Silkie chick with heterochromia

[MonarchMama]

We just bought silkie chicks yesterday and tonight noticed this one has two different colors on each eye. I don't know how old the chicks are, maybe about 3 weeks(the breeder had different sizes together between 3-12 weeks) They are all still peeping, not fully feathered. This chick isn't as active as the rest but it CAN stand and walk. It tends to crouch down most of the time. Is heterochromia indicative of a more serious condition? Is this chick blind, or partially blind? It doesn't tend to squint when you move your finger towards its eye, until your finger touches the feathers on its face.

 

[azygous]

There's a chance that it's an eye infection or respiratory illness rather than a color issue. Of course, I'm depending on a two dimensional photo for this notion of mine.

It can't hurt to treat it for infection and see if it improves the condition. Flush the eyes with saline and put a dab of terramycin eye antibiotic in each eye twice a day.

You can try giving the chick a test to determine vision acuity. The best way is to watch it try to locate food on the floor or ground. Sprinkle dry feed or meal worms on the ground and peck at it with your finger to draw the chick's attention to it. Then watch to see how much difficulty the chick has in locating the food.

To test distance vision, dangle a meal worm to the side of the left eye and see if the chick responds to the motion.