Bad eye infection, swollen eye

[16 paws]

I'm on the site today because I have this very same thing going on with one of my hens right now. So frustrated with the whole situation. When it first started I thought it was a simple eye infection so I started treating her with Baytril. After a month of that, it didn't help. The eye was really swollen with puss coming out and it smelled really bad. I talked to the vet and picked up some Tetramyacine. That seemed to bring down the swelling, but we're now at the end of the 2nd month. I have to clean it out morning and night. Getting chunks of stuff that looks like tiny bits of scrambled egg out of it with tweezers. However, that seems to come out of a pocket that is attached to her tissue. By the way, this is between her eye and beak. She also has discharge and some of the "egg" stuff in the nostril on the same side. I thought I might find answers on BYC, but haven't yet. I'm calling another vet today. I don't know if she still has the eye or not. I can't tell because of the swollen tissue and I don't want to dig around in there anymore than absolutely necessary. My 1st vet said he had not idea what this was. Took a sample for a slide to send out. I haven't heard anything back on it yet.

Did you ever figure out what was wrong?

 

[16 paws]

My Ameraucana has developed an eye infection. Just noticed it yesterday. It's not yet nearly as bad as mentioned above but getting worse. How do I go about getting her to eat the greek yogurt? She's still doing all the things she normally does including laying. It looks as if she has a feather that has curled up and stuck to her eyelid. I'm not sure if this is what caused the problem, so I'm also not sure if I need to isolate her. The oozing is still clear but today it's clear and full of bubbles. We have 6 hens that are 5.5 months old. They are a very close flock. If one gets separated from the rest of the flock, the hen that's separated kind of freaks out, so I would hate to isolate her.

Most chickens will eat yogurt all by themselves. Did you try putting some in a bowl and letting her eat it herself?

My chicken had an eye infection and I went to the local feed store. They gave me some sort of antibiotic cream to put in her eye. She said it was really good and if I remember right says they use it on horses. Cleared it right up. Try calling your feed store and see if they can help. I dont remember the name of it.
Good luck.
Marie

 

[Raggedyroad]

Thank you for your input. I got some antibiotic from our local farm supply called Terramycin. My hen was such a good girl about letting me clean her eye and apply the ointment. I will let you know in a couple of days how it's going.

I put about 1/2 - 3/4 C of the plain greek yogurt in a dish for my 6 chickens and they went crazy over it. I just didn't think they would eat it since the balk at so many things that people say their chickens love. How much and how often do you think I should feed them the yogurt?

 

[Clarks Chickens]

Two of our hens have had this problem and we just took a spoon and put Greek yogurt on it and they were curious enough to peck it and went crazy after that.

Only problem is that the other chickens wanted some to! Within 3 days the eye was completely back to normal. I hope this helps!

 

[joyce5430]

The vet said she had/has a severe infection. She put her on a topical ointment that goes into her eye area called Muricin. Also at the same time gave her an oral antibiotic of Tylan powder. Both were 2x a day. That was month 4 of treatment. It got better. The infection cleared up nicely. I put her back out with the flock, checking on her periodically. Got her the other day and it's back although not as bad. Took some rather large pieces of hard infection out of her eye. So I'm going to have to go back to treating her. I've never seen anything like this in my life. I gave other antibiotics a fair shot, 30 days or longer each one, but they didn't touch it. I used Baytril and Tetramyacin. I think this is just going to take some time. I am at a loss as is the vet. She's in the process of doing some research trying to figure out what else we can use. They suggested lancing and scraping it, but I didn't want to go that route. I figured if the infection was that persistent, it was probably in the tissue and would come back anyway. Besides, chickens are notorious for not doing well with anesthesia. She's normal otherwise. I'm just keeping watch to make sure it doesn't blow up again.

 

[Eggcessive]

The vet said she had/has a severe infection. She put her on a topical ointment that goes into her eye area called Muricin. Also at the same time gave her an oral antibiotic of Tylan powder. Both were 2x a day. That was month 4 of treatment. It got better. The infection cleared up nicely. I put her back out with the flock, checking on her periodically. Got her the other day and it's back although not as bad. Took some rather large pieces of hard infection out of her eye. So I'm going to have to go back to treating her. I've never seen anything like this in my life. I gave other antibiotics a fair shot, 30 days or longer each one, but they didn't touch it. I used Baytril and Tetramyacin. I think this is just going to take some time. I am at a loss as is the vet. She's in the process of doing some research trying to figure out what else we can use. They suggested lancing and scraping it, but I didn't want to go that route. I figured if the infection was that persistent, it was probably in the tissue and would come back anyway. Besides, chickens are notorious for not doing well with anesthesia. She's normal otherwise. I'm just keeping watch to make sure it doesn't blow up again.

Did you ever get her tested for coryza? It is one of the chronic respiratory diseases that keeps coming back again and again, and your description of foul smelling pus from her eye fits coryza. No antibiotic will cure it, but symptoms may go away only to come back with any stress. MG in bad strains can also look similar.

 

[joyce5430]

No, I didn't. It seems that there were some things about coryza when I investigated it that didn't fit what was happening with her. However, I will take another look at it and ask the vet.

 

[16 paws]

Thank you for your input. I got some antibiotic from our local farm supply called Terramycin. My hen was such a good girl about letting me clean her eye and apply the ointment. I will let you know in a couple of days how it's going.

I put about 1/2 - 3/4 C of the plain greek yogurt in a dish for my 6 chickens and they went crazy over it. I just didn't think they would eat it since the balk at so many things that people say their chickens love. How much and how often do you think I should feed them the yogurt?

Maybe about 1/2 cup to a cup and see how they do. How many chickens do you have?

Glad you found the med. to try. I really hope it works.

 

[Raggedyroad]

I have 6 hens. A black Austrolorp (Johnny Sue), 2 buff Orpingtons (Goldie and Lilly), a silver laced Wyandotte (Jennifer), a golden laced wyandotte (Delilah) and my favorite of the lot who is also the one with the eye infection is my Ameraucana (Cleo). They are all very sweet and great layers.

So far Cleo's eye looks about the same. I was hoping by day 2 to see some improvement. If there is improvement, it's minimal. How often did you apply the antibiotic ointment?

 

[emilyandbj]

Don't know where to post this I'm newer to BYC
One of my chickens has some black pussy stuff around her eye not sure what is wrong I could use some help