chicken flock with infection in eyes

[snowball]

Can any one help?

my flock of sebrights has been struck down with an eye/head problem.

one by one they have been getting swollen eyes, scabbing over and puss and their heads have scabs / swellings aswell? one hen appears to have ulsers in her mouth.

we have been bathing them in warm water and just put some eye drops in to see if that helps.

so far 4 hens and a cockeral have it but it is spreading.
does any body know what it might be and any suggestions of what else to try?

snowball

[duckmad]

hi snowball
sounds like something similar to mycoplasma
go to the vets and ask for tylan 200 its and injection or baytril, and some small syringes, it is only about 1ml into the breast the results are dramatic, it can be repeated after 2 days if necessary.
if you dont fancy that why not try tylan soluble, it is mixed in with the drinking water, its a sod to mix though, its about 1 teasthingy in a bucket of water for 5 days, you cant eat the eggs while they are being treated but it shouldnt affect fertility if you want to hatch them.
to mix it we put it in the bucket, give it a good stir and then pour into the drinkers or whatever you have it seems to mix better after the pour.
hope this helps.
if one lot have it though it might spread to the reat so if you are going to use tylan soluble i would blanket treat the whole lot at once and cure any underlying problems as well, both are only antibiotics.
let us know how you get on
duckmad

[snowball]

Hi Duckmad

thanks for your info,

we have been prescribed SPARTRIX which is for canker. 1 tablet per bird straight down the throat! They have all been dosed with this and we will now keep a close eye for 3 days to seei f any improvement. All 9 birds have been isolated from the rest and we now have our fingers crossed that they all recover!

snowball

[snowball]

update,

after a long discussion on the phone with a local vet, he thinks it may be Fowl Pox, maybe picked up when these little darlings spent a night away with the gypsies last month.

We have now got a dose of Baytril to give the birds. They have all had a shot of neat Baytril straight down the throat, and then some diluted in their drinking water.

We are still keeping a close eye on all the chickens, including the ones not affected we hope!


Snowball