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

[azygous]

Have you tried to push out the pus from around the eyes? If not, you are risking her going permanently blind by not removing it. The bacteria will quickly destroy her vision. It may or may not be a respiratory infection. Even if it is and you treat it with an oral antibiotic, it will not affect the pus and bacteria already working on the eye. Pus always must be removed regardless.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Have you tried to push out the pus from around the eyes? If not, you are risking her going permanently blind by not removing it. The bacteria will quickly destroy her vision. It may or may not be a respiratory infection. Even if it is and you treat it with an oral antibiotic, it will not affect the pus and bacteria already working on the eye. Pus always must be removed regardless.

Yes I removed the pus from both eyes this morning. The right eye had a ton of pus in it the left only had a small amount, but removed it all from both eyes.

 

[azygous]

Great! I'm relieved. How do the eyes look? Clear and focused? It doesn't take long for infection to affect vision.

It's important to flush the eyes with saline at least once a day every day for the next few days to keep bacteria from taking hold again. If you have Terramycin eye antibiotic, a drop twice a day in each eye is important, as well.

Keep trying to find the Tylan or Tylosin as it will work on the entire respiratory system and keep her from getting sicker.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

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.

Yes, they can sell quickly online. There's a few places that carry it.
Often you can have them email you when it's back in stock so you can purchase it.

Pretty much, if you need meds nowadays, you have to order online and wait.

Glad you were able to get the pus out of the eyes, I agree with @azygous it's very important to keep on top of that.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Great! I'm relieved. How do the eyes look? Clear and focused? It doesn't take long for infection to affect vision.

It's important to flush the eyes with saline at least once a day every day for the next few days to keep bacteria from taking hold again. If you have Terramycin eye antibiotic, a drop twice a day in each eye is important, as well.

Keep trying to find the Tylan or Tylosin as it will work on the entire respiratory system and keep her from getting sicker.

I have been flushing her eyes with saline. Waiting on the shipment of the terramycin. Ordered it, just waiting for it to arrive. As soon as it arrives I will start that also. Eyes were red and very watery, but otherwise looked fine.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Ok guys. I wanted to give you all an update on my hen. Although I am still waiting on the medications to arrive. The terramycin will be here today, not sure about the tylan it has shipped but the shipment date yet stated. I have been getting the pus out of her eyes everyday and flushing them. Today she opened her eyes, only a crack, but I took that as an improvement. She still has labored breathing, but it definitely is not as bad as it was.
I do have a few questions though. Some of my flock has also showed signs of a URI. When I get the tylan I was planning on treating the whole flock. My question is I have a small coop with run attached inside my flocks run. There is a mama and her chicks in that coop. They are not showing any signs of illness. Would they have come in contact with the URI also? If it is MR would they also be carriers? I have 10 chicks 1 week old in my house right now. I was going to start a whole new flock with them on a totally different area of my property. I wasn’t sure if I could add the chicks from the small coop in the run into that coop also.

 

[azygous]

No, only treat symptomatic birds. Tylan is not a preventative. It only treats bacteria. The flock are all to be considered carriers.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

Is it possible that I could be having 2 problems going on with my flock? I have started to treat them for gapeworms again and some of them are looking and acting better. Whereas some others are still looking sick? The ones that are sick, could they have an respiratory infection and others gapeworm?

 

[Eggcessive]

You may use plain Neosporin in the eye until the Terramycin ointment arrives. Gapeworm is rare. What is your general location? It sounds more like a respiratory disease causing the pus and swollen eyes, but I would continue the wormer for 5 days. If you should lose a chicken, have your state vet perform a necropsy and then you will know for sure what it was. Keep the body cold on ice in a cooler or refrigerator, don’t freeze.

 

[KosmoKeaton]

You may use plain Neosporin in the eye until the Terramycin ointment arrives. Gapeworm is rare. What is your general location? It sounds more like a respiratory disease causing the pus and swollen eyes, but I would continue the wormer for 5 days. If you should lose a chicken, have your state vet perform a necropsy and then you will know for sure what it was. Keep the body cold on ice in a cooler or refrigerator, don’t freeze.

I received the Terramycin last night. Used it this morning. I was more discussing the rest of my flock, not this particular chicken. I am aware she has a respiratory infection. I have ordered tylan waiting on shipment, not sure she will make it before it gets here. If we do lose her the only option I will have is to put her in a cooler with ice as we don’t have power now due to an extreme storm we had last night. I will then contact the state places to do a necropsy to have her tested. Power company says we will be out for a length of time due to many people losing power. We are in eastern PA. I had a stool sample sent into a vet, stating it was gapeworm that is why I was treating for gapeworm. This is the second go around with treatment. They had their initial dose, we are on the 10 day later dose. Some of the chickens are looking better from gapeworm treatment, but others are not. As of now they are on their 3rd day of the 5 day treatment, so they do have a few more days of medicine. I should be receiving the tylan on Monday unless the storm delays it. I was planning on treating the sick birds with the tylan when I receive it.