Chronic eye infection, old hen

[ZagstHomestead]

Hi BYC,

I have an older hen that we took in from some people that couldn't keep her a few years ago, we think she is some kind of Orpington.

A few months ago she was acting lethargic on and off. When I checked her I saw her eye was swollen. I thought she would end up dying as I had a hen some years ago that did the same thing, but she didn't. She pepped up, is eating again, even chasing other hens from treats, but her eye looks awful. It is smelly and weeping clear bubbly fluid. I've spent 2 weeks now cleaning, flushing, and applying terramycin and Neosporin daily. I started giving her cephalexin once a day (it's all I have on hand right now) for five days now. I've attached pics of what her eye looked like today.

I've read through other threads showing how to express or dislodge the hardened pus, but pressing around her eye/orbit only pushes liquid out and doesn't move the hardened yellow stuff. I have used tweezers out of desperation as I read the eye will not heal if it's not removed, and as I lift her top eyelid up I can see the yellow stuff extends deep into her eye socket. It seems stuck eye to the mucosa of her eye socket. I don't think she has an eye there anymore. What I've been doing is apply a warm compress and wipe away the outer hardened stuff, then as she calms I can get her eye open more to try to wipe inside the eye socket and flush with a syringe. Apply the ointment and then give her the oral antibiotics.

Can anyone suggest anything else I can try? Or give me any other insight? Thank you!

 

[Eggcessive]

Is there any way you could have a farm vet help you? I would try to remove the yellow exudate or pus from the eye opening. You will need another person to hold her wrapped in a towel, and work on her for short periods. Tweezers and QTips may be used with extra care. This video below is one of the better ones about removing pus:

 

[ZagstHomestead]

Is there any way you could have a farm vet help you? I would try to remove the yellow exudate or pus from the eye opening. You will need another person to hold her wrapped in a towel, and work on her for short periods. Tweezers and QTips may be used with extra care. This video below is one of the better ones about removing pus:

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply! A farm vet is out of our ability unfortunately, but we have basic first aid and anatomy knowledge so I feel comfortable trying to get the pus out myself.

I imagine there's nothing to sedate or provide pain relief for the hen while I do it? I am literally digging into her eye socket and one wrong move on her part and the tweezers will pierce her so I've been very cautious to not dig too deep and try to just gently grab pieces of the pus and pull off but there's just so much more that seems stuck. I can sometime flush some chunks out if I get enough pressure from the syringe.

My husband is ready to call it and put her down but because she's still acting normal I hate to do that. If I just let nature take it's course will this be a painful slow death for her? I don't want to see my birds suffer.

 

[Eggcessive]

It would be good to have others give you some tips. There are many threads here on BYC about removing pus from eyes, if you can find them. Finding out if that eye is still in there would be good. Are you using the antibiotic ointment twice a day? Using some bactrim or this twice a day might be good if there is E.coli in the eye:
https://www.medi-vet.com/Bird-Sulfa-Sulfamethoxazole-Trimethoprim-480mg-p/19328.htm