Hawk attack, eye question

[Klsullivan99]

Our 5 month old Rhode Island Red has a hawk attack her today. She has some surface wounds around her head that we cleaned with saline and neosporin. Her eye was initially opening but now appears to be not opening. Any thought on how to help her eye? She’s standing and moving a bit, wobbly and not eating or drinking but she did poop. She’s in our garage for the night with a heat lamp. Picture attached

 

[azygous]

The hawk may have scratched her cornea. That can hurt like the dickens. Chickens will close an eye that hurts.

Flush it well with saline and put Neosporin directly into her eye. While you do this, look at the eye carefully. Is it pinkish? Is it cloudy with a while film? Compare to her normal eye. Is it different? How?

You can give her a baby aspirin for the pain. Morning and night.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about the attack. Since she may be in shock, keeping her warm and in a quiet, dim spot is good. By morning, hopefully she will take some fluids and try to eat. I would put a soft scramble egg on a paper plate for he. Chicken feed made wet with water can sometimes tempt them to eat and get more water into them. Electrolytes and vitamins in her water would be good dor a day or two. After attacks like these, it may take a day or two to know if there are internal injuries. Hopefully her eye will feel beter with the Neosporin Ointment twice a day.

 

[CathrynK]

My hen kept her eye shut for nearly 3 weeks, but she did finally open it. I gave her penicillin for possible infection and kept her in a quiet room until she recovered. She was in a plastic tote with towels or old t-shirts so she was comfortable. I had to change her bedding a couple of times a day, when she got eating down pat. Her nearsighted eye was the affected eye so it took her a little bit to adjust to eating. She always attacked the bowl sideways. I couldn’t leave the food or water with her because she would dump it when she got to thrashing about.

 

[CathrynK]

I also agree with eggcessive. Try to keep her in dim room.

 

[Klsullivan99]

So she laid an egg overnight and this morning her eye was open. We took her out to see the other chickens and she’s walking sideways, thinking the one eye isn’t working. The other chickens were friendly but then one did poke at her a tad. So she’s back in garage for the night.

 

[Klsullivan99]

Hi- So shes nesting in the bin in my garage with the heat lamp still (extreme wind chills today). She seems to be more active but is still only using right eye to see, we think. She is a tad wobbly when she walks. Thoughts? Guess we keep her in her special garage room for another day or so? I'm worried about the flock not being nice to her if we keep her away too long.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did she eat and drink some today? I would bring her back out with her flock tomorrow to keep them all acquainted. They might be alarmed if she is still walking funny. Try to get her drinking especially, and try some egg. If need be, keep her inside the coop in a dog crate with food and water, if they are still picking on her.

 

[Klsullivan99]

Did she eat and drink some today? I would bring her back out with her flock tomorrow to keep them all acquainted. They might be alarmed if she is still walking funny. Try to get her drinking especially, and try some egg. If need be, keep her inside the coop in a dog crate with food and water, if they are still picking on her.

Thanks, she is eating and drinking. But definitely wobbly. We will try to reintroduce her tomorrow. Trick is that she has to use a ladder or fly into the coop if she wants to get out of the run..not sure she can do that yet and it’s pretty cold here still.

 

[Eggcessive]

As long as you keep her familiar with the flock a little each day, you won’t have to go through re-introducing her to them.