Hi all,
We brought our chickens (a couple months old, got mid-February) inside a couple days ago and put them back in our tank due to a cold spell.
I noticed this morning that the one seems to be having trouble with their eye - one eye is open, the other is shut. It doesn't appear to be swollen/have any sort of discharge, and they occasionally open it for about 30 seconds to a minute. They also seem to be more tired then the others - curled up often underneath the heater, while the others are walking around/pecking for food. They do get up and drink water and they go after food when it's dropped in.
Since the tank is only for a couple days, we've been cleaning it out 3-4 times a day, so I don't think they got anything (poop, food, etc) in their eye. Them/the other chickens don't seem to peck at each other, so I don't think it's an injury.
When googling (that's how I found this forum) I saw it recommended that you flush the eye out with saline, and treat with terramycin. All of those threads mentioned discharge or something in the eye, though, so I wanted to make sure it would be okay to try those things with nothing visibly wrong/look for other solutions.
I tend to over-worry, especially with "new things," so I don't want to cause more harm trying to fix it.
Thanks in advance!
We brought our chickens (a couple months old, got mid-February) inside a couple days ago and put them back in our tank due to a cold spell.
I noticed this morning that the one seems to be having trouble with their eye - one eye is open, the other is shut. It doesn't appear to be swollen/have any sort of discharge, and they occasionally open it for about 30 seconds to a minute. They also seem to be more tired then the others - curled up often underneath the heater, while the others are walking around/pecking for food. They do get up and drink water and they go after food when it's dropped in.
Since the tank is only for a couple days, we've been cleaning it out 3-4 times a day, so I don't think they got anything (poop, food, etc) in their eye. Them/the other chickens don't seem to peck at each other, so I don't think it's an injury.
When googling (that's how I found this forum) I saw it recommended that you flush the eye out with saline, and treat with terramycin. All of those threads mentioned discharge or something in the eye, though, so I wanted to make sure it would be okay to try those things with nothing visibly wrong/look for other solutions.
I tend to over-worry, especially with "new things," so I don't want to cause more harm trying to fix it.
Thanks in advance!