Bubbly Eyes in Chickens

Bubbly Eyes in Chickens

Don't ignore frothy, bubbly eyes in chickens.  Bubbly eyes are something I had only seen in one of my hens and it was for 48 hours in my biggest, porkiest and most sturdy hen, Jewel.  She woke up last Winter with a bubbly, swollen eye.  Panic, drama, Vet visit, medication.  Next morning - back to normal.  

In January I had three hens in five days with bubbly, swollen eyes.  This was due to Fowl Pox and ILT virus.  Angie had swollen, gooey eyes for days and I firmly believe that gentle cleaning really helped to get her eyesight back in order.  

Cleaning Bubbly Eyes

You'll need three things;  
1. Make up remover pads - the snazzy, more expensive type that don't fall apart and leave fibres and fluff behind. 80 pads cost about $3.50.  
2. Bottle of saline solution for eyes.  I got this at the chemist for $5 for a big bottle.  
3. Bottle of fake tears.  The kind you can get from the chemist for people with really dry, irritated eyes.  I got a bottle for $7 that should last for days and days.  

You'll need to keep the hen still.  I find it easiest to wrap the girls in an old, clean towel so that just her head is poking out, whilst at the same time allowing her to maintain a standing position.  

Take a fresh, clean make up pad and squirt on enough saline solution so that it is quite damp, almost dripping and therefore soft, gentle and squishy on the hen's eyeball.  Gently, calming and slowly, wipe any dirt or infected build up away from the hen's eyes and off and away from her face altogether.  Do not press firmly on the eye at any point. 

Throw out the make up pad once used.  Only wipe the eye with the clean and fresh area of the make up pad - do not continue to wipe over the eye once the pad is soiled or dirtied.  Be prepared to use 3 or 4 pads for each clean.  Once the eye is clean, place 1 or 2 drops of the fake tears solution in the eye.  I did this 2 to 3 times a days for each hen.  Each clean should take about 5 minutes to complete - gets easier and quicker as you practice more.  

You'll know that the eyes need another clean when the eye is either stuck closed from a build up of infectious material or wet, matted and clearly preventing the hen from being able to see from that particular eye.

Most of all - take your hen to your bird knowledgeable Vet for a professional diagnosis.  She may need anti biotics, anti inflammatories or other medications.  Your hen's health and comfort is completely in the hands of her owner - do unto your hen as any normal and responsible person would do to their dog or cat please. 

Hen's have hissy fits too

I had a funny moment cleaning Alice's eyes in this bout of illness.  I had the bottle of fake tears, ready to add a couple of drops to Alice's eyes after yet another cleaning and she lashed out and grabbed the bottle by the nozzle, pulled it away from me and hissed like a snake.  She clearly hated the process however her eyes went from wonky, shedding, frothing and blinded to clear and bright and beautiful after about 5 days of 2 to 3 times daily of careful cleaning.  

Baby Alice - at the end of her fowl pox and eyes in tact

ILT in Chickens

We have Infectious Laryngial Trachaeolitus

We have the results from our girl Angie's autopsy from the WA Department of Agriculture.  It is really upsetting for us to have it confirmed that our flock definitely has  ILT.  This means that we can not introduce any new hens.  If we do so they too will contract ILT.  Basically what our girls are in for are rounds of respiratory illness - decreased lung capacity, plaques in their throat (deposits of infectious material that block the throat and impede feeding and breathing) and a bloody hard time generally.  We've agreed that we're not going to go to the ends of earth to keep the girls alive who do present with severe symptoms.  Which is really awful because there are times when going to extremes has resulted in some great success in bringing our girls back to health.  But it's not fair when we know that they are likely not to recover well, to push the girls back to us, just for our own gratification.  It must be about the girls and not about ourselves.    
We are fairly certain (as there are only two possible sources) that the ILT came from the bantam Wyandottes we bought from the Perth Royal Show in October of 2011.  It's quite upsetting as the person who sold them has no doubt passed on other hens in the past 18 months and this includes passing on ILT.  It's kind of strange that the Department of Agriculture don't seem to have an interest in the source of the virus.  I also feel badly as we should tell the breeder, which is going to be difficult.  

