Swollen eye on pullet

[ShelleyGordon]

Help! I added two new chickens to my flock about one month ago. They were rooster replacements from my chick breeder.

I noticed today that the right eye is swollen in one of my new girls, Princess Leah. No bubbles or breathing issues. No foul smell either. She is eating great and behaving her normal lively self. She is not laying yet.

Unfortunately, she is the most skittish chicken I have. I had to sneak out to the coop and get pictures in the night.

What do you think this is? There is a white marking on the surface of her eye. I've been reading about diseases and eye worms.... and driving myself crazy. I am new to this so please help me out.




This is her normal size left eye....

 

[cypressdrake]

Sometimes another chick will pluck em in the eye. I would just keep an eye on it. If it gets worse or full of puss, you may want to give her a some duramycin 10 powder in her water, I add a lil sugar to mine, they like it more and it'll add a lil fluid to them that'll help speed up the healing process.

Good Luck!

 

[Noobchick]

Did you quarantine the new birds for 30 days before adding them to your existing flock? It's been my (bad) experience that it's always risky to take in new older birds. (Older than day old chicks). Even from breeders. (Ask me how I know.)

This could be nothing, but it could be the beginning of a respiratory illness. You may hate it, but this is one of those "wait and see" situations. If she starts up with any other symptoms, isolate her immediately and do some research on what steps to take next. I've become a firm believer in culling immediately at the first sign of respiratory disease, but I know others have other opinions.

 

[ShelleyGordon]

I did not quarantine the new birds.... I foolishly listened to the breeder. I believe the other bird has mites and have been fighting that for about two weeks. He's not a breeder I will use again.

Thank you thank you for your response.

 

[ShelleyGordon]

I will watch her closely. Since she is new, there has been some squabbling...

Thank you for your response!

 

[Noobchick]

Oh that sucks, I'm sorry. Unfortunately there are a lot of not-so-honest breeders out there. Lots of ignorant ones too. (Again, ask me how I know.)

Hopefully it's nothing. I would isolate the puffy-eyed bird ASAP just in case. For that matter, maybe the other new one too? Just to keep a closer eye on them.

As for the mites, what have you tried? I've had excellent results just by adding food grade diatomaceous earth to wherever they like to dust bathe. The chickens bathe in the DE dust-treated area and take care of the mites themselves. The trick is to keep the DE dry- it won't work if it gets wet.

 

[ShelleyGordon]

I haven't seen any mites, but I have one chicken, Matilda, with scabbed, bald skin under her left wing. The other new one from the not-so-cool breeder. Sorry you had a similar experience. Live an learn, eh?

I put agricultural grade lime in their run, but they're free range in my big back yard. So they tend to dust bath under the bushes, under the playset and yes, in the garden. There is the same agricultural lime in the garden soil. I used lime rather than DE because I'm in rainy Portland, Oregon. Yes, it rains all the time here. So keeping it dry is not possible.

I treated the birds with permethrin and a week later tried sevin dust. I also emptied to coop and sprayed with liquid sevin. I burned the bedding. This was the one dry day in 3 weeks.

I wonder if the one with the swollen eye, Princess Leah, got some in her eye? Ugh. I hope not. She was very upset at being dusted. Meanwhile my partially bald girl, Matilda, loves getting carried around like a princess didn't mind a bit.

Anyhow, Matilda has some feathers missing on her chest and some baldness around her vent in addition to the scabbing under her left wing. Oh, she limps now. Pretty pathetic but super sweet gal. So I'm assuming mites??? No signs on the other birds. I'm not 100% positive it is mites. I never see her dust bathing. She won't come in from out of the rain either. She looks like she's been swimming in muddy water sometimes. I never see her pull at her feathers or preen herself at all. Is it possible she's just weird?

 

[ShelleyGordon]

OK. Update on my pullet, Princess Laya.

She definitely have some type of disease. She was sleeping alot standing up and the eye swelled shut. I isolated her, started her on duramycin 10 powder. But guess what? She was no longer eating or drinking. I waited too long. I started dosing her in her beak with an oral syringe. The syringe was left over from wisdom teeth surgery -- it has a hook on the end that made it easier.

After two days, she was not improved. In fact, she would go asleep/unconscious in my hands as I dosed her with medication. Matilda, my other sick chicken, died on Monday. I figured this chicken, Princess Laya, was going to die that night. I took watered down yogurt and put it in that syringe. I figured if she was going to die, at least she could go out with some food in her crop. Guess what? When I gave it to her, she ATE it! Smack smack smack down it went. She ate about a teaspoon.

The next morning, she was still alive! More medication and some more yogurt. She still fell asleep/unconscious in our hands. Later that day, I bought baby food.

This began four days of force feeding baby food and medication. I got no more than 3 teaspoons of food in her per day. Each day she was a LITTLE better. Each day she protested a little more about the force feeding. Finally, Friday she fought so much against the force feeding I could only get the medication and a teaspoon of food in her.

Then.... Saturday morning, she began eating on her own! She is not drinking much so I put the medication in her food. Today, Monday she is drinking. A full week after she was at the brink of death...

She is able to walk better. Her balance was affected but is improving. She looked drunk -- circling and falling She still struggles eating. Her depth perception seems affected. She will bite four or five times in the air above the food before getting low enough to the food...

Hopefully in the next few days she will make a full recovery. Whoo hoo!!