Swollen eyes and nasal drainage

[Jurot08]

One of my friendliest hens is sick and I don’t know with what. She was fine yesterday morning but then collapsed in the early afternoon. One of her eyes is swollen shut and her face is swollen on the other side too. It’s warm to the touch and there is white drainage from her swollen eye and nose. Another hen has swelling on her face this morning too.

Does this look like mycoplasma? I recently bought pullets (which are still healthy). There are no respiratory symptoms other than the swelling and drainage.

Last week I had a different hen get sick and took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with coccidea and capillaria parasite (my birds free range). I got medication for her and she recovered. The whole flock was treated for coccidea using CORID as well. Could this be parasites? I’m hoping it’s not mycoplasma.

 

[Eggcessive]

Adding new started birds from another flock is how many get a respiratory disease into their flocks. Symptoms can show up with a few days to weeks after exposure to carriers. They could have had the disease or just been exposed to it previously. Can you clean off any drainage, mucus or feed? Take new pictures. Have the new birds been picking on the one who is sick? Is she swollen from pecking/attack or does she have mucus from her beak, watery or bubbly eye? Those are symptoms of MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum) and Tylosin in the water 1 tsp per gallon of water can treat the disease. I would also clean her eye, and apply either Terramycin eye ointment or plain triple antibiotic ointment (a small dab) into her eye twice a day after cleaning of any crusts or secretions. Here is some reading about MG:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2022-04/FS-1008 Recognizing and Preventing Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

Get tylosin here and at jedds.com where you also can get Terramycin eye ointment:
https://thecanaryfinchstore.com/product/tylosin-powder-for-birds/

https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-...bnxWzmDzQeGdVbQag_Q55u270OnFSsgRRhlhkVPGDTFrK

 

[Jurot08]

Adding new started birds from another flock is how many get a respiratory disease into their flocks. Symptoms can show up with a few days to weeks after exposure to carriers. They could have had the disease or just been exposed to it previously. Can you clean off any drainage, mucus or feed? Take new pictures. Have the new birds been picking on the one who is sick? Is she swollen from pecking/attack or does she have mucus from her beak, watery or bubbly eye? Those are symptoms of MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum) and Tylosin in the water 1 tsp per gallon of water can treat the disease. I would also clean her eye, and apply either Terramycin eye ointment or plain triple antibiotic ointment (a small dab) into her eye twice a day after cleaning of any crusts or secretions. Here is some reading about MG:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2022-04/FS-1008 Recognizing and Preventing Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

Get tylosin here and at jedds.com where you also can get Terramycin eye ointment:
https://thecanaryfinchstore.com/product/tylosin-powder-for-birds/

https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-...bnxWzmDzQeGdVbQag_Q55u270OnFSsgRRhlhkVPGDTFrK

I gave her antibiotics last night at the emergency (phone) vet’s recommendation. It seemed to help a lot and her eye is open now but has what looks like soap bubbles coming from the now open eye. Still no respiratory symptoms. I’m not sure if she’s been picked on by the other chickens - she has some barbering on her back so probably. Her poop had a worm in it as well, so in

This morning 5 more birds had facial swelling around their eyes and nose discharge. They do have respiratory symptoms (crackles and sneezing).

 

[Jurot08]

Adding new started birds from another flock is how many get a respiratory disease into their flocks. Symptoms can show up with a few days to weeks after exposure to carriers. They could have had the disease or just been exposed to it previously. Can you clean off any drainage, mucus or feed? Take new pictures. Have the new birds been picking on the one who is sick? Is she swollen from pecking/attack or does she have mucus from her beak, watery or bubbly eye? Those are symptoms of MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum) and Tylosin in the water 1 tsp per gallon of water can treat the disease. I would also clean her eye, and apply either Terramycin eye ointment or plain triple antibiotic ointment (a small dab) into her eye twice a day after cleaning of any crusts or secretions. Here is some reading about MG:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2022-04/FS-1008 Recognizing and Preventing Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

Get tylosin here and at jedds.com where you also can get Terramycin eye ointment:
https://thecanaryfinchstore.com/product/tylosin-powder-for-birds/

https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-...bnxWzmDzQeGdVbQag_Q55u270OnFSsgRRhlhkVPGDTFrK

Thank you for your suggestions. I gave her antibiotics last night at the emergency (phone) vet’s recommendation. It seemed to help a lot and her eye is open now but has what looks like soap bubbles coming from the now open eye. Still no respiratory symptoms. I’m not sure if she’s been picked on by the other chickens - she has some barbering on her back so probably. Her poop had a worm in it as well, so she needs deworming also. I’m going to get the vet involved once they open tomorrow. I’m hoping there’s a test that can confirm what they have. All the new pullets are still healthy and have no symptoms.

This morning 5 more of my original chickens had facial swelling around their eyes and nose discharge. They do have respiratory symptoms (crackles and sneezing). I separated them and gave them antibiotics. Then cleaned and bleached (10% solution) the run area and put down new substrate (lime and pine pellets) to see if that contains the outbreak.

If it is mycoplasma, does that mean I need to cull my birds? I have 25 chickens. I also keep parakeets (I’m being very careful and showering between the chickens and the budgies so nothing transfers but this is not a long term solution) and I don’t know that there’s a way to safely keep a mycoplasma positive flock and avoid hurting my indoor birds. It said online that they become lifelong carriers?

 

[Eggcessive]

I suppose it is too late to return the pullets to the seller? Have the new ones been with the existing birds? What antibiotic are you using? Do you have a picture of the worm you saw in the poop? Which wormer and dosage did you use? I would close your flock to new birds. It is not necessary to kill all your birds and start over, but just try to get your birds healthy, and keep in mind your birds will be carriers for life. MG, if that is what you are treating, is also carried through hatching eggs to chicks. If possible at some time, you can get testing done on a sick bird privately through a lab such as Zoologix or RAL (vetdna)
https://www.zoologix.com/
https://www.vetdna.com/