Eye injury- was she pecked? What can I do?

[picklestheduck]

Hey everyone, just found a little hen like this this morning, her eye looks foggy and a bit red, wondering if she got pecked? She cocked her head over to look at me with the other eye a few times…. From what I can guess I’m assuming she has limited or no sight in her left eye, when I went to go catch her she ran from my right hand and straight into my left, which was on the bad side. What can I do? Thoughts? I mean maybe she isn’t blind in it and is just closing it more, I don’t really know.

 

[Tookie]

She's such a pretty girl!
To me, I think her eye could be going blind. For now I would just rinse it out with saline and apply some terramycin eye ointment everyday for a week or so then see how she's doing.

 

[FloorCandy]

It looks like there is an abraision of some sort on the eye, it looks like a white-ish smudge just outside the pupil. I’m guessing she was pecked, or she poked it on something, or she got some debris under her eyelid and it scratched it. One of my turkeys had a similar looking injury at a few months old, and I treated her with antibiotic eye ointment that I had onhand from my son having poked his eye lol, and I cleaned it out every day before I put the ointment in and after a few days, the swelling went down and the goop stopped. She is 100% blind in that eye tho but gets around fine, and needs no extra help. I’m not sure if your birds injury will heal without sight, it probably depends how deep the damage is, but one eyed birds seem to do fine.

 

[picklestheduck]

All I have is this ointment that I had for an old dog that passed away last year… can I use it for her or should I get the terramycin?

 

[Tookie]

All I have is this ointment that I had for an old dog that passed away last year… can I use it for her or should I get the terramycin?

Hmm, I'm not sure. I'm gonna say you could use it...but lemme just tag the experts to see what they say.

@azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

 

[picklestheduck]

With some more tests I do believe she is blind in that eye, I gently and slowly approached her on that side and laid my hand on her wing and she stood still until she turned her head around so her good eye could see me and when she saw that it was indeed not another chicken she panicked and ran away

 

[picklestheduck]

I called our horse vet on the Terramycin, and the vet is out of town and they don’t see chickens and couldn’t get it to me. I have a bird vet over an hour away, and I use them for dire emergencies, but money is tight right now and anything there costs a fortune. I thought about the vetericyn eye gel…. Or the ointment I already have

 

[azygous]

Have you phoned around pet stores and feed stores. They almost always have Terramycin eye ointment.

 

[picklestheduck]

Have you phoned around pet stores and feed stores. They almost always have Terramycin eye ointment.

Yes I did look into it, but I was told it’s not possible to get Terramycin without a perscription anymore. I’ll leave for work early and stop by Tsc for the heck of it just to see what’ll happen.

 

[Tookie]

Yes I did look into it, but I was told it’s not possible to get Terramycin without a perscription anymore. I’ll leave for work early and stop by Tsc for the heck of it just to see what’ll happen.

I looked online at TSC and they do have it.