SWOLLEN EYE? my hen needs some help (PICS)

My 8 month old BO pullet has swollen eyes, could it be eye worm? She is laying eggs. there is no discharge from eyes, no runny nose, and the hen looks healthy except for the eyes. there is some blood coming from the infected area. and there is also puss coming out of it. also looks "bumpy". more pics coming soon.

I just bought a small yellow tube of Opthalmic Ointment called Terramycin. You can purchase it at The Tractor Supply store. I put it in the eye now 2 times a day for the last 3 days and the swelling is going down.

Squawk Box, I'm sorry for your pretty lil' hen, I have a White Rock hen with something similar, maybe a little bit worse. I wish I could post a picture, but I can't.

It's also affecting just one eye, also her left.

(Why does it seem that when I have a chicken with an eye ailment, it usually seems to affect their LEFT eye? Even when it's a roo with an injury due to a fight, it's usually the left. Strange coincidence?)

I have her separated, she's been eating/drinking/pooping very little. The eye is draining a bit and has stained her feathers on that side. She doesn't scratch or rub it. It's swollen to the size of a large pea/small marble.

I've been treating her with Vet Rx, putting it on a Q-tip and pushing it up into the roof of her mouth as directed. Also putting a few drops down her throat, in her nostrils, & on her comb. I try gently squeezing the swollen eye each day, but not much comes out.

Once I had a hen with similar symptoms, & after about a week of such treatment I was able to squeeze a big glob of gunk out of her eye and she was fine after that.

I'm giving this one some powdered antibiotic in her water, though she's not drinking much. Tonight I gave her some scrambled egg with lots of grated garlic & some grated apple. I sprinkled some more antibiotic powder over the eggs. She ate a little of that.

I wish I could buy some of that antibiotic eye ointment OTC, we don't have a TSC near me. Anyone else have recommendations for treatment? Anyone willing to mail me a tube of that ointment? Please help all of our ailing birds!

Sunnyside:

You should be able to find and purchase this easily on line.

Pretty sure Murray McMurray hatchery has Terramycin eye ointment avail. You can google on it too, and maybe find a better deal.

Most of my stuff has to come via mail, cuz even the farm places near me don't carry most of what I/we need.

I know you'll find it

Thank you, I'll check those sources.

Meanwhile, I believe I was able to relieve her swelling. Please don't read any further if you don't want to get grossed out!!! I'm writing about this in detail, in hopes of helping anyone else out who is also dealing with this problem.







I'm glad to report that I was able to squeeze a big glob of thick yellowish gunk out of her eye this evening, & hope to find her much improved in the morning.

Poor girl, I made her a dish of warm mash, layer pellets mixed with warm water, with some raisins, grated apple, and cracked corn on top. I sprinkled the antibiotic powder over it all. I set her on the ground to eat, and she toddled around the yard for the rest of the day. Gave herself a dust bath & munched on fresh green grass, and joined her flock when they were turned out for the afternoon. She's so thin & light, yet still so lively.

She went to roost in the coop with her flock at nightfall, but I took her out to give her another dose of the Vet Rx. I wrap her in a towel so she won't flap, lay her on her affected side, soak a Q-tip in the medicine, and push it up hard into the slit in the roof of her mouth. This time it made a little bit of white liquid come out of the eye. I've been trying each night to squeeze it all out, this time I really went at it from all different angles, and prayed mightily, and finally got what I hope is all of the gunk to come out.

Right now the eye is still closed, the swelling gone, but her lids are sort of loose, from being stretched out from the swelling. I hope to find it back to normal by tomorrow night, it took about that long for the last hen that had this.

This is when I wish I had a vet in the house, I really hate to deal with eye ailments, eye or nail problems both make me squeemish. But it makes me feel really good to be able to relieve this hen's suffering. I hope she makes as good of a recovery as the last hen I helped, she had it in both eyes, was completely blind, but afterwards looked as good as new.

Squawk Box, if you're still reading this, please tell us how your hen is doing. Well, I hope!

yes i am still reading, i was trying to post more pics. she is the same. still eating and drinking well. i couldnt find that eye ointment but i wonder if its the same thing as the Terramycin that you put in the drinking water? could i make a paste out of that and put on her eye? i wonder if that would work.

i will try squeezing the stuff out of her eye.

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I'm no expert, but something tells me that is not going to do it. JMHO

The eye ointment, I believe, is in a sort of thick gel form - like vaseline. It sort of melts when it warms, and the thickness allows it to stay where it needs to stay, AND to lubricate.

DO NOT use the terramycin powder antibiotic and mix with water. It will be sort of grainy, which will irritate, not lubricate.

I totally agree with Wynette. I will be happy to mail you a tube. I have a tractor supply store over here. If you would like, you could PM me your address and I will mail to you.

I'm certainly no expert either, I'm just reporting what I've done with my own birds. It was completely successful with the first hen I did this to, she'd probably still be here today if those dogs hadn't killed her & 11 of her flock mates. Before that sad incident, it was so satisfying to see how completely she recovered, both eyes healthy & bright, no reoccurance of whatever that affliction was.

I still don't know what you call this ailment, I wouldn't have thought to squeeze her swollen eye until another neighboring chicken keeper told me what to do. If there's ANYONE ELSE more knowledgable about this, PLEASE share your wisdom!

The instructions in the bottle of Vet Rx describe the roof-of-the-mouth-treatment in how to treat something called "eye worm". I don't know if it helped to loosen the gunk first before I got it out.

The hen I just treated had symptoms like the first. A large round swelling covering her eye, growing to the size of a small marble. I don't know what causes it, does anyone else? It seems to be an infection under the third eyelid that grows. At its peak the eyelid was open just a tiny slit, but all you could see was murky yellow, no eye visable. With gloved hands and a steely nerve I just squeezed at the base of the swelling in different places until the gunk started to come out.

I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone squeeze every swelling on every chickens' eyes. But I didn't see any other recent posts about this topic with any other helpful suggestions, so I'm just adding my experiences -- not expertise -- to this topic. Maybe the ointment will be a better treatment, please let us know how it works for your hen.