**Sudden, Chicken watering eyes and vision problems**

[Bluucantu1]

Hi all, my name is Rebecca and I'm new, so HELLO!

Our light Brahma (12 weeks old) has been shutting her eyes a lot, so upon further inspection noticed that they were watering. Then when I tried to hand feed her something she seemed to be able to see that it was there, but not see the distance any longer. She would then miss the food, then shake her head back and forth.
Has anyone heard of this? She's my daughter's (7 years old) hen and we are really upset because we don't know what this means or how to treat her.
Thanks for any suggestions, I appreciate it!

Rebecca

 

[CoopCrazy]

How is the chick today??? Couple things .. what type of bedding do oyu use? Do you ahve adequite ventilation in your coop? it sounds too me like she may have an upper respitory infection.. May try antibiotics

 

[Bluucantu1]

Thanks for asking, she is the same. We have wood shavings in there now. They have a window in their coop, but they are in their outside coop all day.
I'm concerned because she can see her food there, but it must look a lot closer to her and she can't get to it, she pecks about halfway to the food and water and at some point she just gives up.

We are taking her to a vet today, hopefully they will be able to help her without breaking my wallet.

 

[Schultz]

Wishing you good luck. I just wanted you to be prepared for the vet bill. I've spent about 200 dollars once taking one of our favorite girls in. It can be very pricey. Hopefully someone sees your post and knows exactly what it is and you wont have to go to the vet. Sometimes it takes a little while for the right person to see your post but we have been able to avoid a vet visit more times than not. Welcome to BYC
ETA: if you are using cedar shavings that can cause a respitory infection and you should switch to pine shavings instead. sorry if you already knew that.

 

[LindseyM12]

How did the vet go?

 

[Bluucantu1]

The vet said that it could be just an eye infection and gave her eye drop antibiotics, she's also on them internally. It's funny how vets can be like pediatricians.."It's a non-specific rash.." "It might be an eye infection or some life-threatening disease..here's your bill for your left arm and leg"
I'm feeding her by hand, it seems the only way she can find her food and trying to syringe feed her water is an absolute blast! But, I'll do what I've got to cause I love her..hopefully her eye site gets better.
Thanks for asking!