What is wrong with her eye?

[CluckinOnTheYakus]

Symptoms:
Mucus in both eyes
Swelling around both eyes (one more than the other)
Lethargy
Fever
Some white gunk I can't seem to get out in the corner of her eyes
No respiratory issues that I can tell
She smells kinda of like a horse does which is weird....

What I've done so far:
Isolated her
Nutri drench
Tylan 50
Microcyn eye drops
Tube feeding to ensure tylan, water, and food consumption
Heating lamp for chills


What else can I do? What the heck is this stuff? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Symptoms:
Mucus in both eyes
Swelling around both eyes (one more than the other)
Lethargy
Fever
Some white gunk I can't seem to get out in the corner of her eyes
No respiratory issues that I can tell
She smells kinda of like a horse does which is weird....

What I've done so far:
Isolated her
Nutri drench
Tylan 50
Microcyn eye drops
Tube feeding to ensure tylan, water, and food consumption
Heating lamp for chills


What else can I do? What the heck is this stuff? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

It looks like she has a respiratory illness. If she has a very strong rotten smell then it could be Infectious Coryza. There are many other illnesses that also have discharge/pus in the eyes so it would be hard to determine which one without testing.

Antibiotic treatment helps with secondary infections, but won't cure respiratory illnesses.

The pus in the eye will need to come out, it won't clear up on it's own. Try flushing with saline or using warm compresses to see if you can loosen it up. You may need to use a qtip to try to work it out.

Continue to apply your eye ointment and tube feeding her if that is necessary.

Birds with respiratory illness even when recovered are generally considered carriers. Birds exposed to any sick birds are considered carriers as well. If she does not make it, a necropsy would be recommended so you know what illness you are dealing with.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[CluckinOnTheYakus]

It looks like she has a respiratory illness. If she has a very strong rotten smell then it could be Infectious Coryza. There are many other illnesses that also have discharge/pus in the eyes so it would be hard to determine which one without testing.

Antibiotic treatment helps with secondary infections, but won't cure respiratory illnesses.

The pus in the eye will need to come out, it won't clear up on it's own. Try flushing with saline or using warm compresses to see if you can loosen it up. You may need to use a qtip to try to work it out.

Continue to apply your eye ointment and tube feeding her if that is necessary.

Birds with respiratory illness even when recovered are generally considered carriers. Birds exposed to any sick birds are considered carriers as well. If she does not make it, a necropsy would be recommended so you know what illness you are dealing with.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Sorry I had typed out a whole long reply on my phone and then lost it somehow!

I had also posted in my facebook group and got tons of advice on pus removal lol, and was finally got all the pus out of her eyes. She never showed any other symptoms, and none of my others have showed signs of any illness either, so I am thinking maybe it was just an infection of the eyes only. About 2 days after I got the pus out, her eyes both looked significantly better and I released her back with the rest of the flock. So far she is doing great and so is everyone else. She did a weeks worth of tylan 50 orally via tube feeding and a few days after I started it her fever was gone and she started to act a little less lethargic.

I was really worried she was going to have something respiratory going on, but I think we dodged that bullet. Last year my entire flock came down with something respiratory, I was worried it was MG but I am leaning more towards infectious bronchitis. We added to our flock this spring and so far none of them have been sick. If they all stay healthy this winter, I plan on adding a few ameraucanas to my flock in the spring, which I am super excited about, so hopefully whatever we had last year will not rear its ugly head again this year.

It is my understanding that if we have MG on our property that any new chickens we get will be exposed and more than likely become sick, is that true? If we go without illness this winter, am I safe to assume that whatever it was has run its course?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Quote: Glad to hear she is doing well!

If you have MG on your property and add new chickens, they will be exposed. There is a possibility they could become ill (show outward signs of illness). Not all chickens exposed to MG will show symptoms, but being exposed (living with chickens that have MG), they will be considered carriers.

The only way to know for sure which illness your chicken(s) have/have been exposed to would be through testing and/or necropsy.

If you are dealing with something like Infectious Bronchitis (IB) then recovery is fairly quick (up to a month), they will be "carriers" for anywhere from 5-12months. It is not "long lived" on premises (about 4wks), but can be "shed" for a while longer. Proper ventilation is helpful with IB and cleaning/disinfecting the coop would be a good idea as well. IB can have long term effects in egg layers - drop in egg production, soft shell, egg quality, etc.

Almost all respiratory illnesses can impact egg production/egg quality and can possibly cause problems with internal laying/reproductive disorders down the road.

As to whether you can "safely" add new chickens to your flock, this is a delimna we all face at some point in time. If we have "healthy flocks" there is the potential of introducing an illness with new birds or vice versa. You will have to determine whether it is relatively "safe" to add new birds, follow quarantine and biosecurity. Monitor your flock over winter and take steps to treat any illness you encounter or have a necropsy or testing performed on any that develop symptoms.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...often-underestimated-part-of-raising-chickens
http://www.thefancychick.com/PoultryBiosecurity.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2016/08/biosecurity-for-backyard-chickens.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/12/quarantine-of-backyard-chickens-why-and.html