Rosa - gorgeous bantam Wyandotte and likely source of ILT contamination

In the mean time

But whilst difficult times may be in store for the girls, it also may come by gently, miss them altogether and they may have years of happy life ahead of them.  ILT tends to strike during times of stress - broodiness, molting, changes in seasons (particularly when Winter arrives), getting sick by other means.  We need to keep the girls in excellent condition - lots of healthy but also bolstering food, we are getting a heat lamp installed in the sleeping hutch by installing power in the pen (the hen's Uncle is an electrician), the girls are being wormed regularly (Holly is hopeless [as well as beautiful] and seems to keep getting worms on board no matter how much I treat her for them), they have vitamin solution in their water, daily fresh vegetables and greens, the sand in the pen is getting sieved frequently to keep droppings to a minimum, I'm washing the fluffy bottoms of the laying hens as needed to keep everything dry and fresh, ice bottles in the water on the +35 (95 Fahrenheit) degree days, nights in the house for extra feeds of high nutrient, high protein mash - just the usual minimalist approach to poultry care (with 200+ layers of love to dress it up).  

(left) Selene, Farrah the Silkie and two Pekin bums in the background

I have fat children - and I LOVE it!

The Vet we took the girls to in Wattle Grove commented that my girls weren't exactly petite.  Most parents would be offended to hear their children were fat - I was thrilled.  I know that if my girls were not in prime condition that I would not have the six ladies left that I do now.  We have six beautiful girls and as we are unable to get any more, so it's massive lashings of love until the end.  

4 out of 6, clockwise from left: Jewel, Holly, Farrah and Alice

A solo hen is a sad hen

We're already concerned what will happen when we only have one girl left and although this may be years to come, it's really sad to think about.  We've agreed that we'll be one of those obnoxious pet owners who takes their hen EVERYWHERE.  I think I feel most upset about this prospect at the moment.  Hens are overwhelmingly social and flock craving creatures.  A hen by herself is going to be really miserable unless we take over and make ourselves her new social circle.  Unfortunately my workplace has recently banned all animals (do not get me started on that) and I've joked (sort of) that I'll have to find a new job, as I can't stand the thought of having a girl all alone at home for 10 hour stretches.  

Anyone know of a chicken day care please?    

 

3 in 4

Today we had our 3 year old white Silkie hen Angie put to sleep.  In less than 4 weeks we have lost Bantam Wyandotte Amelia, black Silkie hen Jetta and now Angie.  We had a flock of 9 to begin the year and it's so sad to see 6 beautiful girls remaining with no certainty or relief of this nasty run of ill health.

Angie - gone but never forgotten and always loved

ILT Testing

Angie has been sent to the WA Department of Agriculture to be tested for ILT.  There is no way to test for ILT other than post mortem.  It's really sad that Angie will not come back home for a proper burial.  We've only ever had 1 other hen in more than 15 years not come home and that was by nothing more than a poor decision on my behalf.  

I do hope that ILT is not detected.  This would then lead the way to other potentially less serious possibilities eg. fowl diptheria/ wet fowl pox or mycoplasma/ chronic respiratory infection   ILT means no new chickens.  Not unless we want to infect previously healthy birds with a vicious viral condition.  It would mean keeping those hens we do have until they have all passed away  After which we would basically raze the existing pen, wait several weeks and then considered starting from scratch.

Jetta - 9 years of loveliness.  Fowl Pox proved too much.

 

Fowl Pox

In the mean time we have had Wheaten Pekin hen Alice, black Silkie Farrah and Buff Pekin Holly all with Fowl Pox.  Alice went back in to the pen on Monday 18th February.  We kept her in the house for 17 days to try and stop the spread of the Pox virus.  Such a beauty.  Alice is so tame and gorgeous.  She would bounce out of her hutch once the door was unlocked and come in to the kitchen to preen on the floor, await feeding and have a chat.  If we went outside or out of view she would call and call.  I could hear her screaming from the kitchen, no doubt the neighbours could also hear her at 7:00am as I was feeding the other girls in the garden and I'd come running in the house to tell her everything was okay.  Our dog Madi developed a bit of a fancy for Alice, typical Jack Russell stalker.  Otherwise it was all smooth sailing.  I was really happy to see Alice lay her first egg in more than 3 weeks on Monday.  She's also massively fat (in a healthy hen way) and eating well.  I have great hopes for her and her sister Holly who is equally ravenous and portly.

A Crowing Hen

Our remaining girls Selene, Rosie and Jewel have shown no signs of Fowl Pox infection.  Though both Jewel and Selene are moulting and are ripe for all sorts of nasties.  The only odd behaviour is Selene crowing occasionally.  But that's pretty standard for her.  Being the dominant hen and having her hormones twisted up at the end of the laying season she's inclined to go rogue and lose the plot a bit.  It does her no harm and due to the hit and miss nature of the occasional crowing it does not bother the neighbours in any way. I've seen Selene faux mate with the hens on occasion.  She takes her role as head chicken very seriously indeed! 

