Cooter's Eye

One of my ducks had "white-eye syndrome."  Okay, that's what I call it.  It gets all foamy and swollen and horrible looking.  Everything I read says its from unclean environment, stale air, etc.  Well, my birds are free range in the garden (72x24) and even run free on the rest of the 17 acres occasionally, of course, never touching the pond...go figure.  I dump and rinse their pool at least once, if not twice, daily.  It apparently could also be from trauma. Well, the boys have been fighting, but they seem to attack the neck from what I have witnessed.  I am hoping that is the case. Otherwise, it would be some horrible bacterial infection that would take out the whole flock of four.

Poor Cooter was isolated in the small duck coop where they stayed early this past spring, and will more than likely be put up at night this winter to keep safe.  It too is super ventilated, so I don't foresee a problem with that.

I tried several different remedies for him.  I changed his water three to four times a day to make sure it stayed clean.  On day one, I bought some Vetericyn spray (although it was not the pink eye formula).  This is just a wound wash safe for eyes, ears and mouth.  (I was hoping it was something stronger at that price!) Since a week of getting it, I have used it on Cooter as well as our cat, Oreo.  I am sure it will be a good addition to the barn medicine cabinet.  It did not really seem to help other than to wash away the foam covering his eye for a short time so that I could see just how swollen and icky it really was.  The next day it was starting to foam in the other eye.
Panic ensued. 
Luckily, there was no sign of it spreading to anyone else, which made me be think this had to be an injury from fighting.
After more research and perusing the web, I added apple cider vinegar (ACV) to his water and continued to wash it.  By the next morning it seemed to have improved a bit, but was really hard to tell.
The next day, again, after more research and pure desperation so as not to either take him to the vet (not enough funds for that) or begin culling, I went the conventional route and bought some water soluble antibiotic.  I used that in his water and he seemed to improve a bit more after that. 
Oh, but he was a mess.  He was not happy being separated from his family.  Pacing, quacking.
By day four, the swelling had gone down, no more foamy production.  There was just a little bit of color change around the skin of the eye. I felt he could see out of it again.
I went ahead and let him out.  He was very happy for a while but then went back to fighting.  I guess being cooped up he had a lot of pent up energy and hormones to release. 
At least this time he won. So far, all is well.  But they still get a bit chippy.  I am going to be investing a few more females to add to the flock to hopefully help this. 

Now that their summer pool is put away so as not to freeze and crack and various buckets have been brought out, I think as a prophylactic measure and overall health benefit, I will add ACV to their buckets weekly.  I have, in the past, done this for the chickens, and will be more diligent with their water too.  This is going to be even more important as the fowl/poultry are being locked in every night. 

Always something to learn on the homestead...