young chicken with eye tumor- pic

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MAB

MAB

Hatching
10 Years
Nov 5, 2009
3
0
7
Melbourne, FL
Hi.
I am a new chicken owner (I got 6 RIR 1 month old chickens two days ago from a local farmer). After taking them home I noticed one of the chicks has what appears to be a tumor in one of her eyes. I cannot see the eye at all - so she is blind. This tumor appears dry and scabby and is hard to the touch (see pic). I am really worried about her, as over the last few days it appears to be growing. She is eating, but she appears a little more lethargic than the others and her poop is a light brown color (don't know if that is relevant). If anyone has seen this before and can advise me what to do - that would be great! I would like to know how I can treat her.
Thanks!
MAB


44082_chick_eye.jpg
 
It looks more like an injury to me, but you have said that it is getting larger. I would take it back to the farmer and exchange it for a healthy one. If you want to try and treat it, you could isolate it and put vaseline on it for a few days. First clean it off with some saline solution then gently rub on some vaseline. See if it starts to heal any, the others may be picking on it which is making it bigger. Or you may want to get some cream for conjunctivitis from the pharmacy and try it since it is medicated. Good luck and keep us posted if you still need help.

welcome-byc.gif
 
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Looks like an eye injury to me too. It might be "growing" because of puss buildup. I would see if the scab can be removed after soaking and then antibiotic eye ointment to keep infection away if you want to keep it.
 
Thanks for the advice - it is good to know what experienced raisers think. I've been researching avian POX, but she just has the scab in her eye, no other scabs anywhere. I think I might go ahead and vaccinate them for pox though, since it sounds pretty nasty and hard to get rid of.
MAB
 
eye injury..been there done that here. The eye is gone under that now the puffiness is the outside of it all...it will come off and the eye will close up and chickie will live fine. But,you want to keep it from getting infected behind it and get it healed up...neosporin without the pain stuff worked great.Smear it all over the area several times a day..it took just a few days from the point yours is at to be fully healed.Never touch it with your hands unless they have been freshly washed or sanitized.Wash the eye with any eye wash as you think it needs..any draining etc I personally used Colodial Silver to wash ours because we have that and not eye wash here at the house.
I'm not on my own computer today or I would post you some pics of my chick..who is now named Popeye!!
 
Thanks. I took advice for cleaning - I washed with a sterile saline solution and then covered with Neosporin a couple of times today. It is definitely getting uglier looking - red and swelling a lot. I'm thinking I may have to try and lance it if there is a lot of puss under there. I'm worried she is fighting a nasty bacterial infection. Do you think I should treat her with more than just a topical antibiotic cream? What works best for chickens as far as ingestible antibiotic?

Also, I've attached a picture of another one of my birds with what looks like a stye on her lower eyelid. Do we think this could be another injury or something more severe - i.e POX?

Thanks a bunch for insight.


44082_chick2.jpg
 
Hummm that looks like pox to me. Just keep an eye on her. Mine had it there and her eye swelled shut and i was like
ep.gif
I flushed with saline solution then put antibiotic ointment on it. It opened up, scabs dried and feel off and it ran it's course. Just make sure to clean their bedding once the scabs come off. That can infect the others.
 
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Wow this is a REALLY old thread but I recently picked up a RIR with the EXACT same thing and we are thinking it is cancer. I have been looking all over the internet for a chicken with the same condition mine had and this is literally the only one I have found in the 2 weeks we have had our RIRs. I feel bad posting on a thread that is over 4 years old but I am really trying to figure out if what my chick has his fatal or not. If anyone can offer any more information that would be great. Here is a link my current thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829337/rir-with-sore-tumor-on-eye. Here is a picture of our little RIR with the tumor on his eye. He is so sweet we would hate for it it be cancer.
 

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