Sounds a lot like how fowl pox started in my flock. Here's my story, and what I did to care for them.
Some had the dry form, some wet. Several started just like yours - in fact a couple started with only a teary eye. I didn't know for sure what it was - posted here, contacted our poultry extension veterinarian, supplied photos. Here's the link to my post:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=264163&p=2
The poulty vet's Dx: fowl pox. (Darn me - I had procrastinated and not vaccinated the flock.) His recommendation on the flock was to vaccinate ASAP all the birds that were not showing signs, which I did. He also suggested putting all the flock on oxytetracycline in the drinking water as an added measure to prevent secondary bacterial infections or just in case they had something else, which I didn't do. Only a few got really sick; all that showed signs of feeling poorly (separating themselves from the others, acting pokey, teary or crusted eyes) came into my den to relieve them of the stress of being in the flock for the most part - to let them rest, eat, and drink without competition until they were feeling better.
For the ones that had teary or crusty eyes, I cleaned the eyes with cotton balls/warm water, patted dry, and medicated with ophthalmic ointment - antibiotic, no steroid. Fed them whatever they would eat, until they started eating chicken scratch and then pellets.
A couple got really sick. After no eating for a couple of days, and no evidence that they were drinking, I started giving them water by syringe to be sure they at least got some fluids. In this process, I discovered that one hen had the most incredibly swollen tongue and a mouth full of thick mucus! It was so bad the tongue didn't even look remotely like a chicken tongue - it looked like a fat maggot in her mouth. She got swollen under the wattles, too. One side of her face was covered with pox and eye completely crusted closed between the twice daily cleaning and eye ointment.
For this chicken, I started her on penicillin injections once a day. At least twice a day, I wrapped her in a towel, and squirted streams of water through her mouth sideways to rinse the thick mucus out and try to get some liquids in her. At some point she started swallowing some of the water - seeming to want it. In a day or so, after the rinsing I started giving her Gatorade, apple juice, or buttermilk by syringe to get some calories in her. I always finished by rinsing her mouth again with water. A day or so after she started taking some juice or buttermilk by syringe she started to perk up, showed interest in scratch, and progressively improved.
She's now back with the flock - and I swear I don't know which of the 3 speckled sussex it was! That tongue was so bad that I could not imagine that she would have a tongue left if she managed to survive the ordeal. I am continually amazed at the toughness and healing power of chickens - although I doubt she would have made it without at least the supportive care if not the penicillin.
Long response, but just in case yours turns out like some of mine - wanted you to know what I did and that I had a good outcome Also, I think I had no trouble re-integrating the isolated hens back with the flock, because I always kept 2 together and returned them together, and I returned them by releasing them outside while the others were free-ranging, so they had lots of space between them until they roosted at dusk.
