Silkie Suddenly Blind!! HELP!

[rosecreek]

With the cold, I had to bring my smallest guys in. There were five silkies, and one EE, all around four months old. They just couldn't handle the 0 temps we had last week. When I brought them in, I noticed that the smallest silkie was sick. She was very weak and lethargic. I gave them the recommended dose of antibiotic in their water. Sadly, it was too late for her, and she passed away. The others, however, have pepped up and are doing well.

Then yesterday, I noticed the largest silkie, my little black rooster, was stumbling around like he is drunk. I got him out of their indoor pen, and he's the perfect weight for his age, so I wasn't worried about him not eating. Then I looked at his eyes. They both have completely clouded over. The poor dude is blind!

He eats fine and drinks fine. But I have to stand guard. If he scratches at his food, he gets disoriented and gets turned around. The other chickies have to dodge his wild pecks for food. He almost drowns himself going for water, because he can't see it and cannot judge the distance. He runs into the other chickies, runs into the sides of the pen, runs into feed bowls and waterers. He's really quite sad.

What could have made him go blind so suddenly? They all got a check-up from me when they came in, and all but the littlest one was cold but doing pretty well. Could it be an infection of some sort? What do I need to give him to clear it up, and can it spread to the others? There's nothing in their pen outside that could have obviously hurt him. And since they've been in almost two weeks, I doubt he would have been injured out there and me not notice it. The pen indoors is extremely safe. The other chickies don't treat him any differently, except playing dodgebeak constantly at feed time.

Unfortunately, we do not have a vet around here that will see chickens. We will in about seven years. I'm working on it as fast as I can! We haven't gotten to the part in school about chickens, LOL! And while I've had chickens most of my life, there are sometimes I'm just baffled. This is one of those times.

Please help with any suggestions!

 

[Just_Clucky84]

I'm sorry to hear about your chicken. Sounds like it might be glaucoma to me. This is an article about dogs with glaucoma, but maybe it will have some useful suggestions. http://www.petplace.com/dogs/glaucoma-in-dogs/page1.aspx

 

[sourland]

Viral infections in some other species can cause temporary blindness. Uncertain if the same thing happens in chickens?

 

[Winggedheart]

I'm currently housing my frizzle-mutt bantam rooster in my room in a kennel away from my other birds because he'd been fighting out in the woods with his brother, and has been blinded in both eyes; his eyes have been sealed shut, so I've been giving him antibodies, but that's a different matter from yours....

If you plan on keeping him, if you can;t cure him, you can train them to eat and drink by themselves. Keeping him by himself, or with a companion in a small pen would help, and then keep his feed and water in the same place. I have my rooster's water in a glass dish that makes a ringing sound if he misses the water and taps the edge with his beak. It helps him figure out where he's ate--and I have his food on a small plastic plate nearby. He seems to do just fine; though I do have him housed inside right now because of his medicine (I don't want to have to defrost his water every morning outside in the cold.) I don't know what to do about curing your little guy, though; sounds to me like he's caught a virus of some sort.

 

[kmclay]

So, I'm thinking you mean yourself as the future vet? Cool. I had a blind Barred Rock chicken for a while, and I just had to make sure she ate and drank. I would carry her out to clover, or whatever, and practically feed it to her. I love the responses you've had from people who try to help before killing the poor things. If given the chance, my husband would have had her for lunch. Nuh uh!

 

[artsyrobin]

just a thought- do you give your silkies vitamins at all?they do lean towards vitamin deficiencies, so you might add a couple drops of polyvisol baby vitamins without iron to their water- as far as the roo, i'd give him a couple drops on his beak for 5 days, not sure if that will help or not- also, do youtrim his feathers around his eyes at all? that might help some- he can adapt, you'll need to watch him though-

 

[Winggedheart]

You know; I have seen a silkie with a vitamin problem before--but she never went blind; she was just a little more...off-color, then the others. We started giving her more egg-shells, and that helped some, and she recovered more-or-less; but ended up dying a year ago.