# Foamy Eyes in Duck



## Rustleaf (Apr 30, 2012)

Hi, I'm new here and I am hoping some of you more experienced duck keepers might be able to help.

I am writing about a duck that is not my own so I apologise if anything seems vague, feel free to ask questions and I will try and find out from my Mum.

My Mum was given a duck, some hens and a cockerel as a gift when she moved to the country. They built homes made places to swim etc. The hens and duck grew up ok.

However, a while ago the duck got very ill while my mum was away (the duck was being looked after!) It ended up that she had salmonella, she was given a very strong course of antibiotics, oral and injection. She lost a lot of weight, became weak legged, stopped laying and generally seemed very miserable.

While still on the antibiotics she developed foamy eyes.

While the salmonella infection seems to have passed and she has now put on a lot of weight and seems to enjoy eating/walking/swimming much more, the foamy eyes has not cleared up.

The vet supplied some drops, I can't remember what they where called but when we Googled them I believed it said they were NSAIDs, the seal was broken when she got it so I don't know if the vet added something to it.

The drops didn't help and seemed to make it worse, the skin around the eyes seemed to become hard. I don't think the vet is in any way an expert on ducks, but he is the only one that my Mum knows of in her area.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions about what to do, as she seems to be getting better in general, but this won't go away.

The duck is female, I'm unsure of age but she isn't more than a couple of years I'd say. She is quite large, white and has a yellow bill. The chickens have been absolutely fine. Full of beans, no illness and have not stopped laying. The duck has not started laying again yet, and I think the vet wormed her as well.

If the only advice is to see a vet, can anyone suggest what the vet should probably do in these circumstances?

As an aside, can any one recommend a good duck feed available in Ireland, Longford? At the moment she gets chicken feed (and cat kibble if she finds it when our backs are turned! She loves that.) among other things.

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

(I hope this hasn't been asked before, I did search but it didn't bring anything back.)


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

Foamy eyes means a respiratory infection, which are quite contagious in birds, not to mention common, so your chooks will probably get it too if they are living together. The best thing to use is Tylan either injectable or oral - if mine have ever have it then I give it in the water for 7 days or so, treat the chooks water too just to make sure - I think there is an egg withold with tylan so check with your vet. 
To treat her eyes directly then salt water is as good as anything really - clean 3 times a day with it, if you want to get drops from the vet then some sort of terramycin drops may help, but I've just used salt water with the anti biotics and it clears up the primary infection and the eyes clear up too. Just make sure you keep the water for drinking and where the duck swims really clean - so empty it out once a day, that will help. They do get over it most of the time, although weak and older birds sometimes just can't shift it and do die, ducks tend to be a bit more robust than chooks, but it depends on how deep the infection goes - birds are weird in that they have air sacs in the bones too not just lungs so they can't just cough up the muck like we can. Good luck with her I hope she gets better soon!:thumbsup:


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