Chicken With Eye Swelled Shut Help!

[Carter Martin]

I notice a week to two weeks ago that one of my hens had one of its eyes half closed or closed a lot and I didn't pay too much attention. She is around 26 weeks old or so. In the last two days I noticed that it is all swelled up around the closed eye. The hen sits most of the time now on a roost and doesn't do much. She seems to come down every once in a while and at least drink a bit and maybe eat a bit. Can anyone tell me what this is? And what I should do about it? I looked up what it could be and I found this: https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultr...ious coryza is an acute,It is found worldwide.
Does anyone else think this is what it is?

 

[azygous]

If it has a terrible smell, it could be coryza, a serious respiratory infection. Or it could be an eye infection that requires pus removal and then antibiotic eye ointment twice a day until it clears up.

So. Tell us, does it smell bad?

Press lightly on the edge of the eye and see if pus oozes out. If so, your next task will be to express all the pus out of the eye, flush well with saline eye wash (you can buy it or make your own), then use the eye ointment or Neosporin in the eye.

 

[Carter Martin]

I live in Ireland so it is 11:00 pm right now. Will look into it more tomorrow or Saturday.

 

[Carter Martin]

When you say Neosporin do you mean the stuff I would use on myself? Or stuff meant for chickens?

 

[Cecisflock]

When you say Neosporin do you mean the stuff I would use on myself? Or stuff meant for chickens?

the stuff for yourself is fine!

 

[Eggcessive]

Respiratory disease may be the cause of the eye swelling and her being lethargic. A peck to the eye or getting a foreign body stuck in the eye could be a lesser possibility. Have you seen any bubbles or pus in the eye, nasal drainage, sneezing, or gasping? Mycoplasma gallisepticum or MG can be more common cause than coryza. Coryza as said before is said to have a rotten odor from the face. Tylosin, doxycycline, oxytetracycline, and tiamulin (denagard) are common antibiotics that treat MG. Coryza would be treated by sulfa antibiotics such as bactrim or sulfadimethoxine. An abscess could be treated with others.

 

[Carter Martin]

I have not noticed nasal drainage, sneezing, or gasping. I think some of her poop was really white and runny with a little yellow in it.

 

[Eggcessive]

If there is no bad odor, then I would think about getting tylosin or another antibiotic that treats mycoplasma (MG.) Clean the eye of any drainage or pus, and apply an antibiotic ointment such as Terramycin eye ointment, available at feed stores, or plain Neosporin twice daily.

 

[Carter Martin]

The swelled area does not seem to smell bad other than smelling like chicken. So I have decided to try rinsing the area with a saline solution twice daily and then after each rinsing putting on Neosporin. We'll see what happens. After rinsing it for the first time today I was able to work the eye lid open a little and it looked all red inside. Does anybody think the hen will lay after she has gotten better if she does? At least one of the diseases that it is possible she has say that they could affect the laying badly.