Swollen Eyes!

[Chickenlover8814]

Hi everyone, we started noticing this recently like 3 weeks ago with a few of our pullets, they had swollen eyes and kept them shot by choice. We got some banixx spray that we spray on their eyes every so often and they will occasionally open them but the eye is red and irritated looking with no foam or bubbles present. The infection has spread to the bigger coop and some of the bantams have it in that coop. Is there a such thing as pink eye or just an eye infection in chickens or do we need to be worried about a real disease? Any ideas for treatment would also help. thanks.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Greetings Chickenlover8814,

Pink Eye in chickens does exist. However, it is more a symptom of disease than an actual disease in itself.

It's really conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the inner eye lid. This inflammation can be caused by different things. Such as, bacteria, a virus, fungus or even disgusting parasites, like eye worms.

It's definitely infectious since other chickens are now showing the same symptom. Do they have loose poop or diarrhea? Eating and drinking OK?

Try to smell around the chicken's nostrils and eyes. If you smell a foul odor, then they could have Infectious Coryza, an upper respiratory illness, which would require an antibiotic. However, if you don't see any other respiratory symptoms, like wheezing, coughing, or sneezing, it may not be upper respiratory.

Examine the eye, restrain the chicken in a towel, then pull the lower lid down to check for discharge or fine clear eye worms. Eye worms are caused by cockroaches, so if this is the problem, you'll have to address the roaches, too. The treatment for eye worms would be Ivermectin drops in the eye.

For now until you have more symptoms, you can do the following:

• Supportive care Isolate the bird from the flock and place in a safe, comfortable, warm location
• Using a clean wash cloth moistened with slightly warmed water, gently wipe off any discharge.
• Ophthalmic ointment such as Terramycin is helpful, or you can use a triple antibiotic ointment. Some keepers use Neosporin (without pain reliever in it). Apply twice a day, to the lower lid, for a week.
• Colloidal Silver works very well on eye infections, (fungal or bacterial), put one or two drops, of 20-30 ppm, into each eye, two to three times a day.

I'll recheck my notes to see if there is anything else to add.

These are my thoughts on your chicken's issue. I hope I have been helpful.
Other members will have advice, please consider them, too.

God Bless