Strange, shrunken eye! HELP PLEASE! Ocular Marek's? *Picture Added*

[jayde88]

Hello,
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I'm a bit concerned about my Isa Brown hen.
I just went out and checked on my chickens and found a full grown about 2 yr old Isa Brown in with the 9 wk old chicks. She must have gotten in from a rip in the fencing of the chick yard.
The Isa Brown was clucking and making herself a nest in the corner of the coop.
I would have thought she was broody, but we don't have a broody Isa at the moment and she wasn't puffed up. Also, she didn't quite cluck like a broody does, more like a rooster that has found a peice of food.
I went and caught her to take her out, she was very easy to catch and didn't run away at all. I noticed her left eye looked strange: It was shrunken in the socket and pale and the pupil was very, very small, but her other eye looked normal.
When I put her back into the main coop for the full grown chickens, she proceeded to go around to the side of the chick coop (the side of it bumps against the big chicken yard) and started running around trying to go underneath it (which is how she probably got into the chick coop in the first place). I went up to her and she didn't seem to notice me at all.

What is wrong with her? Can she see out of her eye? Does she have some kind of disease or sickness?

Some more information: She's been eating regular layer feed, with probably lots of grass and greens, too, and lots of fresh water. We have about 75 chickens in the main coop, 6 or 7 roosters, and have been using straw for bedding. Beyond that, I'm afraid I don't have too much information about the specific hen. I haven't really paid much attention to her or noticed her much until today (we have about 20 Isas that look like her). I think I noticed a hen having an eye problem similiar to hers a few months ago, but I didn't think much of it or look into. It might have been the same hen.

I will post a picture soon. UPDATE: Here is a picture:

Notice the cloudiness in the pupils and the eye is shrunken in the socket.
Any help is appreciated!

 

[jayde88]

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be????

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

just the simple fact she wants to be a mother hen
she will probably make a good try if you let her do her thing
as for the eye it sounds like she is blind in that eye from a punture wound
probably happened some time ago

to make use of her talents let her go in to the chick house and make her bed and take the chicks from the lamp

give it a try and make her happy
she probably won't hurt the chickens as she didn't before
let us know how she comes out

any questions email me

 

[jayde88]

Glenda L Heywood, Well, I checked on her again in the coop and she wasn't clucking or anything anymore, just acting normal, so the broody thing might be a false alarm. But if she starts up again I will definitely try what you suggested!
Its a relief to know the eye is just a wound and not a disease or serious problem. Thanks for your help!

 

[threehorses]

Since the eye itself is shrunken, I'd say maybe an injury - but the iris does concern me as marek's can cause a misshapen iris.

I wouldn't rule it out. I just would try to vaccinate and booster all future babies against Mareks. Optical Marek's is the least worrisome of all Marek's.

Any chance you can take a picture of it just in case?

Did you ever see any infection or drainage from her eye?

 

[jayde88]

Quote:
Marek's? Oh dear... I hope not!
I took a picture and put it up on the first post.
I haven't noticed any infection or drainage, but I hadn't noticed the eye thing until now. I will be keeping an eye on her now, though!
Thanks for your help!

 

[threehorses]

Ocular marek's sounds a lot more scary than it is. It's true. The symptoms are a non-responsive iris that either goes grey on the surface (grey eye), or the pupil itself becomes misshapen.

If you read this article, it shows you that in optical Marek's the lymphocytes infiltrate the eye and has a good picture of an effected eye.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek's_disease

There were some studies that indicated that birds who developed ocular Marek's tended to be birds who had survived Marek's. Those birds are considered carriers. BUT don't let that panic you. Marek's is already very prevalent in the environment. It easily remains infectious on the dander of birds for a good while. It's already been here. IF this bird has ocular marek's, then your flock has already been exposed to it and possible only this bird got it.

