Weird Eye Issue with two of my girls!

[Americanaluver]

I'm having the exact problem with my 6 month old Silkie Barbed rock chick. :\\ But little whitish clear bubbles come out from time to time, it looks just like that but here eye has like a bloodish red to it now. :\\ she isn't bleeding though! it is a real head scratch.

 

[007Dawn]

This is caused by a bronchoal infection. treat the eyes imediately with neorsprin and give antibotics.

The infection believe it or not can be carried by mostiqoes.

My Roo Roo after three weeks of working with him just died, from it and now I have one of my girls eyes foaming.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Frothy eye can be an eye cold as well, though usually if it's with any signs at all of respiratory infection, then it's a bacterial thing and needs to be treated.

All the feeders/waterers need to be picked up, scrubbed, and disinfected. HOt water and soap, rinse, soak in bleach treated warm (not hot) water, rinse rinse rinse, and letting dry in the sun is brilliant. You're Not Supposed To use bleach with metal feeders, but in these circumstances I sure do. (There are lots of nice products, particularly Tektrol, Oxine, or even Nolvasan - my fave - for disinfecting feeders online if you want to stock up.)

Bedding should be changed, the bird isolated and treated. Don't treat the whole flock unless you have multiple birds.

Then ANY time you use an antibiotic you want to make good and sure that you're using the right one. Don't trust the Feedstore Guy for this. He'll send you home with terramycin for everything under the sun, including viruses. Use the best choice.

In this case, without a culture/sensitivity test (which would tell us exactly which bacteria is to blame and exactly which antibiotic would fix it), I'd recommend something like LS50 (lincomycin/spectinomycin) if you can get it. Tylan will also work. Tylan injectable is more effective than water-based. Also less expensive. Let us know if you need injection information.

If worse comes to worse, you can try Aureomycin. I wouldn't recommend usual Terramyin nor the sulfa drugs like Sulmet.

Also - ANY time you use an antibiotic, you absolutely should use a PRObiotic in conjunction with the antibiotic and for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Antibiotics will kill the essential bacteria of a bird's gut which is already compromised by any sinus/eye infection as the eye drains into the mouth and into the gut. Even if you didn't give antibiotics, the infection alone is enough reason to give the non-medicinal probiotics.

Probiotics are just a form of living bacteria in some media in which they can live and eat. They should be kept cool (or refrigerated). They must contain live bacteria, not just "by products" or "fermentation products". If you're using any -mycin or -cycline drug (which include all of the above except Tylan which is tylosin) you cannot use a dairy based product.

If you DON'T replace the good bacteria, the bad, opportunistic bacteria and fungi/yeasts take over - then you end up with diarrhea, sour crop, weight loss, possibly death if the infection goes too far. It's so easy to prevent.

Some choices are:
*yogurt (except with mycins and cyclines) at a rate of 1 teaspoon per day per bird. Plain, unflavored. The label will say "contains live cultures"
*A prepared livestock probiotic such as Probios (around $8 for the small container, or tube - which lasts forever and ever in the fridge, only abotu 1/4th teaspoon per bird - very very economical, even more so than yogurt in the long run!), fastrack, or another "live culture" probiotic. It'll say something about CFU's on the label - with a number. 15,000 CFU for example.
*Acidophilis capsules or tablets from the grocery/pharmacy vitamin section. One capsule per five chicks, one capsule per adult bird.

All probiotics should be eaten, not given in the water. You can mix the amount you need in a little crumbles or applesauce and offer to the bird.


It is also helpful - and necessary - to flush that eye out. You can use Sterile Eye Wash from a pharmacy (as their pharmacist if you don't find it in the first aid section - it's sterile water and boric acid). You can use plain warm water, but with less effect. You can treat with VetRx in a non-medicinal but very helpful healing way in conjunction with antibiotics if you choose to go that route. I always keep some around and it's only $5 a bottle, lasts for ages! You dilute it, use on a q-tip, swab the nostrils and eyes (different q-tip each time please) and the cleft at the roof of the mouth where the eye drains.

Oh let's see what else can you do on a budget...

Well it's good to make sure the opening between the eye and the cleft of the mouth stays open and that you flush it. In poultry texts they show pictures of how you can clear the opening using a device like a dentist's tool, and in one picture they used a feather which they inserted in the tear duct and pulled out the roof of the mouth.

You probably won't want to do that.

