Last night one of our chickens met with a dog. We got the dog out pretty quickly but the chicken doesn't look so good. It was already getting dark, and all I did for her was dry her and put the warming bulb into the chicken coop, and set her inside. It wasn't until later I sought out "chicken first aid" and came across this site. (Fantastic!) She's perkier this morning, but she looks terrible and she hasn't left her coop yet. She doesn't have any visible body wounds, but I think she may have lost her eyes. One eye is really swollen shut and crusted with blood. The other is not as swollen, but she's keeping it closed and it's oozing orange goo. She's a one year old (about) barred rock and something mix. 1 - I bought some triple antibiotic ointment with pain analgesic. The analgesic is "pramoxine hydrochloride". Is this okay to use for her? (found answer) 2 - antibiotics and aspirin in water - can I use them together? Can the other chickens drink from the same water? (I only have three total.) 3 - if she *has* lost her eyes... what should I do? Can a blind chicken be healthy and happy? The chicken pen is maybe 12'x12', but the gate is usually open to the rest of the yard. Maybe 1/8th acre, fenced in. Please tell me if I am only prolonging her death by trying to heal her. Thanks for any and all advice! -zami
Update: I found another thread saying the pramoxine pain releiver was fine. On close inspection, she has some superficial wounds/tears around her comb. She's walking okay, and she's a little shaky on her perch. I'd leave her on the "ground" of the pen but it really needs cleaning. I lathered the comb tears and and huge eyes with neosporin. The eye lids are both oozing orange. It doesn't look like pus... unless chickens have watery orange pus? Anyhow the light pressure of applying the neosporin made the orange gush rather than ooze. I'm so sad for my chicken. My eight year old son let the neighbor-dog into our yard to play with last night, and he feels *terrible* about this. He thought that because our dog doesn't attack the chickens, dogs don't attach chickens. We've talked about this, but because the neighbor dog is *so* friendly (and she is)... I don't know, I guess he just wasn't thinking in his excitment to play with the dog.
what i would do i separate her from the others so that she is the only one getting the medicine and the other chickens might peck at her and make thing worse then i would take a Q-tip and wet the end and very very gently dampen her eyelids and wipe away the goo when you do this you want to make sure that you barely touch her eye lids just enough to wet them. and if it doesn't clear up i would go see the vet about it. i wish you the best and i hope that this helps, i hope that your hen makes a full recovery.
Bring her inside,clean wounds,apply antibiotic ointment(nothing ending in "caine/cane"toxic to chickens). wipe eye with warm water try and see the extent of damage to actual eye. I recommend for eyes an eye antibiotic,i use polysporin 2 antibiotic eye ointment for sties,if this is not available to you where you live,purchase vetericyn,this product is safe to use in and around eye. Keep her inside,keep her warm,when birds are ill/injured they cannot regulate their body temp so additional heat is required. Watch for infection,signs of infection are: foul smell coming from wounds,redness/swelling,spreading redness/swelling,necrotic tissue(black,dead)birds becoming lethargic,not eating/drinking. Make sure she is eating/drinking,give electrolytes for shock. For pain you can give low dose aspirin(81mg)or reg aspirin(325mg)dose is 25mg per lb of body weight,crush and place in water or sprinkle over feed or give orally(wrap in a pce of meat or cheese).
