Sudden cloudy eyes/ blindness in pullet

[Isadora]

I have a pullet who is almost 4 months old. A couple days ago, she developed grayish clouds in both eyes and her eyesight had greatly diminished. I thought she was totally blind at first, but upon observing her for a few minutes, she was seeing slightly out of her right eye. She did get to the feeder and eat this morning. I checked her crop tonight and she had some food in there but not as full as I would like.
There are no other symptoms and she is otherwise acting normally.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you please post some clear photos of the eyes?

If the irises are turning grey, then you may be dealing with Marek's disease.
http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/vdl-mareks-disease-fact-sheet.pdf

 

[Isadora]

Can you please post some clear photos of the eyes?

If the irises are turning grey, then you may be dealing with Marek's disease.
http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/vdl-mareks-disease-fact-sheet.pdf

 

[Isadora]

It looks to be the pupil turning gray, not the iris

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You are right, it is the pupil. Maybe cataracts?
Let's see if @Eggcessive may have a suggestion.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard to know exactly why her pupils are cloudy, but it does look like cataracts. How is the coop ventilation? Is there any strong ammonia odor from droppings? There is not a lot of info about eye issues in poultry, but some causes blindness can be caused by vitamin A or E deficiency, past exposure to avian encephalomyelitis (also called epidemic tremors,) infection, injury, Mareks disease, and ammonia toxicity from droppings. Has there ever been any respiratory disease symptoms in the flock? Respiratory diseases can sometimes be a reason for cataracts, but in many birds the cause can be unknown. There are reports of cataracts being genetic in some breeds in the past.

 

[Isadora]

The ventilation is great. We just built a woods style coop which is based on the fact that birds need a lot of ventilation. The coop itself has very little odor. I don't smell ammonia, just a slight poop smell when cleaning the poop board. I use wood chips we chop ourselves for the coop floor.
These birds have never showed any signs of illness.
I'm happy that it doesn't appear to be Marek's, so it's not something that will spread to my other birds, but this is a bummer. A blind chicken won't fit in on our farm. It had to be one of my favorites.
Thank you all so much for your help!

 

[chicknmania]

I hope you find a home for her. You know sometimes nursing homes have chickens for pets for the nursing home residents. I read an article about it once. It's worth a try.

 

[chicknmania]

(I had more ideas I put in your other post.

 

[Isadora]

(I had more ideas I put in your other post.

Thanks, I saw that!