Help with eye injury.

[Haunted55]

This is wild. I just hopped onto BYC to see if I could find anything for my girl's eye. And I found this thread!
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I don't want to hijack the thread but one of my hens started holding her eye closed and the skin was a bit red and swollen. I don't know for certain how long she was doing that before I found it. Probably not more than a day, probably less. I restrained her and flushed with sterile saline and looked inside. Boy, they hate that! I am afraid I will hurt her if I hold tight to her head while she is struggling.

Anyway, there is a white area on the eyeball and it has gotten bigger. As soon as I found the injury I started treating with veterinary antibiotic eye ointment I already had. The lid has improved, but the eye not so much. I am so worried it will be badly infected and spread somehow and kill her.

I had a feisty bantam rooster who got injured by the "babysitter" when I was away. I found him on the roost, very quiet. His eye turned white and he lost vision in it, but he did OK.

I worry Lily isn't getting to the food like she should. I went to pick her up, and she didn't know I was there and I scared the liver out of the poor girl. I'd prefer not to isolate her, as her best friend is in the coop. Since the above poster had a good result in the long run, I will continue to treat, watch and wait. Will check in in the a.m. to see how the OP hen is doing.

If you think it is needed, an internal antibiotic can be given. I'd go for a tetracycline, Duramycin-10 and do a 7-10 day course of it. 1/2 tbls. per gallon of water every 24 hrs.. Unfortunately, eggs should be discarded during treatment and for 21 days after final dosing.

 

[ernie85017]

Please, how is your roo?

This morning Lily's eyeball appeared to be ruptured. A glob of cloudy gel came out when I opened it. Not pus, but cloudy gel, like vitreous humor. I can't be sure about the eyeball, I still see the white patch.

She's now in Chicken ICU. She had a shot of penicillin and Tylan, along with the eye ointment. She is acting poorly, stands with eyes closed and head down. She gladly ate some yogurt with chicken feed in it, and a small scrambled egg with Poultry Drench and a bit of aspirin mixed in.

I feel so guilty. I didn't do this to her, but not knowing for certain what is going on in there bothers me a lot. I could take her to the avian vet and spend several hundred dollars, but I learned long ago that spending money that way is not for me.

So Chicken ICU in the kitchen it is.

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Hi, Ernie --- I will try to help you w Lily. Give me a minute; I type slow.

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Ernie - So far you are doing well. Keep Lily eating & drinking. She is acting poorly because she is in pain. There are two different ballgames here --- one w ruptured eye & one without. You really need to have a good look. I have to get back to work but I will check in w you late this evening.

If it helps, recently I removed an eye surgically, treated the infection and had a excellent outcome. There have been many happy one-eyed animals. Blind, too but.... fortunately you are dealing w only one eye. The prognosis is good. The key is antibiotics.

Got to run.

 

[ernie85017]

Blackberry:
You removed an eye yourself????!!!!

I have a feeling that is what will be happening. She perked up in her hospital cage today. Ate 2 eggs, 2 small dishes of feed with yogurt, some watermelon. Added vitamins to the eggs. No problem with her appetite. I have to wonder if she was head-down trying to protect herself from the others when she was in the pen. Now she knows she's safe and has less pain since cleaning out the eye, medicating it, and giving her some aspirin.

How often can aspirin be given?

She's pooping, and there was a bit of bloody-looking in one of them. None since. I never knew about shedding intestines before reading it on this group. YOU ALL SHOULD BE PROUD OF THE GREAT MENTORING YOU DO! I learned a lot.

I feel relatively certain the eye ruptured. I cannot imagine what the cloudy gel was if it was not vitreous humor. I can see part of the eyeball, almost as if it were the shell of the eyebsll, like the peel of a grape. I tried to touch the white with a wet qtip to see if it needed to be wiped away, but it didn't move. Trying to do anything with her head makes her fight, so the looks are rather brief.

Tell me more about your eye removal situation. And I guess I need to learn about it to be prepared. Lord help me, I have done some brave things with them, but nothing like that.