Selene - a hen in disguise

Once Again, in Writing

It's really deflating caring for the girls when they're so sick and then thinking about writing it all down on top of the medicating, Vet visits, hutch cleaning, daily hen linen laundering, crop feeding.  It just goes on and on and as much as I love them and would do it all again it does feel pretty awful to then relive it all in writing.  So the Blog suffers as they suffer.  But I do hope to get Angie's ILT results within 1 week and either move forward or deal with a rather bleak future as best we can.          

Choking Chicken

Choking Chicken - Plaque on Throat

Wow, okay.  Been a bit difficult to maintain enthusiasm for writing about the girls for a few weeks now.  With Amelia so sick for weeks on end and finally ending in her being put to sleep, I thought I could get back on the wagon and get on to the business of glorifying my baby girls in a public forum.  Unfortunately Amelia's passing has been the launching pad for a whole new run of Vet visits.

Sunday 20th January I thought Holly was a bit odd.  Bit down, bit withdrawn.  I love my Holly but she is a simple hen with simple needs and when she's not stuffing herself full of food or flying on top of the sleeping hutch to check out the literally birds eye view from the open rooftop, she's probably not doing anything good.  I found her on the nest in the morning and then still there hours later.  I picked her up and she immediately started to struggle.  Her breathing croaked out wet, stuttered, hard and strained.  I brought her inside and made her some mashed food to get her interest.  Holly was ravenous but at the same time she was coughing and struggling to eat.  
Finally I decided to crop feed her instead.  She was clearly begging to eat and her crop was empty.  I loaded up the crop feeding syringe but could not get the tube down her throat.  When I tried to insert the tube Holly became very distressed and her breathing was inhibited.  Eventually I thought I would shine a light down her throat to see if I could locate an obstruction.  Sitting like a snake, wrapped around the lowest, visible point of her throat, I could see a rancid, yellow ring of infected material.  My Vet would call it a plaque.  This is the same type of structure which sat behind Amelia's tongue and ruined and eventually ended her life. 
I was fearful for Holly at this point.  She could not eat and her breathing was severely hampered.  I decided to do what I had never done before.  I had a Vet attend to Holly at emergency rates in the middle of the night.  Yep, I'd stepped even further into crazy chicken mother wonderland.  Seemed a bit dramatic I admit.  Cruising down the highway for 45 minutes, singing encouraging radio tunes to Holly and calling my boss to say I may be too tired to come in to work the next day.  
But crazy love led to the saving of a life that night.  Holly may have died had I not taken her.  
After three stints under anaesthesia the emergency Vet located the infected mass and cleared it, scoped beyond it to confirm it was an isolated build up and after about 2 hours I was able to take my droopy, intoxicated little hen home once again.  There was suggestion of leaving her overnight and I think the Vet thought me a bit odd as I pushed and pushed not to wait until the morning to do the various procedures to test Holly's condition and viability.  By the time we were home again, Holly was back on her feet and at midnight I sat with her whilst she loaded her belly with mouthfuls of mashed food.  Bless her piggish appetite.  I then stubbornly slept by her hutch on the carpet to make sure I didn't miss it if she starting having trouble breathing again.  
That was 28 days ago and she is fat, happy, cramming in food all day and cute as a button.  So, so cute.  
I think this is the best outcome I could have hoped for.  I was able to save my girl which was a great lift to my spirits after the difficult run with Amelia.  But there was more to come, three more sick girls so far, in only 5 days.  
 
Here is Holly this afternoon. She is laying again and massive, gorgeously plump.

Respiratory Infection in Chickens

Farewell Amelia

So it's been 3 weeks.  Respiratory infection in chickens is a nasty business.  I don't know if I would do the same if confronted with another beautiful girl in Amelia's condition again.  
My Amelia is gone.  My baby Rosa is without her sister.  I miss my girl.  

My Vet suggested a really strong course of antibiotics.  The kind used on people who can not overcome chronic mycoplasma.  "It's what women take when they have Pelvic Inflammatory Infection" (look it up!).   I got to pick it up from the chemist and was relieved to see 'For Animal Use Only' on the script.  Amelia hung out in her carrier in the chemist, amongst all the variously sick people - she got some worthy attention.  She was gorgeous. Unfortunately this was not the answer.

