UPDATED w/PICS - Hamburg chick with bad eye - it's still bad :(

[Artie]

Any ideas of what this could be? I've had her home not quite a week. Her eye has been like this since she came home and hasn't improved at all, in fact, it's maybe gotten a little worse. Please help if you can. I have heard you can put Neosporin in their eyes - is that correct? Anything else I should try? She's not exactly a robust bird either...

I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Artie

 

[tammye]

sorry not sure, does she seem to have a sinus infection? discharge, smells? I know Marke's a viral infection of young birds can affect the eye, look up marke's in the search, keep her separated from the others until you figure it out

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you opened the eye to see if there is any pus in it? or could she have gotten dust from shaving in it and it's very irratated now? I found this information in the archives/ that talks about eye infections
BarnyardPunch wrote:
Huny wrote:
Anyone?

Hi there,

I am new at chicken keeping, but I have the Chicken Health Handbook that details just about every weird thing I think possible. This might be the book you looked at, but in case it's not, here are some of the diseases that mention "cheesy eye:"

0 to 1 week - eye swollen with yellow cheesy matter
Disease: aspergillosis (acute)
Rare, 10% fatal
Treatment: None, cull
Picture of cheesy stuff: http://www.worldpoultry.net/health-dise … ia.-7.html

and a second:

1 to 7 weeks - swollen eyelids with sticky or cheesy discharge
Disease: Roup
Rare, feed related - in chicks it's caused by vitamin A deficient breeders
Treatment: water soluble vitamin A
picture here: http://www.worldpoultry.net/health-dise … .-113.html


Again, I've got no idea really, but those are the "cheesy eye" diseases listed. If they also seemed to have snotty noses, cholera is indicated.

DITTO on the vitamin A (this occurs much more often than you might think and is often present in combination with other conditions)
If it were me I would put them all on Polyvisol enfamil (three-four drops in beak once a day for a week then taper off the next.) A supplement like AviaCharge 200 in addition to this would also be a good idea (you can order online from McMurry or Strombergs)
Clean the eyes daily once or twice as necessary with a luke-warm steril saline solution... dip a cotton ball and gently press against the eyes... be patient and the crust will dissolve and usually the gunk inside the eye will be expelled when gently swabbing away.

Last edited by dlhunicorn (06/02/2009 6:41 am)

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here is where I store my links and information:
Dragonflies and Dandelions

 

[Artie]

Thank you for this. I hope it's something in the eye and not Marek's. She is such a sweet girl and I really want to get her through this.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope so too, have you opened the eye to see what it looks like in there? and yes you can use neosporin in the eye, just don't touch any part of the eye with the applicator.

 

[Artie]

I have not opened the eye, but I will do so this evening. She had been opening it occasionally up until a couple days ago, and there didn't seem to be any irritation, but I'll look now because it does seem to have gotten worse. Thanks so much.

Artie

 

[Miss Lydia]

your welcome and please let us know what you find.

 

[Artie]

Okay I just opened her eye and it looks infected. I rinsed it with sterile saline solution and put Neosporin on it. I wish I had done this sooner. It just seems like there is so much to know about their health and I was just not well prepared. I have Gail Damerow's book, which I read before I got my chicks, and I lurked on this site beforehand too, but I realize now how unprepared I really was when I brought my girls home.

I mean, I thought I was ready, but you can't really prepare for all the contingencies. I feel really bad.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well your working on it now and thats what counts. I'd treat it a couple times a day rinsing with the saline then maybe tomorrow go and get some terramycin eye ointment at the feed store, that is an antibiotic so it would probably be better than the neo at this time. I'd would also give her some nutri-drench in her water or poly-vi-sol w/o iron till you see some improvement. also give her some good quality plain yogurt with scrambled eggs or just her chick feed mixed with yogurt. she needs probiotics also. if it's looking no better after a couple of days of treatment then I would start her on either injectable or oral antibiotics. Please don't beat yourself up about this, we all have learned from mistakes so your not alone. Just do all you can now to get her over this. All the best and please post how she is doing. Thanks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just wondering how your chick eye is doing?