise so I've left it alone. But her overall health has declined oddly as the eye has improved, she is quite listless

 

[azygous]

I have an older hen who has had these sinus infections. I treat them with leftover cataract surgery eye drops which include an antibiotic drop, anti-inflammatory drop and a steroid drop.

Of all of them, the steroid works to reduce swelling very quickly. I'm very surprised a vet would neglect to recommend it. But you should be able to get the steroid drops on line or at some feed stores. But you can always hunt down an old person who has had cataract surgery recently, and finagle their leftover eye drops out of them.

Being on a general antibiotic for a sinus infection is targeting far more than the eye infection and is overkill. Your hen would benefit from eating plain yogurt and some boiled egg. I would leave her in the flock except to make sure she gets her special food without others stealing it.

I wouldn't recommend squeezing the eye. Chances are there is no pus in it, just fluid buildup in the tissues around the eye, which should be gradually absorbed by her body.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's hard to tell which way would be best for your situation. Some people have success by squeezing the pus out, it's difficult and a hard cheesy substance.
Others prefer to lance, so I suppose whichever method you feel most comfortable trying would work.

 

[Jezzebel]

I've put her in a crate right next to the others so she can see and hear them. I figured at least now she could rest without getting jostled around and I could track her food and water intake as I haven't seen her eating or drinking much in the last two days. She's pretty lethargic so I gave her some electrolyte water by dripping it on her beak and she swallows it. How often should I give her the water this way if I'm not seeing her drink and how much? I gave her mashed up boiled egg and yogurt and some chick feed softened with warm water. She isn't touching either. If she doesn't eat by this afternoon should I try hand feeding her? Has anyone used zupreem paste for hand feeding birds? Not sure of the spelling but I've read it's difficult to syringe feed without causing them to aspirate. Maybe just put it at corner of her beak and see if she'll swallow it on her own? We've been dosing her with the clavamox via syringe halfway down her throat to avoid her air way, I hate doing it My vet really has little experience with birds and isn't much help. I have some torbicyn eye drops but they expired 12/15 think there still ok to use?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Try to get as much water into as you can, they will dehydrate fairly quickly. You can try dropping water beside the beak to see if she will take it in, but you may have better luck by tube feeding.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

 

[Jezzebel]

Thank you for the suggestions, I've been putting drops of electrolyte water on her beak every few hours, she swallows it. She isn't eating so I got some baby bird hand feeding formula and going to try that at corner of her beak before I attempt more invasive methods, fingers crossed. Someone suggested misting her with water to help hydrate? Anyone tried this? She's under a heat lamp, it's not really warm here between 65-70 today. She is not showing clinical signs of severe dehydration, she just lacks energy.

 

[Jezzebel]

Can anyone tell me how much I should be feeding her by syringe per feeding/ day?? She really won't eat much on her own when placed gruel on her beak so I took a 1cc syringe and filled it with the chick hand feeding gruel, watered down a bit and put it about halfway down her throat, just as I'd been dosing the Clavamox. We did 2cc of gruel and 1cc of water. She weighed 13oz when at the vet last week.

 

[Jezzebel]

Anyone? Please help, or can you direct me to a thread with some reference to this, I'm fairly new here. Thank you !