Help! Rooster eye injury ***UPDATE*** w/PIC

[jessica117]

Hubby and I came home from the store to find our black standard cochin roo hiding in the corner of the barn in kinda bad shape. He had obviously been in a fight with our white cochin roo (he has only a few scratches and is currently in "chicken jail") The black roo has a few places on his comb and waddles that were bleeding but I after cleaning him up with warm water and ACV I'm not too worried about those. What has me concerned is his eye. It doesn't appear to be injured, though I did not try to pry it open. I plan on inspecting him more closely in the morning. No apparent swelling but he just won't open it. He was drinking ok and I have him isolated from the flock.

I will try and take some pics in the morning. He is going to get some ACV in his water and some garlic for breakfast (along with some feed of course.)

Anyone else have any input on treatment?

Thanks!
Jessica


***UPDATE***

I took this pic this morning before I got him all doctored up. He did open his eye for me and it appears to be intact, though it is completely clouded over. I can't even make out his iris. His lower lid is pretty swollen but he was able to keep the eye open on his own (just not for the camera

) but didn't really be able to see out if it. How long do I need to continue the eye ointment? There is no visible damage to the eye itself, just the cloudiness. Am I to assume that the cloudiness means he won't regain sight in that eye?

Thanks again for all of your help

-Jess

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

get some terramycin eye salve for chickens
and keep putting it in the eye
email if any questions

feed the roosters some
wet mash probiotic
they will need the gut restoration
also 1 tbsp of ACV per pint of water as long as they are ailing

 

[nnbreeder]

Most of the time the eye will be fine once the swelling goes down but sometimes they will lose the eye if it recieved a blow from a spur directly. If he does lose the eye there is really nothing to be done and he will learn to compensate for the loss.

In the morning he will look really bad as the bruising will start to show and the swelling will be worse but it will go down in a few days. Just keep the two roosters completely seperated from now on and there should be no more problems.

 

[MoodyChicken]

Definitely give it a look over soon. If the membranes are torn up, it will heal. If the eye itself is damaged, he will likely be blind in that eye. Rinse the eye at least twice daily with saline and apply a small amount of teramycin ophthalmic ointment. If the membranes are torn, it should heal in about two weeks time. It will get crusty and slimy as the eye is producing extra tears, a natural defense. Gently apply a warm sponge to the eye to break the crust and then go through the rinsing and treating routine. Good luck!

 

[Judy]

Good advice. When she says sponge, Moodychicken is talking about gauze, available at the drug store, usually as 2x2 or 4x4 squares. 2x2 is plenty. You can make your own saline:

http://healthfieldmedicare.suite101.com/article.cfm/normal_saline_for_wound_care

 

[jessica117]

Thanks for all the quick responses. Looks like I'll be headed to the feed store in the morning.

I went out and checked on him a couple hours ago and the eye still shows little to no swelling. I don't think he actually got spurred because my guys don't have the scary sharp ones that I have seen pictures of on here. The two have had little spats before but we were able to break them up before things got this bad. I think most of the damage was done from pecking.

Thanks again and I'll keep updating.

 

[kbmead]

Hi--
We had roosters in a fight last week. The one that was beaten up the most had an eye swollen shut, but it was fully open and fine after about 3 days.

Another note--we have a hen that hatched with an undeveloped eye, and so has been half blind her whole life. She gets around fine, and is the sweetest, tamest girl ever.
Good luck!

 

[jessica117]

Oh... forgot to mention earlier... he is eating and drinking really good. He doesn't act like anything happened.

-Jess