Closed red, swollen eye

[sariea]

How is Buffy? Did you figure out what happened?

One of our buff orpingtons, Mrs. Pickles, has the same problem right now.

Mrs. Pickles has a sister named Buffy!

Mrs Pickles. I love that name

Buffy isn't better. She is at least, for the most part, acting normal. She's eating and drinking (as far as I know) and running around a little. If she survives, she may not like me by the end of this because I keep trying to look at her eye. My husband and I try to flush it out once a day with clean water.. We did give her Tylan 50 for 5 days and that was when she started acting normal but her eye started to get worse.

We honestly don't know what's wrong and it's stressing me out because she is my baby. This picture is from tonight.

 

[lovemy6hens]

Yikes. That looks painful.

I had some eye ointment left over from another chicken vet visit and put that on Mrs. Pickles. There may be something safe over the counter at a pharmacy, but I have no idea. The ointment we have is Bausch & Lomb "neomycin and polymyxin b sulfates and bacitracin zinc ophthalmic ointment".

 

[lovemy6hens]

@chickengeorgeto suggested looking up eye worms. Does it look like eye worms? I can't tell. Someone here has experience with eye worms. It seems like a possibility. Mrs. Pickles is still very swollen, but not bulging like Buffy.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

@chickengeorgeto suggested looking up eye worms. Does it look like eye worms? I can't tell. Someone here has experience with eye worms. It seems like a possibility. Mrs. Pickles is still very swollen, but not bulging like Buffy.

If there was any other cause for this eye being in its present condition it is my opinion that both eyes would be involved. Therefor I will repeat my diagnosis.

 

[lovemy6hens]

T

If there was any other cause for this eye being in its present condition it is my opinion that both eyes would be involved.  Therefor I will repeat my diagnosis. 

Thank you. Mrs. Pickles is swelling on both sides now. We just got back from the vet. Eye drops & antibiotics for now. Still no other symptoms yet, but we've separated her in case she starts showing other signs of illness. No worms of any sort for her. I would post pictures, but she looks so much like Buffy that it could be confusung.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

T
Thank you. Mrs. Pickles is swelling on both sides now. We just got back from the vet. Eye drops & antibiotics for now. Still no other symptoms yet, but we've separated her in case she starts showing other signs of illness. No worms of any sort for her. I would post pictures, but she looks so much like Buffy that it could be confusung.

Notice how the comb and face is healthy looking and the waddles still have their strawberry seed look. This is not normal for a disease that affects the whole chicken, but rather one that only affects the eyes.

No one ever promised any of us that owning chickens was a bed of roses but I am concerned about your hen's eyesight.

There are pour on livestock worm medicines that will work, I think that ivemectin is one such drug. It is widely used and approved for the treatment of these kinds of problems in 3rd World countries. If your hen is a victim of eye worms every day that you delay will result in the hen in question shedding more eye worm eggs. That will spread the problem to the rest of your flock. Somehow I don't think that eye worm eggs was what you wanted to produce when you got your first hens.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/428022/anyone-actually-try-ivermectin-for-eye-worm

 

[lovemy6hens]

Notice how the comb and face is healthy looking and the waddles still have their strawberry seed look.  This is not normal for a disease that affects the whole chicken, but rather one that only affects the eyes.

No one ever promised any of us that owning chickens was a bed of roses but I am concerned about your hen's eyesight.

There are pour on livestock worm medicines that will work, I think that ivemectin is one such drug.  It is widely used and approved for the treatment of these kinds of problems in 3rd World countries.  If your hen is a victim of eye worms every day that you delay will result in the hen in question shedding more eye worm eggs. That will spread the problem to the rest of your flock. Somehow I don't think that eye worm eggs was what you wanted to produce when you got your first hens.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/428022/anyone-actually-try-ivermectin-for-eye-worm  

Thank you. I have Mrs. Pickles. The photo is Buffy.

 

[sariea]

Here is an update on Buffy.
I really do appreciate the suggestions on treatment, but I honestly don't think it's eyeworms. We don't have cockroaches and I haven't read anything else that says it comes from anything but cockroaches. She is acting mostly normal, but the eye is getting worse. Within the last hour I tried to flush it again with water, some eye-booger type substance was on her eye so i wiped that off. With my husbands help I was able to pull back the full eyelid and get a picture. What we think is happening is that there was some kind of blood blister and that underneath is pus. The corner closest to her beak at what looked like liquid pus. It's taking so much in me to not try to push whatever this is out of her eye, but I don't want to hurt her.

To me, the little white specs look like where pus is coming through the black. I have yet to see any type of worm in her eye.

 

[lovemy6hens]

Can you take her to a vet?

 

[lovemy6hens]

Is her other eye still normal?