White eyeball

[ccabal]

My Easter Egger, "Angel" (the one having spaghetti on my Avatar pic) early last week seemed lethargic and was being shunned by the other hens. Then I noticed one eye was shut. We brought her inside the house, and she's been living in a large tote for the past week. That side of her head is swollen, and her eye was matted shut, and she was barely eating anything. Today she seems like she is doing better fortunately, but her head is still swollen.
When I open up her eyelid here is what I see. It's weird, can't tell if her eyeball is white or there is something white covering it.

 

[Eggcessive]

It may be pus in the eye from a respiratory disease such as MG or coryza, or others. I would cleanse the eye with saline, and try to clean out the pus with a QTip or other tool. Terramycin eye ointment, plain Neosporin ointment, or Vetericyn eye gel would be good to apply. Respiratory diseases may require antibiotics such as Tylan 50 injectable. Do you smell a bad odor around the face?

 

[ccabal]

Thanks for the reply, Eggcessive,

No I have not smelled any bad smell from the face, although recently I have noticed her poop is pretty runny and also smell especially foul. (no pun intended ).

We have been trying to treat her with essential oils, including some melaleuca oil which is anti-bacterial, and some other oils (diluted or course) and it seems she is recovering. But I was wondering if I should try to remove that white thing, or let it fall off by itself. I'm worried about causing her more harm.


-Christian

 

[ccabal]

Some bad news this morning. I opened the eye to look at it, and was able to see part of the real eyeball, but it looked shriveled up. So I guess now I will have a 1 eyed chicken. Feel so bad for her (yes I am pretty attached to my chickens).

Now assuming she does recover and I can put her back outside, what do I do with her bad eye? I have no idea what to expect. Will it just dry out and become a hole on her head? Will I need to put something in there? Will she keep her eyelids closed most of the time?

Hopefully someone has been through this before and can give me some advice.

Thanks,

Christian

 

[Eggcessive]

I would try to clean out the eye of pus and it can extend into the sinus cavity. You may need to get in there and work on it. Tylan 50 is what you really need to be using, and you can even flush the eye and sinus with it. The eye has probably started to be overtaken by the infection, so this really needs to be cleaned out and pus removed. I can't say what the eye will look like, but she may not live with the gunk still in there. Chickens czn do okay with one eye.