Swollen eye...Should I cull??? (Meat bird)

[cjeanean]

I have a 10.5 wk old cornish X that has all of the sudden developed a swollen eye. I believe that the heavy cover that I place on top of their feeder may have fallen on him. The eye itself is not hurt, his eyeball is normal looking and he is seeing things fine (food, etc) out of that eye. The eyelid above it is swollen and appears to have some sort of infection (looks like a huge zit) I want to go ahead and cull this chicken, since I don't have the time or money to keep this chicken going for another week or two (we're butcher August 2) but hubby says we shouldn't. Do you guys think I should try to drain the abcess with a needle or something??? NONE of the other chickens are affected by this, which is why I think it's either an infection specific to this bird (maybe from a bug bite) or a result of the feed cover falling on him. This bird is big enough to butcher now. Thanks!!!

 

[gumpsgirl]

If he's big enough to butcher now, I'd go ahead and butcher him. I wouldn't take the chance of the rest of the flock possibly getting infected. Even if it's nothing, it would be good practice for what's to come. Just my opinion.

 

[cjeanean]

That's what I want to do, but hubby doesn't want to. I think I'm going to try to drain it or just go ahead and butcher him. I just checked all the others and they are all fine. I dunno.

 

[dangerouschicken]

Why doesn't he want to butcher him now? CC are probably huge by now!

 

[gumpsgirl]

The only thing I would worry about with draining it is infecting the others with whatever this one has, if anything. If you drain it, I would do it away from all the others and keep him in quarantine until butchering day so he doesn't have any other contact with the others. Goo luck with it! I know what it's like to deal with a hard headed DH!

 

[MonkeyZero]

Drain It and separate it from the flock
Hopefully it gets better

ETA

Just try to give it the best few weeks of its life...

 

[dangerouschicken]

If you drain it... Goo luck with it!

 

[cjeanean]

Quote:
They're about 6 lbs live weight right now. I don't know why he doesn't want to butcher, but hubby doesn't understand about the whole infection thing with chickens. I don't get it. He noticed the eye thing, and I immediately told him to go cull the chicken. he got all surprised and was like, I knew I shouldn't have said anything, why would we cull just because his eye is swollen?? I was worried that it was the whole foamy eye thing that I've seen on other posts, but no, it's just a swollen upper eyelid. He just doesn't understand the problems that can come from trying to treat a chicken for just a week or so before butcher, and there's no way I can separate this chicken. I'm NOT bringing it into the house, and I don't have an area I can put him to quarantine this chicken. He's more than big enough to butcher, I don't understand what his issue is. Whatever. If I have to separate this chicken I'm just going to butcher instead, cause I can't do this right now. It's too close to butcher.

 

[nnbreeder]

If it is a respratory infection it will be spread through the drinking water infecting the entire flock. If nothing else seperate at once.

 

[silkiechicken]

10.5 weeks and only 6 lbs live weight? Take it they get lots of free range time and lots of feed restriction and are girls? Either way, I'd just go ahead and butcher now. You'll get a nice 4.5lb bird. Why risk the rest of the flock and risk the infection going systemic and "wasting" the bird so to say.