Help! Something wrong with chickens eye

[jbznem]

Hello, I'm new to the site and relitively new to raising chickens. (Started January of this year)
Last weekend we noticed one of chickens had an eye that was bubbling. After some research we decided it was either an illness or some sort of infection. I started her on an antibiotic and just kept her isolated. After several days her eye swelled shut and that's when o decided to examine her further. That's when we found a large white mass surrounding her eye. I've attached a picture.
Some of the mass came off by itself. Some came off when we used a sterile q tip on it. To me it seems to be a hardened infection. However, we are having a difficult time removing it all. It seems to be stuck. Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this?! Any suggestions/solutions?! Could it be a tumor? she's eating fine, walking/flying fine, drinking fine.
She's one of our favorites. And my sons chicken. I'd hate to cull her. But I also don't want her to suffer.
Any advice is appreciated!!

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Definitely infected. I think your chicken may need to have its eye removed by a vet. If you can have that done I'm sure she would be fine. Cost may be prohibitive though but I hope you can find help for her.

 

[jbznem]

Thanks for the reply. I figured it was just infection but wanted another's option.
Getting Eye surgery on her probably isn't an option. I'm sure it's expensive. I may try one more time to clean out the infection if she'll let me. This whole thing makes me so sad. She's a favorite of ours.
Thanks again for your input.

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Vetericyn makes an eye specific product that may help. Still make a few calls to vets in the area or call your state Ag school if it's near you, sometimes student vets do surgeries. Never know till you ask!

We had a cockerel get scalped by an older hen during introductions and took him to the vet, he had 14 stitches put in and has grown up to be a gorgeous and extremely kind rooster. He's a big boy but his best buddies are our smallest pair of Old English Game Bantams. Really cute. It wasn't exactly cheap but in the long run we have zero regrets and it was worth the monetary bind it put us in for a couple weeks. I really wish there was more vet care available for chickens, they are wonderful pets/companions.

I posted a thread today myself where we are having a real odd issue with one of our other boys :/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello, I'm new to the site and relitively new to raising chickens. (Started January of this year)
Last weekend we noticed one of chickens had an eye that was bubbling. After some research we decided it was either an illness or some sort of infection. I started her on an antibiotic and just kept her isolated. After several days her eye swelled shut and that's when o decided to examine her further. That's when we found a large white mass surrounding her eye. I've attached a picture.
Some of the mass came off by itself. Some came off when we used a sterile q tip on it. To me it seems to be a hardened infection. However, we are having a difficult time removing it all. It seems to be stuck. Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this?! Any suggestions/solutions?! Could it be a tumor?

she's eating fine, walking/flying fine, drinking fine.
She's one of our favorites. And my sons chicken. I'd hate to cull her. But I also don't want her to suffer.
Any advice is appreciated!!

Welcome to BYC.

Since you see the pus and are having a hard time getting it out, ask someone to help hold her. I would place a warm compress on the eye, hopefully will start to loosen it, then use a qtip, tweezers or whatever to try to get that out. Flush well with saline and then apply some Vetericyn eye gel or Terramycin eye ointment in the eye.

You mention it started with bubbles in the eye? Any other symptoms like coughing, sneezing, mucous from the nose? Sometimes respiratory illnesses start with discharge from the eyes, if it is not flushed out, it will harden into pus, similar to what you see. Foamy eyes or eyes with bubbles can be an indication of Mycoplamsa G.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...matter-disturbing-image-warning#post_16429142
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1071718/nasty-eye-infection-pics
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1086681/is-this-the-flu-or-a-serious-disease

 

[jbznem]

She never had any other symptoms. We brought her inside in a cage when we first noticed the bubbles and kept an eye on her. No coughing, sneezing, rattling or discharge anywhere else but the eye. I had done some research and gave her some Oral antibiotics but in hindsight I don't think it was Strong enough. I have been applying Terramycin the last few days. I fear I learned about that particular medicine too late. I wonder if I would have found that from day one, maybe she wouldn't have gotten so bad.
She doesn't seem to be in any pain. She gets irritated when I try to clean her eye though and That's understandable.
Thanks for the input. I think I'll try the warm compress and saline tomorrow morning! Or perhaps evening when she's tired and not so fiesty. Ha! The eye itself looks good and clear. Not cloudy or anything. The hardened infection seems to be stuck to the membranes in her eye socket. We have to pull down or pull out ward underneath her eye to see the white substance.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She never had any other symptoms. We brought her inside in a cage when we first noticed the bubbles and kept an eye on her. No coughing, sneezing, rattling or discharge anywhere else but the eye. I had done some research and gave her some Oral antibiotics but in hindsight I don't think it was Strong enough. I have been applying Terramycin the last few days. I fear I learned about that particular medicine too late. I wonder if I would have found that from day one, maybe she wouldn't have gotten so bad.

She doesn't seem to be in any pain. She gets irritated when I try to clean her eye though and That's understandable.
Thanks for the input. I think I'll try the warm compress and saline tomorrow morning! Or perhaps evening when she's tired and not so fiesty. Ha! The eye itself looks good and clear. Not cloudy or anything. The hardened infection seems to be stuck to the membranes in her eye socket. We have to pull down or pull out ward underneath her eye to see the white substance.

Terramycin is very good, but won't help much unless you can get the pus out.

Try wrapping her in a towel, this will make it easier to hold her.

 

[yellowherb]

My cousin visited and told me about a chicken she has who had this. Then 3 days later one of mine got it. Her chicken eventually healed and is fine now. She just removed the mass every day and flushed with warm salty water (she's a RN and this was her recommendation). I tried this with my own chicken who got it and for over a week this kept happening and getting worse. I tried oral antibiotics and terramycin eye ointment but had no improvement at all.

I suspect this is a sinus infection which found a gap or made one from the sinus to the eye area. I felt my chicken was suffering and had my husband put her down after 2 weeks of no improvement. This crud went very deep into her eye and I never could find the base/beginning of it. Every day I was pulling bigger lump out and she eventually lost her eye.

I hope your chicken does better with treatment like my cousins did!

 

[Madison-Jamil]

I'm so happy to hear you can see her eye now and it looks clear! Keep working on that pus and the warm compress will help for sure. Do buy the Vetericyn for eyes. Also maybe flushing with sterile saline would help? You can get that in the eye care section of the store near the contact supplies. Just make sure it is only saline. Then do the Antibiotic. After a course of the antibiotic switching to Vetericyn would be good.

 

[jbznem]

I was able to remove a large portion of the infection mass today. I waiting until evening when she was tired. I did the warm compress first followed by saline and then removed some mass with a sterile moistened qtip. If I had not lost my precision tweezers I think I could have gotten more out.
I plan to continue to work on it a little bit every evening. I pray this works!!
I really really appreciate everyone's replies and input!