Chicken suddenly went blind

[Otterpop]

A few weeks ago I noticed that the smallest chicken in our flock of four hens was getting picked on by the other chickens. One of her eyes was noticeably red and very swollen. A few days later the other eye looked a little irritated, but nothing like the first eye. I kept a close eye on all the girls and the situation seemed to resolve itself. The other girls stopped picking on the one chicken, and her eyes were healing. However, today I noticed that this chicken was walking funny and holding her head at an unusual angle. I took her out to examine her and determined that she was completely blind in both eyes. She is no longer being picked on and she seems to be able to find her food and water. Also, the condition of her eyes is very much improved...no more swelling or redness, and no clouding of the eye, discharge, or anything like that. I'm sure this sudden blindness is due to the original attacks, but since I'm pretty new to the chicken world I wanted to make sure there wasn't some common blindness-causing disease that I was overlooking. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Birchwood]

I just noticed the same thing today with one of my chickens. Very swollen, discharge etc. I figured she got pecked in the eye. Ouch! (so didnt my 7 year old, he doesnt go in the chicken yard anymore)
Please let me know if you found out anything to do. Clean it.....It looks painful!

 

[threehorses]

There are several respiratory illnesses that cause eye swelling on any part of the eye and may not ever manifest in sneezing/coughing that you might see. But they usually don't resolve on their own.

There's also eye worm which usually only effects one eye.

But there's also mareks which causes either clouding of the eye (grey eye) or a change in the shape of the pupil causing the bird to go 'suddenly blind'.

However, with the flock history given, I'd be more likely to think that during that time she was injured and lost her sight. But since she's only now walking like that, that she's blind, it's also "possible" that she contracted the optical form of mareks after the illness because of her immune system being reduced.

That's why even with a small incident, it's important to treat the bird at least supportively (better nutrition, vitamins, drops for the eye, etc) to reduce the possibility of secondary very harmful disease - like mareks.

With either case, there's no real way to tell without having a vet test done. You just have to treat them well now, get that hen to where she can eat and drink on her own, and keep an eye out for any other birds who show either respiratory or marek's symptoms.

 

[Otterpop]

Wow, very informative, Nathalie. Thanks for the advice! I am going to investigate the Mareks thing further. She is eating and drinking on her own at this point, so I'm going to keep an eye on her. As I said, there's no swelling, redness, cloudiness, etc, so if her condition stays the same I guess I'll just have a "special needs" chicken!

 

[threehorses]

I'm glad I could help.

 

[Otterpop]

Well I have more to report on my chicken. Now she has developed some twisting of the neck and I noticed under her chin there is some sort of white crusting. I have quarantined her and am disinfecting the coop.

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

i had a sick chick who was also getting pecked in the eye, because she was very week . she passed ( she was sick from birth). The eye pecking would explain the blindness. as long as she can find food and water i guess shes ok, but if it gets worse i would get a doctor

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Twisting of the neck is technically called torticollis. It's a central nervous system issue. Because it involves the nerves, that means that vitamin E in large amounts is needed. (400 IU, slit the end, give 2 drops daily in the side of the beak.) It's required over a period of time, hopefully having an effect soon if the problem is nutritional.

Personally I'd also recommend the Enfamil vitamins PolyVisol Non-iron formula (see CVS stores) because it also contains vitamins A, D, and other vitamins. A is particularly helpful for respiratory, mucus membranes, and ocular health. The Vitamins also contain E which will help in addition to the specific E vitamins. It also contains riboflavin for more neuro-muscular help.

The crusting under the chin - I'd check her carefully to see if they're not nits, the eggs of lice. Lice can predispose birds to catch other diseases more easily including Mareks, respiratory illnesses, etc. Be sure to check her carefully (especially at the back of the neck and near the vent) to see if you can find any m oving lice. They're often straw colored in the ones that get on birds.

How old is this bird again? Can you tell us what you're feeding them, etc? If they were hatchery birds or raised by someone and sold to you, etc?

 

[Otterpop]

She's about three months old. We got her and her sister from a commercial hatchery the end of April when she was a week old. Our two other hens are Barred Rocks and are three weeks older. They came from a private breeder. We switched all of them from Nutrena crumbles to Nutrena Nature Wise Premium Layer Feed. My husband just checked her for lice and didn't see anything. Also, we tried to take a picture of her and noticed that she's light-sensitive but doesn't reactive to anything coming at her like a hand.

 

[threehorses]

Ok well light sensitive - check her some time tomorrow with a flashlight and see if you shine the light in and out of her eyes, are the pupils reactive?

You've done enough for tonight though.

This could be a good thing as you might be able to use a very light or red colored feeder that contrasts with the ground it sits on to get her to find her own food and water.

Coming from a commercial hatchery, she was likely vaccinated for Marek's. That doesn't mean she's immune. But it does mean that a vaccinated bird is less likely to develop tumors from Mareks if it turns out to be that. If they're exposed to heavy threat of mareks, even if vaccinated, they can still get it. But it would be nice if she had some protection from it and that maybe that could help us rule Marek's out completely.

The Nutrena foods - they are GORGEOUS! I started some babies on game starter this year (because I was having to feed goslings and turkeys all the same stuff) and it was the prettiest food I have ever seen! It was extremely strong smelling and fresh, which is good. Your food should be, too. Nutrena is just lovely. The one thing however - they're way too young for layer. They need nutrition to continue to build their organs and reproductive organs particularly at this time. Layer doesn't provide that. It's for birds that are "already built". They should be on that for one or two more months and then integrate the layer in around 5 months slowly. That's when you should offer oyster shell in addition to their grit. I also like making sure that they get good vitamin D at that time - a good time for yogurt.

So that might cause issues that you don't already have by feeding layer too early. They should be on grower or starter grower. Hope that helps.

That's one of the mistakes many many people make that causes issues down the road. It's like the foundation in a house. the nutrition is one of the key parts of that foundation. If it's off in the first six months, those are the birds that are more likely to be unthrifty and have malformed systems later on in life when laying and whatnot start. So it's pretty important.

Still exciting about the nutrena foods. They're fabulous.