Red iris in chicken

[RevealTheHiddenBeach]

I have 3 bantam chooks, just over a year old. All in different stages of a horrific malt to prepare for winter! Picked up the worst one to check her over today, and her irises are red. Still bright eyes as normal, but the actual iris looks bloodshot. Any idea what this is? They've been sneezing intermittently for ages but nothing worse than that, no gunk anywhere. Would appreciate any advice!

How does her weight feel? Can you feel her crop? How's her comb looking?

Weight and crop both seem fine. Combs are crap - on all 3 they have shrunk and paled. I thought that might just be winter and/or the malt tho...

Is it feather loss or breakage? I've just lost all 5 of my girls to Marek's disease. Originally thought they were just looking crap for winter so now have hen illness paranoia! If weight is fine that sounds good.

As in are the feathers breaking? It's def normal feather loss, they are all over the place!

Keep an eye on weight and if the feather loss changes to breakage - with mine it started on their heads and the shafts of their feathers looked almost crumbly.

Check their combs for any darkening or scabbing and recheck the eye daily to see if it gets worse. Our vets will talk stuff over on the phone for free - might be worth a quick call to a hen specialist.