Eye injury, blood in lense?

[LittlePip21]

Hello, today, when I put my girls to bed, I noticed one of them was roosting in a different place than usual. When I checked her I realized her eye was injured. There is no visible sign of the lense being broken, but there does seem to be some blood in it. I'm guessing she got pecked. Im not seeing any swelling in the face, and she's roosting with the others. She doesn't seem to be in any distress, and she's not cowering. Just wanted to know if there's anything I should do? She seems good, but I just want to make sure Its not something internal.

 

[GinaNew York]

Immediately id put antibiotic salve in her eye four times a day , go to tractor supply and get terramycin or if you cant get neospirin. Vetericyn makes an eye wash you could use. It shoukd be in an aisle of tractor supply

Infection has to be prevented asap, and if you can see a vet its great, but with eyes there isnt much to do but prevent scaring and infection. That means being religious with the antibiotic. If shes rubbing her head she should be seen.

I would also try and give her some arnica montana 30c pellets, 2 pellets four times a day to get the blood out if the eye, you can get them at a vitamin shoppe and put them into bread so she eats them

Ive used this many times with my dogs ferrets and myself.

Good luck,

 

[Eggcessive]

The left eye looks like there may have been a hemorrhage in the back of the eye. A vet could look into it with an ophthalmascope to confirm it. Two of my dogs over the years have suffered hemorrhages in the back of one eye. One had a big seizure the next day and was brain damaged, so we ended his suffering. The other was put down as the vet said he was in severe pain. Both were thought to have been from a brain bleed. These things are best left to a vet’s treatment, and probably not much can be done. Hopefully it is just confined to her eye. Just make food and water available and close, and keep her comfortable. Sorry about your chicken. Please let us know how she gets along.

 

[GinaNew York]

I agree, the vet is the first option if you get their quickly and can afford that. But cleaning the eye and getting antibiotics in it could mean the difference between sight and no sight. While blood in the eye could be from a brain injury, it's often from a bang on the eye. I have had three eye bleeds in my two doxies who are micro eyed, and blind completely in one eye - including mysef- and the arnica dramatically removes the blood from the eye and remember it is vital to prevent infection if there's a chance of vision - so vet first, if one can't do that as many can't or don't have one or it would take too long to get to one for a visit, rinse the eye and do the antiobiotic (no steroids) and arnica - eyes can heal fast if there are scratches (often in 24 hours if no infection sets in - I had this with a ferret (and my son who scratched his cornea with his own nail) that the vet said would most likely go blind from a scratch in the eye - but with constant application every few hours of an antibiotic salve (not easy on a ferret) over 24 hours, day and night - it healed perfectly - after writing this, I realize we've had plenty of eye issues over the years across the human, fur and feather populations!

 

[LittlePip21]

Here it is today. Thank you for the advice guys. Im not sure if it's a scratch or not, I can't see any scratches. I'm thinking it might be internal hemorrhaging. I'm going call the vet, our local ones don't care squat about chickens, but there is a practice farther out I can try. I'm going to call them now, I'm noticing a dark spot in the lense, I couldn't really get a picture. Thanks for all the advice, after I call I'll see what I have on hand to clean the eye. I'll keep you guys posted, thanks.

 

[LittlePip21]

Alright, I called the vet, and they were very helpful! They put me on with an actual doctor. They said it wasn't likely to be a hemorrhage since only one eye is affected, but they wouldn't know for sure unless they used the procedure you mentioned above. They said most of the ones they see are trauma, but they told me I could send them pictures, so I did. Hopefully I will hear back from them sometime today, Amelia is doing good.

 

[Eggcessive]

The ones my dogs had were each in only one eye. I don’t know if the one in the yorkie was more than an eye hemorrhage, but the golden retriever had a seizure and some sort of brain involvement. We did not get autopsies on either one though. We thought the golden may have had a brain tumor, but could not know for sure.

 

[LittlePip21]

Hey guys! Update, I took her to the vet, turns out her cornea was punctured, Which is why I didn't see any scratches. The dye just showed one spot instead of a long scratch.she flushed the eye and put numbing in it. And She gave me ten days worth of drops, and two days of pain meds. She spent like 45 minutes with us, which was awesome. Amelia has immediately perked up, and has been eating and drinking, I'll keep you updated!

 

[PennyM]

I'm so glad your chicken is going to be okay and it's awesome that you have a vet near enough to see your chickens. Wish I did!

 

[theoldchick]

Yay! She's feeling better! Good work!