The thing is this: until you can rule out that this was Marek's, then just don't take a chance. Buy innoculated chicks, or innoculate your own. Then booster as necessary. Dr. Peter Brown of First State Vet Supply implies that vaccinated adult flocks that begin to show the signs might actually stop the progression of the disease. I don't know if there's any support for that - it would be good to know - but there's that possibility that needs to also be ruled out. His website is a great place for more information on vaccinating *correctly* for Marek's. Vaccination, when used correctly, helps to prevent the possibility of the major problems of Mareks from happening. It really has been proven to greatly reduce incidences of this disease.
http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/poultry-health/mareks-disease.html

On my own personal experience, I had two chickens who both had ocular Marek's. I had never lost any birds in my flock to Marek's. The two birds I had died of either predator or, the last one, of old age at 9-10 years. They were thus active carriers. Not all of my flock was vaccinated then - it will be now as it's still possible that marek's is here in the dander.

I'm not worried. Nor should you be. Just take the precautions you should likely be taking anyway. If I vaccinate for anything, it will be Marek's from now on even if I hadn't had ocular here. Well that and possibly pox after this year's awful cases of it.

So take heart. We still have to just rule Marek's out, or accept and deal with it if it is so it doesn't sneak up and bite your flock in the tush. "Forewarned is forearmed". in the mean time, looking back and taking a good look at whether or not you ever saw any sign of injury or drainage will greatly help. An injured eye will have showed some signs.

 

[jayde88]

Thanks so much. The wikipedia picture looked greyer then our hen, our hen's iris is grey but not the eye itself... yet... but similiar.
This hen may have come from another farm, we got a handful of Isas from the other farm. They're lower in the pecking order and this hen deffinitely is low in the pecking order, but I can't say for sure.

On breif inspection, none of the other chickens seemed to have they eye thing.
I'll be innoculating future chicks or buying innoculated ones, thanks for the link!

Is Ocular Marek's very contagious? Should we seperate the bird from the flock in case she does have it?

If she had an injury to cause her eye to go like this, the wound has already healed or isn't visible. She doesn't have any blood on her or scabs. I don't recolect any of our Isas getting any kind obvious wound, though, being a low in the pecking order hen, she might have gotten pecked by a higher, pushy hen. Again, the hen may have come from another farm a few months ago. If that was the case, I wouldn't know if she had some injury earlier. But I will ask the farm we may have gotten her from if their flock ever had Marek's or if she had an eye injury.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Matt A NC]

I have 2 girls with grey eye(ocular mareks) and it does not look like that.

I do have 1 little lady that has an eye like that. Caramel was almost killed by a hawk on Jan 3 of this year. After weeks of slowly healing she is 100% except the eye. It was damaged. Basically the inside of the eye slowly leaked out over a few months. This left her with an eye that is shrunken in with a tiny constricted pupal. She is blind in that eye.

This is her 5.5 weeks after the attack. It is her right eye that is messed up. Her eye has shunk in even more now, but it seems to have stopped. It has gone down anymore in the past month or 2.

Caramel 1
Caramel - good eye
Caramel - bad eye

Matt

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
The picture is the form of ocular Marek's where the iris changes occur - not the grey eye version. I chose that picture as it more clearly shows when the constriction happens in the pupil.

In other cases, the pupil may dilate instead - causing the eye to look mostly black. Or to be misshapen, not completely round but more wobbley.

The grey eye form does look more like a cataract. But then again injuries to the surface of the eye can cause that as well. But the grey-eye ("Cloudy eye") version of marek's didn't apply here. So I didn't mention it in this case.

This can still also be something else - but again usually there's evidence of injury (leakage, etc). There can also be nerve damage to the brain that would cause it - but... these are all things to be ruled out, just like Marek's should simply be ruled out.

The trouble is - without a necropsy (which we don't want for another 10 years, right?) it's nearly impossible to really know the cause. That's where we lean on flock history, things that happen in the future, and just try to do damage control by preventing any future incidences the best we can.

P.S. Caramel is absolutely STUNNING!!!!