I am wondering if the ruptured eye can wall itself off and just stay there. Ernie, the roo who got kicked by the baby sitter, was down forr a day or two before I got home and IIRC the eye was white already. Not the same white as Lily's, hers looks more like the infection my dog's eye got from a corneal scratch that I didn't know was there until too late. But ernie's never ruptured... that I iknow of. Ignorance was bliss then, I guess. He turned out ok, if blind in one eye is OK. Pretty amazing to think that he healed himself. Chickens are tough, TOUGH, creatures.

I've got to get to bed. Lily has had her midnight snack and has settled in in her covered cage. Such a good little patient.

I will look for your reply tomorrow. I'm so glad there is someone who can help.

 

[Blackberry Hill]

I am here, Ernie. Since you don't need a reply til morning, I will just have a bite of dinner first and then get back to you.

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Morning, Ernie --- First things first: you asked about the aspirin. I had to think about that. A "baby aspirin" 88 mg every 8 hours would work well or if you need you can cut an adult aspirin 325 mg in half every 12 hours. I think the baby aspirin would be best. You can crush it between two spoons and put in on a tasty treat.

Tell me exactly what kind of penicillin you have --- injectable or oral etc?

Lily is your baby so whatever you decide to do is up to you. I advise a conservative approach. This could very well heal up on it's own with some tender loving care & antibiotics.

I will tell you about the surgery later as I am very late to bed. Ernie, I do not want you to get the wrong idea so I should tell you that I trained as a Vet and do research at a drug company. You will notice that I do not have chickies now but growing up on a farm, one of my jobs was taking care of the flock. My Granpa did our vet work. He taught me alot including to know WHEN to call in the Vet and when to put down an animal.

Since we moved here 7 years ago, I have been doing vet work for a neighbor in exchange for hay. I swear that man has 500 birds! Quite a few chickens, mainly Bantams. So I am no stranger to chickens. What breed is Lily?

Keep giving the excellent care that you have and we will keep an eye on Lily's eye for about 48 hours. Keep up with the antibiotic ointment & the penicillin. Both very important. Take note of any discharge, increase in swelling etc. The yogurt will help maintain her intestinal flora or you can buy Benebac.

And Ernie, if it comes to it, you probably could remove the eye if you had to but not without anesthesia. I don't know what you have available to you. Are you in the US or UK or where? You should check up on what is available to you and let me know.

I will check in a few times tomorrow throughout the day.

 

[ernie85017]

Helloooo Blacberry,

I am in Arizona. Lily is an amaeraucana/leghorn cross.

The Pencillin is DuraPen, Procaine and benzathine. It says it keeps the blood level up for 48 hours. I wasn't going to give her any today due to the long acting, but again tomorrow. IM, breast muscle. The tylan I can do again today. I wanted the extra coverage, even tho tylan is supposed to be a resp. antibiotic.

At the last exam, the eye was not draining, no pus. The white "membrane" is still there, looks like it has a fold to it at one side, like it folded back on itself. I am thinking this is the front of the eye where it ruptured. The reason I am familiar with the rupture and infection look is my little Zoey dog got a corneal abrasion and a bad pocket of infection in the eye. The vet said the big risk was that the eye would rupture. Lily's looked similar, but the white was more to the side, not the center. Now that I see that the white is still there after the rupture, it doesn't seem that it was a pocket of infection, but the surface? I know chickens handle infection differently, probably to Lily's benefit right now.

I am wondering what the eye will do if it is indeed ruptured. Will her body wall off the infection and let the eye die?

I don't have any idea what to use for anesthesia should it come to that. WHen I was in surgery for my birds with the expen$ive avian vet, I think he used inhalation. IIRC their heads were in a baglike thing with O2 and whatever gas going to it. They came out of it really fast.

I'm going to do a good exam right now and see if I can get her restrained enough to really see in the eye. I tried with a wet qtip last night to swab out the white, thinking it might have been drainage, but it wouldn't budge. But I didn't rub, just took a gentle swipe at it.

BTW, I am a NICU nurse, but that sure doesn't make me a chicken nurse!

Roz

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Hi, Roz! Just checking in. This is going very well. I think Lily is one VERY lucky chicken to have you! I am very hopeful that this will heal up as long as you can keep infection at bay.

I will be back this evening to follow up. Have a GOOD day!

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Sorry --- forgot to say that I will answer your questions about the eye tonight.