Our barred rock has a bad eye infection - help!

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ktnbackyard

ktnbackyard

Hatching
7 Years
Jun 6, 2012
4
0
7
One of our barred rock hens developed an infection in one eye about a week ago.
We've been treating it with polysporin and keeping it clean but it's just getting worse.
It's now swollen shut and exudes pus. Very hard to find her eye when you pry the 'eyelid' open.
She's gone from being the dominant hen to a shadow of her former self and has lost significant weight.
I've attached a photo.
Have you ever seem anything like this?
Any suggestions for treatment?

Thank you very much for any advice you can send my way.
 
Any new birds brought in lately? Any other respiratory illness signs in the flock? Any nasty smells coming from the face of the affected bird? What caused the original injury?
 
Make sure you remove her to isolation. I had this with my rock a bit back. I used Vetermycin to wash it out to open it. You can try this and see if it works alone. I had neosporin and did nothing. I then found some old drops from the vet Gentomycin drops, this cleared up but it kept coming back. did this 4 times a day, ended up taking to vet. the pus had hardened he had to cut it out. She was fine after that. You have to be able to open the eye. Wash it out with a saline or the vetermycin, try this alone up to four times a day, if no improvement, try terramycin ointment, 3 to 4 times a day, if no improvement, vet.
 
to CMV: We've not had any new birds join our flock (of 6 hens) since we got the birds 6 weeks ago. One of the younger hens had a respiratory infection about a month ago that cleared up pretty quickly. No injuries to the rock coincident with the infected eye as far as I can tell. No nasty smells.

to scwheeler24: Thank you for these suggestions - greatly appreciated. We'll try washing with saline and perhaps Vetermycin if we can get a hold of some
 
Your flock is probably infected. You may want to consider having it tested to see what you are dealing with.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:
Thanks very much for your suggestions.
We washed her eye out with saline this evening, when I took this picture.
There is a smooth white object that totally covers her eye.
Based on what i've read in other posts, is it possible that it's a big block of pus?
Is it possible to remove safely?
 
I Managed to get the huge bolus of hardened pus out of her eye this morning. The eye underneath did not look in great shape but it's hard to tell. We are now trying to obtain some antibiotics and Super Booster. I have searched for Vetericyn Opthalmic Gel, but it seems that product is not available in Canada. Is anyone aware of similar alternative products? Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions.
 
Wow. All I can say is that you are exactly right. In poultry, abscesses and pus "go hard" and get cheesy like that. And you were right to remove it. I would check it regularly to make sure that there isn't any lingering or continueing buildup.
 

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