I don't want to but it shows clearly how the duct opens into the roof of the mouth. The importance of keeping that open is that any little infection that gets stuck in a congestion pocket in there will thrive. Antibiotics won't get to it because there's not a blood supply in the middle of a clog. So keep things cleaned and flowing (another reason I adore VetRx is because of its sinus opening herbal properties - great stuff, so cheap, lasts ages - you can even use the Rabbit product if your store doesn't have it for chickens.

Those are my random thoughts and a few Must-Do's for you so that you don't end up with a secondary bacterial infection of the gut in your flock.

 

[lil cheepers]

well, my girls seem to be getting better. I did the VetRX on a cotton swab to the roof of their mouths (WOW, was that fun getting their beaks open!) but nothing came out the eye when I did it. I continued to flush the girl with bubbly eye with the sterile eye solution, put Terramycin in it and then used Vet RX on the outside inflamed part as well as on the nostrils, beak and in the water - all twice daily. The problem stayed contained to the two girls and did not spread to the other chickens. I'm going to continue the VetRX in the water and on their inflamed areas until I feel like they look completely back to normal. All through their issues they continued laying eggs, eating and acting as usual so I'm guessing it was a mild problem in comparison to some of the illnesses that it could have been!

I appreciate everyone's advice and help! I feel like I learned a lot about chicken medicines and remedies. Hope that Americanaluver's chickens heal up quick!!

Thanks all!

 

[threehorses]

Well that sounds like pretty good news all around! The best part is that it stayed contained. YAY!

Let us know if you need any further help, but at this point it sounds mostly like it just needs time to go away. Good job.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

may I add this
put at least two drops of vetrx in each eye
1/2 tsp of vetrx down the throat
1 tsp of vetrx in gallon of water
and put several drops right on the head and rub it into the head
then put several drops of vetrx under the wing and rub it in

this is a very good herbal medication for eye disease
even when using medication for this use the vetrx liberally

it has been known to cure eye worms which are in south and due to chickens eating cockroaches

by using the vetrx it helps the eye rid irself of the eye worms

the eye worms are laid in soil and the cockroaches eat the soil and then the chicken eats the cockroach and it goes into the eye of the chick
takes a couple of weeks to rid the chicken of the eye worms

any questions email me

 

[Americanaluver]

I put Optique 1 Minor Eye Irritation in now both of her eyes and after the second treatment it was All gone.

It was so weird, no puff, no blood like glaze, no foam, no anything!

But now my runt chick "mustard" has the eye thing, I treated it with the same thing, just like I did with Yoda, but it didn't work. o-o My hole flock is dieing of Mareks disease and all this bad stuff is happening to the rest of my animals! My 2 year old chicken Dotty is sick with some stomach thing we have no idea what it is, it's not Mareks, if it was she would have died by now, but her face is pasty, she paints off and on, and she has Big yucky green poops that smell like death. x-x She can still kinda walk, and she drinks and eats when she wants to, so we are stumped on this. :\\

 

[threehorses]

Are you sure the disease is Marek's? Are you certain the other eye issues aren't optical mareks?

And honestly - really big green poops that smell that bad - I'd consider clostridium. Can you get the fecal cultured by a vet? A culture and sensitivity? You won't want to treat with just anything as if it's clotridium, regular antibiotics won't work.

This could be what might be effecting the rest of your flock. Personally I really like to see ALL chicken problems in one thread because 99.9999% of the time they're all related.

I'm very sorry to hear of your losses.

 

[Americanaluver]

Quote:
Well, the Mareks, I'm pretty "sure" is gone, 20 chickens lost 14 got through it, and the new ones never got it, I'm surprised some actually lived! And Mustard died, poor little thing, it was an infection, one morning I came down to see her and her eye was I doin no, almost the size of a celulater button filled with white puss, it happened two times, I was going to bring her to the vet, but the morning I came down to get her, she was dead, spread out wings and everything, I think she might of had a heart attack, because, her eyes where open her legs where in a tangle and her wings where out. :\\

 

[Jack95]

I had the exact same problem with my Sultan rooster so we took him the vets and they gave us 2 antibiotics to give him for a week or so, but he started to become weaker and weaker and eventually he died. A professional poultry breeder who I know said to give them Tylan 200 as well but I am sure he said something about them becoming addicted to it? I have emailed a medical company to find out more info before I give it to another bird I have which may have it. He said as well that it is some sort of cold but other people on the internet say it could be bronchitis. There was an article in the practical poultry magazine about this but it did not say what it was called and it said to use eye drops but did not say which type of eye drop. I will keep you posted on what I find out. If anybody knows more on this please could you let us know some more info.