Bulging eye on one side

[JacinLarkwell]

I have no clue what happened. It could be a peck injury, it might be from flies (we have a grotesque amount of flies and are trying everything else can to reduce them to little avail).

It was not this bad last night and she cannot see on that side. None of her sisters in the cage with her have it, but I've separated her as best as I can (lack of cages due to an abundant hatch and I'm trying to leave for work currently).

My main concern is if it's an illness. A wound, I can treat and process if she doesn't heal. An illness I can't and I'm afraid it would spread.

First two are now, one bulging eye and her normal eye.

The other is a picture of her and her sisters a few days ago (she's the darkest one on the left).

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Could it be feed related? They've been getting a mix of 17% all flock and layer crumble. I think they're from early may, so they're nearly laying age. I know the mother does have large eyes, but they look normal, not wonky or have anything wrong with them.

 

[LaFleche]

Judging by the form of her head, I would suppose some kind of congenital issue like hydrocephalus, that with increasing age gets worse leading to the bulging eyes.

In the picture with the other hens it is already noticeable that her head has a different shape and the eyes start to bulge on both sides.

But it also could be some kind of tumor.

Do you have some pictures of her at a younger age? Was her head always shaped differently?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Not differently enough to take notice of. Her eye shape itself might have been a bit droopier, but again nothing noticable

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ended up culling her, it was clear she was miserable, the weather was likely not helping at all and it was just getting worse. Her pupil was almost completely under her eyelid and her other eye started to look like it was going to begin bulging too. I wasn't home at the time though, so we didn't investigate further. Her old cage mates have yet to show signs and her mother has new chicks fully related to her, so now we'll see if those grow into problems similar to hers