Blindness after trauma

[OrPickering]

Hi everyone,

One of my chickens was grabbed by my dog, but we rescued her before she was hurt very badly. She did have one puncture and some feathers pulled out and was in shock, so we separated her from the flock for a few days. She was eating and acting fairly normally with feathers hiding any wounds so we put her back in and things were okay for a few days although she was fearful of leaving the coop. However, my husband came out later and found that she had been attacked by the flock and was now very badly injured with pecks to the back and the neck. We separated her again and she's been slowly recovering over the last few weeks. She is eating and drinking and pooping and trying to scratch at the ground, but she does not seem to be able to see. She did not open her eyes for at least two weeks and we wondered if they had been pecked. However, she now will keep one open and sometimes the other, and we don't see any obvious injuries to her eyes. They may be a little cloudy, but it's hard to tell because one is often half closed. She seems to react a little bit to changes in light sometimes.

Has anyone ever had this situation? Do you think this blindness is permanent? Can a chicken go blind from stress? She's clearly feeling much better but the eyesight issue has us puzzled.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

If you have photos of your hen you wish to share that would be good.

She may have suffered permanent injury to the eyes or some brain/neurological damage.
Time will tell I suppose.
I think all you can do is see how well she recovers. Keep her eating/drinking, you can add some poultry vitamins to her weekly routine.

She may need to be housed separately from here on out, especially if she is not able to see well. Re-integration into a flock can be a challenge for a healthy bird that can see very well. This is something you will have to determine yourself whether to put her back or not.

 

[OrPickering]

Thanks! We think there may be some trauma damage because one eye keeps rolling back. We don't have the ability to house her separately other than temporarily, but we do have a friend who may give her a home if she recovers but cannot be reintegrated.