Swollen eyes for long while....

[Chookychicky]

Hi everybody. Newbie here. I have an approx. 18month old bantam Brahma hen who came to me from another owner. Her, and the other 5 hens we got were from someone we didn't know. We've lost one hen since we've had these girls, to a sudden death (lethargy, pale, dyspnea, and not moving/eating). I'm brand new to chickens and did everything I could to try and figure out what happened to her. Initially I thought worms or age/stress of the move because she was a much older, non egg laying hen. Back to the Bantam- since we've had her, she's had swollen eyes but no other symptoms of anything. No respiratory issues, she lays good eggs regularly, she eats/drinks/forages/sings, has nice plumage.. but her eyes never got any better.
Fast forward: we had 2 chicks we introduced in June. One is an Isbar roo, now about 5 mths old; otherwise, very happy and very friendly. 2 days ago, he was lethargic, dyspnic/panting, sitting down with his eyes closed, and couldn't crow at all (sounded like gurgling).. his eyes are fine (no swelling or discharge) and no discharge from his nostrils, nothing I can really see in his throat. I regularly deworm the chickens, most recently mid August, and just now. I'm thinking infectious bronchitis, as he likely wasn't vaccinated when we got him as a chick (my mistake).

All this to say: is my bantam girl the culprit? Is this eye thing her manifestation of a respiratory illness/IB or something that she's passing to all the others who can't fight it off as well as her? I'm in Canada (so no access to antibiotics unless I go State side). Any words of advice or anyone know what this is? Or is it conjunctivitis that I can treat with Tacro or Terramycin?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Fast forward: we had 2 chicks we introduced in June. One is an Isbar roo, now about 5 mths old; otherwise, very happy and very friendly. 2 days ago, he was lethargic, dyspnic/panting, sitting down with his eyes closed, and couldn't crow at all (sounded like gurgling).. his eyes are fine (no swelling or discharge) and no discharge from his nostrils, nothing I can really see in his throat. I regularly deworm the chickens, most recently mid August, and just now. I'm thinking infectious bronchitis, as he likely wasn't vaccinated when we got him as a chick

Welcome To BYC

Hard to say what's caused her eye to be like it is. If it's been like that a long time and doesn't bother her or you don't notice any discharge or pus from the eye, then it may just be better to leave it like it is.

If you wish, you could clean the eye with saline, then apply an eye ointment like Terramycin in the eye to see if it makes a difference.

Common symptoms of Infectious Bronchitis (IB) include watery discharge from the eyes and nostrils, chirping, labor or gasping breathing, especially more noticeable at night.

Incubation period of IB is about 24-48hrs. If he's been around the hen for a good while, I would be looking at something else causing his symptoms.
Check to make sure his crop is emptying overnight. Look to see if he perhaps ate something moldy. Do look inside the beak for any mucous, lesions or canker.

What do you feed your birds and what do you deworm them with?





https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ps044

 

[Chookychicky]

Welcome To BYC

Hard to say what's caused her eye to be like it is. If it's been like that a long time and doesn't bother her or you don't notice any discharge or pus from the eye, then it may just be better to leave it like it is.

If you wish, you could clean the eye with saline, then apply an eye ointment like Terramycin in the eye to see if it makes a difference.

Common symptoms of Infectious Bronchitis (IB) include watery discharge from the eyes and nostrils, chirping, labor or gasping breathing, especially more noticeable at night.

Incubation period of IB is about 24-48hrs. If he's been around the hen for a good while, I would be looking at something else causing his symptoms.
Check to make sure his crop is emptying overnight. Look to see if he perhaps ate something moldy. Do look inside the beak for any mucous, lesions or canker.

What do you feed your birds and what do you deworm them with?





https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ps044

Thanks for your reply Wyorp Rock. All 6 chickens are fed with a local farm feed layer pellet, mostly made of corn, soy (17% protein, 3.8% calcium 4% fat and 6% Fibre). This is majority of their diet but I do give them cleaned kitchen scraps (eggshells, watermelon rinds, cauliflower or broccoli stems, etc) and throwaways from my garden (I.e. my lettuce and basil went to seed so I pulled them and let them eat what they wanted), and have access to grit. They free-range when I can watch them, so they do eat grass and small bugs but I only do this when I can watch carefully (we've had some prey issues in the past with hawks and coyotes), and I don't think they've gotten into anything overtly toxic or moldy. Dewormer is piperazine dihydrochloride powder in their water (I realize it's only for roundworm though). I picked him up when I first noticed his symptoms and didn't notice too much going on with his crop (slightly full mid-day, not mushy or smelly), but I will definitely check again in the morning and also see if there's anything new going on in the back of his throat.