Silkie chick with swollen yellow eye UPDATE-it's gone :(

My 4 day old silkie chick has a swollen yellow eye. I've tried to clean it with a cotton pad soaked in saline & a little yellow pus came out. What's the best way to clean this out? I also filled out the info form below the pic.



1) What type of bird , age and weight.
4 day old Silkie
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
swollen yellow eye
3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no other trauma
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
my guess would be rough-housing or getting food or something in her eye
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
eating medicated starter, water with Vita-sol drops in it
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
normal poop
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
tried cleaning with saline soaked cotton pad & quaranteened by adding a plastic panel in the corner of brooder
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I intend to treat this myself
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
posted pic at the top
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use
large plastic brooder with paper towels over plain wood shavings(not cedar) heated to 95 degrees on warm side with ample space to get cooler

First make sure that some of the egg membrane is not fused to her eyeball. I had a duck this way but it never got the yellow pus. I took her in the bathroom and let the water run really warm then dabbed it on her eye to see if it would soften up the membrane. When they dry it dries really clear like glue. She probably cannot get good drainage on her eye. Anyway, I did this and slowly it softened. I peeled it off and she was good to go. Try that please.

Also if that does not work you might try to find the spot that some of the pus came out earlier and roll gently your finger from farthest away from that spot to that spot. Kind of like a squeegie. But be gentle so as not to hurt her eye

Maybe get a clearer picture of her eye too, it is kind of fuzzy to see exactly what is going on

Sorry about the fuzzy shot.... she's very wiggly.
Is this better?

There are things called eye worms that create a puss in the eye. The worms get under the 3rd eyelid and burrow in. VetRx is used on a cotton swap, gently pushed against the roof of the mouth until the VetRx comes out the nostils. This motion is supposed to help clear out the worms. Check out the directions that come with the VetRx.

Eyeworms (http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/27_2745_ENA_HTML.htm )

* hair-like transparent worms
* 8-20 mm long
* found in the fowl's eye
* worms' eggs are eaten by the bird; they hatch in the crop and the young worm migrates up the oesophagus and through ducts to the eye

Poultry Eye Worms (http://www.geocities.com/KelliAnn293/parasites.htm#Poultry%20Eye%20Worms )

This worm is very harmful to poultry in the Southern States of the USA .Hawaii , Philippines and other subtropical areas. It is a small white worm that lodges in the corner of a chicken's eye. The eye becomes swollen, inflamed, and watery. Impairing the chickens vision. The eyelids may stick together and the eye may turn cloudy and eventually be destroyed. The chicken may try to scratch the eye to get rid of the irritation.

This site also recommends the food grade DE as the worms start in the GI system and travel through the espohagus up through the tear ducts.

Ummmm... how would it get eyeworms? They're on fresh wood shavings with fresh toweling every other day. I also cleaned the brooder thouroughly before putting the new babies in it.

You may also wish to make a saline solution with boiling water and table salt. About a tsp per cup of boiling water- let cool and use to flush eye. The salt portion creates some water loss out of the swelling without touching it (drop on infected paft) which should break and can gently be absorbed with Q-tip. Do not touch eye itself. What you are doing is on-track...

eye worms, I have never heard of that! Very interesting.

It seems like the yellow is almost a solid mass. I'm so afraid of hurting the chicks eye. I'll try the homemade saline... or could I just warm up sterile saline solution? Should it wipe off after that or will I need to pull it off?

Thanks!!

Gosh, that looks awful! I hope someone with lots of experience comes along to help...I'm sorry I don't have any experience in this.

I wonder if it wouldn't be best to try Terramycin eye ointment? It's made specifically for eye issues...you can get it at your local feed store or TSC....