Eye injury?

[RedWolfTX]

One of my hens (2 years old or so) has one eye shut. She's out and about, but mostly just sits.

We picked her off the roost last night (that's the only way you're going to get close to her), and took a look at her eye. It's tight shut, lightly crusty. Wearing nitrile, gloves, I gently pulled her lids back, and her eye is ivory. I don't see her cornea at all, so maybe I'm looking at the back of her eye, it's rotated the iris and cornea away.

She appears to be breathing ok, no wheezing. We parted her eye lids and rinsed well with Vetericyne eye wash. (TSC was out of the opththalmic gel).

I'm not sure if she's got an infection or if the queen hen gave her peck in the eye and hurt her (this girl tends to get pecked at bedtime by the boss girl).

Any thoughts?

 

[Eggcessive]

I have only seen pictures of this before, but it seems to be a tightly covering of pus or white blood cells attached to the eye. I would try irrigating the eye with saline eyewash, and cleaning the eye with Qtips to try and remove it. Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin can be applied twice a day. Ciprofloxacin eye drops from a vet would be better.

 

[coach723]

I agree with @Eggcessive . If you can manage once early in the morning before they get off the roosts, and then once in the evening after she's gone to roost, that would be close enough to every 12 hours for the meds. You can do flushing and trying to work it loose at the same time. I have a couple of birds that are really hard to catch too, I've got one now with bumblefoot and bandage changes happen after dark so I can get her off the roost.

 

[coach723]

I would get the q tip moist with some of the ointment, and gently see if you can loosen it. Start at the edge, see if you can get it to lift anywhere. If it comes up, then remove what you can. It may take more than one go if it's really adhered to the eye. I would do everything and gently as you can. Then flush it well when you are finished and apply the ointment to the eye. Applying the ointment daily may help loosen it also.

 

[Eggcessive]

Cannyou take her to a vet? The white covering the eye seems more like infection.

 

[coach723]

I'm so sorry. I'm glad you were able to have her seen and know for sure what was going on. I'm very sorry it couldn't end better, but she isn't suffering, and that's what's important. I'm so sorry you had to make that decision, sometimes it's the kindest thing we can do. Thank you for letting us know.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would lean toward her being blind in the eye. Let's gets @Eggcessive and @coach723 to chime in.

Is the tissue surrounding her eye swollen and puffy?

In the photo - it may be reflection from the light, but when you tend to her eye again, see if that straight looking debris(?) is still in there. Red arrow pointing to it.

 

[RedWolfTX]

Neither my wife nor I (that's me hold Peach) recall seeing an foreign objects, but we'll check again. I find it odd that it appears her eye has a coating over it - you can see a dark spot that appears to be her iris/cornea and pupil. A few days ago it was the normal color.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It could be a layer of pus that has coated the eye, hard to tell.
Have you tried pressing it out?

 

[RedWolfTX]

No, I haven't. It's not gooey. I rubbed her eyelid over it, remained the same. I don't want to injure her eye, so I figured I'd ask here.

No bad smell around her
No wheezing, coughing, or sneezing
She's a little slow, isn't racing out in the morning with her 2 flock mates. But when I toss out the meal worms, she's right there with them pecking as fast as she can. No breathing issue - I lost a hen a few years back due to pneumonia, so I know what they sound like then.