Chicken eye patch?

Kmhanks3

In the Brooder
Jun 23, 2019
7
9
11
Hey guys, I have a Sussex hen that I rescued from a chicken factory. When I brought her home, I noticed the right side of her face was smashed in (not sure what happened to her) and appeared to be an old injury. That eye is also gone. Within a few weeks, one of the other rescued hens had pecked at it, and it got very infected and swollen. Long story short, I ended up keeping her away from the other chickens permanently, and have taken her to the vet multiple times. She is on eye drop antibiotics as well as a pain reliever. She seems to be fine with these medications, but will have flare ups if not taken. My vet has said she would not recommend surgery because she may not wake up or recover, so she will most likely be needing the medications for the rest of her life, which is fine with me, I want to give her the happiest and healthiest rest of her life that I can.
That being said, she has recently started scratching at her eye. She now has cut marks on the outside of her eyelid. Her eye will most likely forever be permanently swollen due to swollen eye muscles. I am thinking of some sort of an eye patch for her to wear so she does not damage this any more than it already is, but I can’t find one anywhere and not sure how she would tolerate it. I’m not sure what else to do to get her to stop scratching it, and the vet was at a loss as well. Any suggestions would be helpful.
 
Hey guys, I have a Sussex hen that I rescued from a chicken factory. When I brought her home, I noticed the right side of her face was smashed in (not sure what happened to her) and appeared to be an old injury. That eye is also gone. Within a few weeks, one of the other rescued hens had pecked at it, and it got very infected and swollen. Long story short, I ended up keeping her away from the other chickens permanently, and have taken her to the vet multiple times. She is on eye drop antibiotics as well as a pain reliever. She seems to be fine with these medications, but will have flare ups if not taken. My vet has said she would not recommend surgery because she may not wake up or recover, so she will most likely be needing the medications for the rest of her life, which is fine with me, I want to give her the happiest and healthiest rest of her life that I can.
That being said, she has recently started scratching at her eye. She now has cut marks on the outside of her eyelid. Her eye will most likely forever be permanently swollen due to swollen eye muscles. I am thinking of some sort of an eye patch for her to wear so she does not damage this any more than it already is, but I can’t find one anywhere and not sure how she would tolerate it. I’m not sure what else to do to get her to stop scratching it, and the vet was at a loss as well. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Welcome To BYC

Can you post some photos?
How long and sharp are her nails? Possibly file and trim those.
I don't know of a way to make an eye patch, you could look into chicken booties or similar (sold on Amazon) those may cover the nails enough where she's not scratching the eye so deeply.

I agree, I might try a different cream to see if that gives any relief.
 
Welcome To BYC

Can you post some photos?
How long and sharp are her nails? Possibly file and trim those.
I don't know of a way to make an eye patch, you could look into chicken booties or similar (sold on Amazon) those may cover the nails enough where she's not scratching the eye so deeply.

I agree, I might try a different cream to see if that gives any relief.
I’ll try to post a photo today. That’s a good idea as well, I’ll look into it, thank you!
 
This is her eye today.
 

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This is her eye today.
Poor girl:hugs
Is your vet an avian vet?

I am not a vet, nor an expert. To me, even if the eye is missing, there is pus in the surrounding tissue. Sometimes it can be pressed out, but other times, it would need to be lanced and the pus removed that way. Chicken pus is a semi-hard, cheese-like substance - it will not dry up on it's own, even with antibiotics - it has to be removed.
If you have a way to get a second opinion or re-consult your vet for treating that swelling, it would be good.

I know @casportpony probably has better photos/links - I can't find them today for some reason. There's some photos in the link here that shows what pus looks like when removed by lancing. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sinus-surgery-video.1081042/#post-16531156

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My boyfriend and I spent a couple months removing the pus before even consulting our Vet. The only problem with the pus at this point is that the muscles are so swollen inside the eye socket that we can’t reach all the pus. We would get all the pus out that we could in one sitting hoping it would stop growing back, but it is adhered to the muscles, between and behind. It’s so bad behind the muscles that I got worried that we would eventually be pulling on something we shouldn’t pull on. She gets stressed the whole time we are doing this as well, and it grows back within a day, so we don’t know what else to do at this point except let her life as normal a life as possible, and just give her eye drops. So any suggestions would be great!
 

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