I received a new opinion from a Vet who had actually written her Thesis on birds with respiratory conditions and plaques on their throats.  She works with my regular Vet and he felt it was worth a pair of fresh eyes.  She explained that Amelia has a form of the Herpes virus in her throat and that I needed to let it 'Run its course'.  There is no cure, there is just harm management until it reaches a conclusion - if at all.  I can't quite get my head around what it must feel like to have chronic oesophageal herpes.  Poor Amelia has been swallowing all the time, coughing, struggling, food is getting stuck in her throat - it must have been debilitating.  So we were advised to keep an eye on her and to stop the anti-biotic medication.

Rosa (left) and Amelia.  Roosting to avoid the rain. 

After 1 week Amelia was really miserable.  I could see the fried egg type mass in her throat just past her tongue and took her to the Vet - a third opinion as it turned out.  But the next day when I had a good look down her throat I was really concerned.  Unable to get an appointment I dropped her off and took a quick glance in the carrier and said goodbye.  I was not aware that I would not see her alive again.

A couple of hours later I got a call from the Vet - this was the female Vet who had done the Thesis and told me about the Herpes virus.  So Amelia had her terrible ulcer type mass back in her throat - in fact a Herpes related lump of infected material that was obstructing her breathing, preventing her from enjoying and many times from eating her food and making her miserable every day.  I had the option to get a special bag inserted in to her respiratory system, protruding out of her side, under the wing, allowing her to breathe away from her throat and giving her throat a small break.  I was actually pleased to hear the Vet being straight up with me and telling me that in her opinion it was best to let Amelia go or have the bag put in to place as a short term stall.  

This is the point in pet ownership that separates the notion of keeping pets alive for your own comfort (and denial I might add) and saving them from inevitable and relentless pain and most importantly, putting them ahead of yourself.  I was out in the work car park waiting to meet someone as I talked to the Vet.  I was returning the Vet's call as I waited and I thought the call was going to be about the next step, some other intervention.   I asked the Vet to please put my girl to sleep with the greatest care possible.  

Knowing it's the right thing to do and feeling okay about the decision are not connected.  The visitor turned up and I dealt with them and at the same time felt that other part of myself reaching out to my girl, wanting to tell her how sorry I was, how much I loved her, how sorry I was for her sister Rosie who would never see her alive again and wishing I knew the answer to have avoided this moment altogether. 

It has only been 15 months, a little less in fact.  But I love my baby girl and I miss her so much.  

Goodbye Amelia.  With so much love,

Mum, Dad & Rosa xx

Amelia - January 2013.  Beautiful. 

                 

Respiratory Infection in Chickens

Amelia Update

Picked up Amelia yesterday afternoon.  The Vet described a lump of infectious material, over an ulcer on her larynx about 1cm x 1.5 cm 1 cm.  He was unable to insert a breathing tube during the operation as her throat is no impacted and swollen, so in fact her air supply was cut off during the procedure.  She has antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for the next week to 10 days. 
I noticed immediately that she is not wheezing and coughing constantly and that her face is bright red, rather than a sluggish, dark pink - which was probably due to a reduction in her oxygen levels.  Once back in her hutch, she was able to sit down and tuck her neck in - again, something she could not do the other day as it limited her breathing capacity.  I found her sleeping deeply after an hour or so.

Amelia - Sleeping finally.  She must have been exhausted.

Reunited Amelia with her sister Rosa last night and the two of them had a chat - Amelia is not able to speak properly as yet but it was a genuinely pleasing sign that she is trying to do so.  Amelia had a drink for what must have been the first time by herself in a couple of days.  She looked so happy and relieved.  She drank more deeply than I've ever seen by a hen before.  They both slept inside and this morning I found the two of them eating together - seed, wet bread, boiled egg.  I did crop feed Amelia about 40mls of feeding solution via a tube down her esophagus this morning and this should keep her happy until I get home to her tonight.  I'm not too worried as she is eating small amounts constantly by herself since she has arrived home. 
We have an appointment next week at the Vet.  The Vet suspects there may be an abscess further down her throat but he was not able to tell due to the swelling at the moment.  I'm feeling really hopeful of a good recovery for her.  

Amelia - one day after her operation.  Got her colour back.

Respiratory Infection in Chickens

Amelia Update

Spoken to Veterinary staff who have Amelia and she is feeling much more comfortable today.  She is not 'out of the woods' but is able to return home - no doubt with a few kilos of medication in tow.  We'll see how she goes over the next several days on her new medication. 
Here's Rosa this morning - eagerly awaiting Amelia's return.