Chick with goopy eye

ScienceTchr

In the Brooder
8 Years
Dec 7, 2011
53
1
41
Sebec, ME
My chicks are about a week old. When they first hatched last week one came out with eyes sealed shut and one eyeball hugely swollen and goopy. I tried to save her but she never started drinking or eating. I kept her separate as soon as I noticed the eye issue and washed my hands constantly never touching her and the rest of the healthy chicks. Today I noticed another little girl has it, I'm hoping that because I caught it early and she is still drinking and eating I can save her. She is separate from her siblings and will eat and drink if I get her to food/water. What could this be and what else can I do to help her?

Also is this bad husbandry on my part? I hatch eggs every year in my classroom and this is the first time this has happened. Do I need to change my sanitation process? I wash with hot soapy water on a sponge, rinse and dry and then spray with the briinsea sanitation concentrate that came with my incubator. Could it be an issue from the breeder I got the eggs from? It is only the Dominiques so far that are affected, my 2 Cochins that hatched and the 6 polish that hatched have not been affected.
 
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I was typing on my ipad so I didn't fully explain her eye issues. One eye seems to be fine but the other eye is swollen to almost double the size, looks like there is pus almost inside her eye, and she can't seem to see out of it. She's still feisty and a bit annoyed that she is separate. I cleaned the bad eye with some q-tips in warm water and put a bit of triple antibiotic cream around it for now. Tomorrow I plan to go grab some probiotics and vitamins for her water - I'll see if Tractor Supply has anything else that can help her.
 
I was typing on my ipad so I didn't fully explain her eye issues. One eye seems to be fine but the other eye is swollen to almost double the size, looks like there is pus almost inside her eye, and she can't seem to see out of it. She's still feisty and a bit annoyed that she is separate. I cleaned the bad eye with some q-tips in warm water and put a bit of triple antibiotic cream around it for now. Tomorrow I plan to go grab some probiotics and vitamins for her water - I'll see if Tractor Supply has anything else that can help her.
I have a chicken that came that way from the hatchery. The vet gave me some drops for her eye( $17 which is more that 3 times what she cost). I used the drops for a long time and it got better but she is now a year old and her eye still is runny at times. But she's a sweetheart and I'll keep her in spite of it. I didn't separate her from the other chicks and none of the others ever had a problem.
 
We don't have any vets locally that when I called said they treated chickens, however one of the vets at the local practice is the parent of on my students and I'm wondering if I call him directly if he could help at all.

She is doing a touch better this morning, her eye is still yucky but she has been able to find her food and water on her own by stumbling around until she hits her dishes and then eating/drinking. So that is encouraging, she is significantly smaller then her hatch mates and they had begun picking on her so for now I will keep her separate until we figure this out. I'm going to buy her a cheap feather duster today for a friend (she has a mismatched kids fleece mitten to cuddle with and doesn't seem to like to cuddle with it too much). And I'll pick up some vitamins and probiotics at TSC.
 

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