Red Star hen with gapeworms has swollen eye and won’t open eyes. Please help!

[KosmoKeaton]

Hi. I have been raising chickens for many years now, but have never had any issues with gapeworm before. I did bring a stool sample to a nearby vet to have a fecal float done, which came back with gapeworms. I treated the whole flock for gapeworms for the 5 required days with the safeguard goat dewormer. About 1 week after treatment 2 of my hens became sick again, I separated them immediately and started the treatment again for gapeworms as they were showing all the symptoms of gapeworms. One recovered completely, but the other one was still struggling. I’m unsure of her age, but I think she is around a year old. Now she is still struggling with breathing and her right eye is very swollen. Her breathing has gotten slightly better with the gapeworm treatment, but not cured. She is now on her 4th day of treatment. I didn’t notice the swollen eye till this morning when I was treating her for gapeworm. Could she have something else in addition to the gapeworm? I have also been giving her vetrx to help with the breathing problems. She is very skinny, she only weighs 3 lbs, where most of my hens are around 6 lbs. I don’t believe she is eating much or drinking much, although she is eating and drinking some. Please let me know if anyone has any ideas how to help her.

 

[SmiYa0126]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive
Please help!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I did bring a stool sample to a nearby vet to have a fecal float done, which came back with gapeworms. I treated the whole flock for gapeworms for the 5 required days with the safeguard goat dewormer. About 1 week after treatment 2 of my hens became sick again, I separated them immediately and started the treatment again for gapeworms as they were showing all the symptoms of gapeworms.

Did you give Safeguard at a dose of 0.23ml per pound of weight given orally once daily for 5 days in a row?

Is she new to you?
Have you added new birds?

Looks like she has respiratory infection. You may need to treat symptoms with an antibiotic like Tylosin/Tylan.
The swelling of the eyes may be pus. Flush the eyes with saline, press out any pus, then apply Terramycin eye ointment into the eye, do this at least once daily.

Do be sure to look inside the beak for any lesions or canker.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes she is being treated by mouth with the safeguard once daily with the correct dose. She is now on her 4th day of treatment. Tomorrow will be her 5th day of safeguard. Should I continue longer than 5 days with safeguard? I will go to TSC and see if they have Tylosin/Tylan I will also see if they have Terramycin eye ointment. I could get all that from Amazon but would prefer to treat right away and not have to wait a day to get the meds. I did look in her mouth when she opens it to breathe I did not see any lesions or canker.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Oh sorry. No she is not new to me. We did get new bird about a month and a half ago, but she was not one of them.

 

[azygous]

Whether those eyes are swollen from an infection, respiratory disease or worms (the possibility exists that worms may have made it into the eye socket), you must remove what's in there by exerting gentle pressure around the eye to force pus or worms out of the eye. Then flush with saline and use Terramycin in the eye twice a day until it's cleared up.

With serious worm infestations, treating with the worming med is often only the first step. Sometimes, the worm load is so heavy, the dead and dying worms can slip into the digestive tract and clog it, making chickens very sick. They can't eat, they lose weight, and sometimes die following worming. We had such a case a couple weeks ago here where the chickens nearly died after worming.

What we did was to give them a gentle laxative treatment using one-fourth cup warm water with one teaspoon molasses dissolved in it. The chicken must drink all of it for it to work even if you have to tube or syringe it into the chicken. This is how to give it by syringe without getting it in the airway.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Whether those eyes are swollen from an infection, respiratory disease or worms (the possibility exists that worms may have made it into the eye socket), you must remove what's in there by exerting gentle pressure around the eye to force pus or worms out of the eye. Then flush with saline and use Terramycin in the eye twice a day until it's cleared up.

With serious worm infestations, treating with the worming med is often only the first step. Sometimes, the worm load is so heavy, the dead and dying worms can slip into the digestive tract and clog it, making chickens very sick. They can't eat, they lose weight, and sometimes die following worming. We had such a case a couple weeks ago here where the chickens nearly died after worming.

What we did was to give them a gentle laxative treatment using one-fourth cup warm water with one teaspoon molasses dissolved in it. The chicken must drink all of it for it to work even if you have to tube or syringe it into the chicken. This is how to give it by syringe without getting it in the airway. View attachment 3870631

She definitely had a large amount of worms. When I first started to treat her I could feel them moving around in her trachea. I will go to the store right now and get molasses. How long before I will know if this treatment will work?

 

[azygous]

In a day. It stimulates the intestines to move content through and out. Within a few hours you should see a pretty big poop. But the real change will be in the hen's behavior. She will start acting much more happy and normal.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes she is being treated by mouth with the safeguard once daily with the correct dose. She is now on her 4th day of treatment. Tomorrow will be her 5th day of safeguard. Should I continue longer than 5 days with safeguard? I will go to TSC and see if they have Tylosin/Tylan I will also see if they have Terramycin eye ointment. I could get all that from Amazon but would prefer to treat right away and not have to wait a day to get the meds. I did look in her mouth when she opens it to breathe I did not see any lesions or canker.

I wouldn't give the Safeguard for more than 5 days.

You probably won't find Tylan at the feed store, nor or amazon. There were changes (again) last year. Most medications were pulled from shelves...

Anyway, you can still get Tylosin soluble, you do have to order it. Now if you have a working relationship with your vet, you might be able to get meds more quickly.

https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-powder?_pos=5&_sid=1168d5c5d&_ss=r

 

[KosmoKeaton]

I wouldn't give the Safeguard for more than 5 days.

You probably won't find Tylan at the feed store, nor or amazon. There were changes (again) last year. Most medications were pulled from shelves...

Anyway, you can still get Tylosin soluble, you do have to order it. Now if you have a working relationship with your vet, you might be able to get meds more quickly.

https://jedds.com/products/tylosin-powder?_pos=5&_sid=1168d5c5d&_ss=r

I was not able to get the Tylosin when I went to feed store as you suggested, but I did order it online. Still waiting on shipping confirmation. Hopefully it comes quickly! The site the you gave me was out of stock of it, but I already purchased it elsewhere. I thought I would get another one from your site if I would be able to get it quicker, but unfortunately it was out of stock.