Silkie hen with swollen bubbly eyes and swollen scabby ears and head

[tommypickles]

I have 4 silkie hens, 1 silkie rooster, 1 polish hen & a polish rooster.

One of my grey silkie hens has a very swollen closed eye with some bubbly discharge and a very swollen, scabby head.

I clean out the coop fairly regularly and spray with an anti lice spray and dust down with DE. I can't seem to see any mites on her, but I could try taking a closer look.
All of my other birds look completely fine apart from the hen that she spends all her time with. This one is no where near as bad, but does look a tiny bit scabby around the eye.

She seems somewhat lethargic and weak and her excrement seems very runny and watery. She doesn't seem to be sneezing or wheezing, but her head is definitely irritating her.

I would really like to help her recover but also protect the rest of my flock. I'm quite new to having chickens so I don't really have a clue what I'm dealing with here.

This evening I attempted to gently clean the eye with saline and also managed got her to eat some feed with some drops of ivermectin on.

Any help would be really appreciated, Thank you

 

[Peaches Lee]

Very well could be Fowl Pox, which must run its course and all you can do is continue to make sure she is eating and drinking and not getting picked on by the others. Poor little girl, she looks so cute, I love Silkies!

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you clean the eye and remove any crust around the eye with a warm wet compress. You can flush the eye with saline, and put a dab of Terramycin eye ointment from a feed store, into the eye 2-3 times a day. This could be from a respiratory sinus infection such as mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG.) Testing could confirm it. Tylosin and a few other antibiotics can treat symptoms , but they remain carriers for life.

 

[tommypickles]

Very well could be Fowl Pox, which must run its course and all you can do is continue to make sure she is eating and drinking and not getting picked on by the others. Poor little girl, she looks so cute, I love Silkies!

Thank you! I'm really hoping it is Fowl pox and not mycoplasma as I was reading that its quite bad

 

[tommypickles]

Can you clean the eye and remove any crust around the eye with a warm wet compress. You can flush the eye with saline, and put a dab of Terramycin eye ointment from a feed store, into the eye 2-3 times a day. This could be from a respiratory sinus infection such as mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG.) Testing could confirm it. Tylosin and a few other antibiotics can treat symptoms , but they remain carriers for life.

Thank you! I will see if I can find some of the eye ointment. I am from the UK but live in Portugal so it's not as easy as I'd like. But there is a farm store nearby so I will try that. I have been reading about mycoplasma. If it is that, would I need to put her down to protect the rest of the flock? Thanks again

 

[Banana01]

Thank you! I will see if I can find some of the eye ointment. I am from the UK but live in Portugal so it's not as easy as I'd like. But there is a farm store nearby so I will try that. I have been reading about mycoplasma. If it is that, would I need to put her down to protect the rest of the flock? Thanks again

I treated mycolplasma with these antibiotics and lidocaine eyedrops. Honestly, what is the goal for your flock? If you recently added this one to your flock and she is now sick, she may have already infected the flock even if they arent showing signs yet. Where did you get this one? Maybe don't add anymore chickens for a while until it goes away, but in this case culling is probably justified.

My flock has mycolplasma, it does go dormant for most of them after their initial symptoms, but they also lay less eggs and develop more slowly.

Also since she also has signs of pox, you may also have worm problems where you live. I always deworm before treating a mess of symptoms like ahe is showing because worms weaken the immune system and a lot of times precede these types of illnesses.