Very nasty picture, not for the weak stomach. Bad infection in the eye

[Marsha's maddness]

Has anyone else ever dealt with this before? It started this winter in some of our guineas. now it is hitting our chicks. It starts fast, almost overnight. They shut the eye with no swelling. They are not depressed, dont hide or show any signs of sickness. You do not know they have anything wrong till the eye bubbles out. And I mean a huge bubble! No foul smell, but full of white/yellow puss. If they live through it, the eyeball itself is gone. We treated with terramycin(sp) in the water. Over the counter Antibiotic injections, and it wont touch it. Out of 100 chicks, 9 have it now, I dont want it getting worse or taking over the whole flock. I did some reading last night, we are going to try the tylan 50 injected and drops today. Just want to know what it is, as our vet told us he is not a chicken vet. (in a nice way) First pic is the bad eye, second is the same chicks non affected eye.

 

[WalkingWolf]

I have never seen a eye infection that bad, but I am sure others here have. Clean it and apply a eye antibiotic, your farm store should have it. I use neosporin for minor eye scrapes my birds have but your birds is much more serious. Depending on the cause you may need to use a injection antibiotic. Separate the bird from the rest of the flock so she does not get picked on or pass it on to the others.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I think trying the Tylan 50 is a good idea, since an infection is evident. I do wonder why so many of them are getting this problem. When one of my roosters had an eye infection, I did some research on here about bubbling eye and it was recommended to rule out worms. I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the worm, but to rule it out it was recommended to press on the back of the roof of the mouth and see what oozes out of the eyes. Gross sounding, I know. My rooster ended up having just an eye irritation that was treated with neosporin on the eye area, but it sounds like you have a different issue.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I did a little search and found there is something called eye worm, I haven't found anything clear on best treatment yet.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Well I did more research because i was curious. It sounds like Eye Worm is related to round worm. some people use a product called vet rx, but really that is like using vick vapo rub to treat worms.

Others flush the eye with eye with a solution of water and bicarbonate (baking soda) sterilized by boiling it and letting it cool, but I don't know if this is a true cure.

Pour-on Ivomec is a general wormer that works systemically so it may take a while to work?

I also copied and pasted this-- notice this uses INJECTABLE Ivomec not pour on Ivomec which has alcohol in it's formulation:


When a chicken eats an infective cockroach, worm larvae migrate up the esophageus to the mouth, through the tear duct, and into the eye
Wild birds are also infected by eye worm and may help spread it to chicken flocks

Controlling cockroaches around the hen house controls eye worm

Veterinary treatment, usually reserved for valuable birds, involves applying a local anaesthetic to the eye, carefully lifting the third eyelid, applying 1 or 2 drops of 5 percent cresol solution, and immediately flushing out the eye with clean water

If the eye is treated in the early stage of infection, it should clear up in 2 or 3 days

An alternative (unapproved) treatment involves putting 3 drops of ivermectin into the chicken's eye, twice a day, until the eye worms are gone

This is a treatment for eye worm recommended by a vet
The hen was treated for a swollen eye-lid with suspected eye worm infection
Use a diluted solution of Ivomec.
The solution recommended by a bird vet
1 cc of Ivomec injectable, mixed with 4 parts mineral oil.
Apply 3 drops of this diluted solution to the very top of the bird's head (close to the eye, but not in the eye).
Do this twice, five days apart.

 

[Pickaduck]

Wow.. that's a really bad looking infection! Have you separated them from the other chicks?

Any updates? I'm very curious to see what it is but I'm sorry I don't have any advice to give you beyond cleaning and antibiotics! Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in and help.

 

[Marsha's maddness]

We gave a round of tylan injections, and dripped some in the eyes also. I hope this helps. Will update when I can. If any one else has any ideas, please let me know!

 

[mocat chickens]

On the second dose of tylan injections, and water meds. No improvement yet and 3 days out.... any other ideas?

 

[Sara66]

Hello,
Did anything ever help the poor chick's infection, or were you able to determine what it was? I am on the 5th day of treating a duck eye infection with terramycin. It doesn't appear to be changing for better or worse. It looks similar but a little less swollen (I can still see the eye) and white rather than yellow.

 

[ChicKat]

I treated a pullet for eye worm.
My posting may be the source of the bicarb + boiled water that the earlier poster wrote. I had gotten that from 'online vet'. I had not seen that anywhere else on the internet. I made the joke...pullet $10, vet cost $30....

Subsequently I did use Vet Rx according to the package directions for eye worm. Rather than be just like vicks the process turns the chicken upside down and uses a Q-tip in the V in the top of the beak. (Not sure ducks beaks are the same as chickens). The liquid flows through the sinus and drips out the top of the beak and flushes out eye worm. I believe that a couple of applications of that disintigrated the eyeworm.

I found through much research, a product called Oxy-Rid. Two drops in the eye cure eye worm, and one drop once per month is a preventative. So now I drop a drop in each of my hens eyes when I give them a monthly inspection and do all the health related routine that I do for them.

Oxy rid can be obtained from New Tree which is located in the Phillipines. They eye drops are about 5.00 btl. But the shipping costs are about $68. I said that I was going to contact a vet supply to see if someone in the US could stock the product. The shipping costs would be about the same for a case as for one bottle. I think the shelf-life is about 1-year. When I was talking to a vet about another matter he told me that the ingredients in OxyRid are not approved for meat birds in the USA. There is no egg withdrawal with the product however, and it is safe for chicks.

Here is a link to the older post. At the time I was panicked and thought that my pullet would damage her eye or some serious long-term consequence would result.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6469194#p6469194

The eyeworm larvae needs 4-months from the time the cockroach eats eyeworm egg in poop to the time the chicken eating the cockroach is exposed to larvae that can infect it.
For your duck, I would check with a vet if possible and use Vet Rx to flush the eye worm out of the eye, if that is what is causing the problem. Good luck, i hope it is cured quickly.