Cyst in hens eye or something else?

[jairawi]

Hi there! We noticed that our beloved Ms. Beags had a weird growth protruding from her eye earlier today, but cannot for the life of us figure out what it is/what to do about it. She seems fine otherwise (no signs of resp illness, mites, etc.) though she has a substantial amount of plucked feathers around her vent.

The lump (tumor, cyst) feels pretty hard. What to do?

 

[Cluck-a-lot]

Oh dear. My hens did have something similar. I have forgotten the name of the infection which is like a hard yellow lump which can gently rolled out. Might not be the same but looks a bit similar. I wonder what other hen lovers here think.
My solution would be to try and see if it moves at all. If it does then you can manoeuvre it out. I confess I then use a drop of conjunctivitis eyedrop, and offer tiny treat of cheese. All is forgiven. But everything (hands gloves etc) must be kept disinfected thoroughly as you might be dealing with an infection. This is simply MY home remedy which works wonderfully well for my birds.

 

[Eggcessive]

To me that looks like exudate or solid pus. I would be tempted to try to get it out. Sometimes you can gently squeeze around the ye to express pus. Get another helper, wrap her in a towel like a burrito, and use QTips, possibly tweezers with careful hands to remove it, saline or eye wash to rinse the eye, and some Terramycin eye ointment to put in the eye twice a day. Here is a video of pus removal:

 

[jairawi]

Oh dear. My hens did have something similar. I have forgotten the name of the infection which is like a hard yellow lump which can gently rolled out. Might not be the same but looks a bit similar. I wonder what other hen lovers here think.
My solution would be to try and see if it moves at all. If it does then you can manoeuvre it out. I confess I then use a drop of conjunctivitis eyedrop, and offer tiny treat of cheese. All is forgiven. But everything (hands gloves etc) must be kept disinfected thoroughly as you might be dealing with an infection. This is simply MY home remedy which works wonderfully well for my birds.

I’ll certainly try that! I was looking back at pictures after I posted, and it looks like it’s actually been there since at least May (I just didn’t notice it ). Does infection still fit? Since it’s been there a while I’m wondering if it might be a cyst…

 

[jairawi]

To me that looks like exudate or solid pus. I would be tempted to try to get it out. Sometimes you can gently squeeze around the ye to express pus. Get another helper, wrap her in a towel like a burrito, and use QTips, possibly tweezers with careful hands to remove it, saline or eye wash to rinse the eye, and some Terramycin eye ointment to put in the eye twice a day. Here is a video of pus removal:

 

[jairawi]

Thanks for the reply! I’d wondered about that, but it doesn’t look like the exudate that other chickens seem to have. It looks kind of fleshy (I can try to get a better pic). I was looking back at pictures last night and she’s had it for a few months I guess, I’m just a bad chicken mom and didn’t notice. Would that timeline still make sense for it being pus?

 

[jairawi]

As an update, we investigated a bit further this morning. It’s seems like a cyst as it’s rooted in the flesh underneath her eye. Not sure what next steps are!