Crap... My Wyandotte has a problem with her eye...

[Gifa]

I have two wyandottes who love to do everything together... I was watching them yesterday dust bathing and throwing all kinds of dirt and whatever else all over each other... and at the time, I noticed one of them was holding her eyes closed... I didn't think anything of it, because I've seen them close their eyes while dustbathing, or sun bathing etc... Then yesterday evening, I noticed she was walking around, with that eye closed and trying to wipe it on her wing as if something was bothering her eye... So I picked her up and checked her out. I noticed what looked like a piece of gummed up grass stuck half in and half out of her eye. Carefully, I removed it... and she seemed better, but the pupil of her eye was fully dilated, so she didn't act like she could see out of it very well.

Well I just checked her again today, and she's still got it closed. It doesn't look swollen or anything, but when I picked her up and held her to check it over again, it was a little pussy... or maybe it was just a big goober of eye snot... I don't know.

So I cleared it... and opened her eyelids to see what I could find. Holding a chicken's head still and prying it's eyelids apart...hard thing that.

Anyway, I saw what appeared to be a yellowish white almost scrambled egg textured something coming out from behind her eye ball... And I don't know what it is, nor am I able to hold her still enough to get it out...

So... Any ideas on what it is I am looking at? My thought is that it is something that is stuck back in there real good that her body has gummed up but can't remove.

And any tips on how to restrain her so that I may more safely care for her... because I don't want to scratch or otherwise further injure her eye.

 

[Eggcessive]

Posting a picture of the eye would help. When puss forms in the eye, after a while it can become hard and cheese-like. If the area around her eye is swollen she make have a pocket of pus in there. Her pupil being dilated and the blade of grass being stuck under the lid don't add up though.

 

[Gifa]

Posting a picture of the eye would help. When puss forms in the eye, after a while it can become hard and cheese-like. If the area around her eye is swollen she make have a pocket of pus in there. Her pupil being dilated and the blade of grass being stuck under the lid don't add up though.

I just figure her pupil being dialated had to do with her eye being closed and thus her eye adjusting to less light...


Right now I am at home alone... So I am not able to hold her, while holding her eye open, while also holding a camera to take a photo.

 

[Eggcessive]

If there is puss present, you should start an antibiotic for infection--maybe Tylan 50 or Baytril if you can get it. Some people recommend removing these so called puss pockets by digging them out with Q-Tips or even lancing around the eye and getting them out. I will let others instruct you on that since I have not done this.

 

[Gifa]

Oh, poor baby!!!


Hubby got home from work and we plucked her down from the roost to get a good look at her with a couple more hands... this time we used a towel around her to keep her restrained...

After about 15 minutes of flushing her with saline and careful, patient work... we got this out of her eye...



Can I get a HOLY CRAP! from the congregation?

What I thought was puss or scrambled eggy eye booger... was actually the rounded white part of it on the left... the rest of it was nowhere to be seen until we got it out. Penny for scale...

My best guess is that it's a piece of molted fluff and a piece of grass that got kicked into her eye while she was dust bathing yesterday

We flushed her eye with saline one more time and then promptly returned her to the roost. She probably thinks she got abducted by a UFO or something.


I will be keeping a watchful eye on her for the next couple of days, but she's GOT to feel better.

 

[Eggcessive]

Good work curing her! At first when I looked at this, I thought the penny came out--I think it is time for bed,LOL.

 

[jonalisa]

Wow! Good for you!
I hope if I am ever faced with a similar situation I can be as calm and determined as you were.
Cool.

 

[Gifa]

Wow! Good for you!
I hope if I am ever faced with a similar situation I can be as calm and determined as you were.
Cool.

I am hoping this is all that was bothering her and that a good night's rest without this fallen tree in her eye will have her on her way to make a full recovery. I expect her to still be a little sore tomorrow, but if she is not back to herself on Sunday, I'll have to take her to a nearby avian vet just to make sure there's nothing else in there.

Good work curing her! At first when I looked at this, I thought the penny came out--I think it is time for bed,LOL.

Yeah... that, and there should probably be a law against displaying anything this gross above the likeness of Lincoln's head too.

 

[Gifa]

Yeah, she is much better this morning... Walking around with her eye open again... hooray!