Chickens can be quite fragile creatures, they are pretty low on the food chain plus they don’t have many ways of defending themselves. Their only means of defending themselves is spotting a predator and running or flying away.
But what if something is wrong with your bird’s eyes, or eye? This article is a look into chickens who are blind in one eye.
Table of Contents
Chicken blind in one eye:
Good eye health is very important for chickens, these birds use their eyes to forage, chase, and see where they are going. If you think that your chicken is blind in one eye this is how to tell:
How to tell if a chicken is blind in one eye
Test the bird by covering one eye and moving your hand, or a duster, in front of the bird’s eyes one eye at a time. You’d need to test each eye individually to see how the bird reacts.
If the bird is only blind in one eye then the bird will not react when you move your hand or the duster in front of the blind eye but it will react when you move your hand in front of the seeing eye.
The bird will not react at all if both of her eyes are blind.
Moving your finger slowly towards each eye and seeing how the bird reacts will also show you if the bird is blind in one eye.
Birds can sense rapid motion due to the current created in the air when you move your finger quickly, so don’t do this action too quickly.
The reaction you can expect is the bird flinching when you test one eye and no reaction when you test the other eye.
What causes a bird to go blind in one eye:
Attacks:
Chickens can be attacked by predators or by other chickens. If your bird is only blind in one eye then this is likely because the bird was attacked and suffered damage in one eye.
Mareks disease:
This disease is feared in poultry communities because it can be fatal to chickens and because there is no cure. There are different types of marek’s disease, the one that affects the bird’s eyes is called ocular marek’s disease.
This disease can cause your bird to become blind in one or both eyes. Other signs of ocular marek’s disease include grey or cloudy eyes, irregularly shaped pupils, and difficulty seeing,
What to do:
Make sure that the bird’s eye is always kept clean, if the eye was damaged during a fight then you’d need to treat the injury before it becomes infected.
Keeping the eye sterile will help promote healing, you can also keep the eye area clean using a non-medicated eyewash for pets or for humans.
You may have to hand feed a bird that is blind out of one eye, or, you may have to give it its own feeder and waterer. This is because the other birds in the flock will push her away and bully her when she is feeding.
Even though the bird is only blind in one eye, it is advised that you avoid moving things around. She will still be able to partially see but moving things around may confuse her and she may miss some things.
Conclusion
In conclusion, yes a chicken can go blind in one eye. The blindness can be caused by other chickens, predators, or diseases.
You’d need to check whether the bird is indeed blind in one eye by seeing if it reacts when you test each eye. The bird can still live with only one working eye
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Pecked To Death, Chickens Eyes Stuck Closed, Chicken Irregular Pupil, Lethargic Rooster With Closed Eyes