Chicken Illness - help!

[Joand53]

II
I have a little banty hen and I have noticed all of a sudden that one of her eyes is swollen. Her mood is the same and she is eating but I don't know what this swelling is, what has caused it or how to treat it. Has anyone experienced this before? Ideas for treatment please and thank you?!

 

[Judy]

Chickens tend to peck each others' eyes, so this may well be a pecking injury. I'd put some brand name plain Neosporin ointment on the eye twice a day for a few days, maybe a week. Or you can get antibiotic ophthalmic ointment from most feed stores. Good luck!

 

[Joand53]

Thanks for your help. Am trying your suggestion. The area surrounding her eye is still swollen but there seems to be some leakage from her eye area now (infection?) so that may be a good sign as there is a way to get the medicine into the infection now.

 

[aart]

I don't think plain Neosporin should be put on an eye, maybe it's different for chickens but doc told me NONONO...get the ophthalmic one.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Something to think about, but sometimes eye issues aren't necessarily an illness. They bathe and kick around in the dirt, sometimes things on the ground make their way into an eye. It gets stuck there, things get irritated and swell up and run. I had a chick with a terribly swollen eye a could of summers ago. I flushed it out and used Neosporin, nothing seemed to help. I finally got fed up and opened the lid. There was a piece of food stuck in the duct. The next day you couldn't even tell there was a problem.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. Good luck