Help with eye injury.

[Kathers60]

We removed one of our hens from the flock a few months ago of what appeared to be an eye injury. My husband flushed out the hens eye with saline solution several times a day before putting Neospoern into the eye using a q-tip. The treatment started off as twice a day and then became once a day when the hen's infection was healing. After about a week the infection was gone but we thought the eyeball was gone and she was blind. She was able to open her eye but it was white. After about a month an eyeball began appearing but looked grayish. But as time went on the eyeball was looking better as it appeared she can see a little bit from it. Now the eyeball looks normal and she uses the eye more often. It took a while for the infection to clear up, but it appears it's completely healed after a few months of wondering what happened to her eye. Now she roams around the house and does what she wants. We use to call her One-Eye, but need to change her name to Miss Bossy. Lol. She's always running up to us and pecking at us, even at the dogs. She feels very comfortable now, so there is hope for the eye. I don't know if your hen's eye problem is the same as ours, but it appeared our hen got her eye pecked from another hen or she ran into something. We had hoped we can fix her eye, and after a few months of healing her eye has gotten better.

Kathy

 

[Blackberry Hill]

It may be swollen shut. Do not force it open as that would be worse. You need STERILE saline solution that you can gently squirt directly into the eye. Make absolutely sure your hands are clean.

Gently open the eyelid to LOOK at it. The eyelid should slide open on the eyeball. Practice on your own eye. NEVER use your fingernail. You will use the saline to rinse out the eye. The whole problem could just be dust or a small bit in the eye that you can flush out NOW and it will heal fine. If it is crusted shut, you can soak it loose with the saline on a sterile gauze pad held against the eye. You may need to wipe gently to get it open. Any questions so far?

Goal: you need to look at the eye to evaluate it.

 

[Please]

It may be swollen shut. Do not force it open as that would be worse. You need STERILE saline solution that you can gently squirt directly into the eye. Make absolutely sure your hands are clean.

Gently open the eyelid to LOOK at it. The eyelid should slide open on the eyeball. Practice on your own eye. NEVER use your fingernail. You will use the saline to rinse out the eye. The whole problem could just be dust or a small bit in the eye that you can flush out NOW and it will heal fine. If it is crusted shut, you can soak it loose with the saline on a sterile gauze pad held against the eye. You may need to wipe gently to get it open. Any questions so far?

Goal: you need to look at the eye to evaluate it.

I will try all of this tomorrow since right now it's late. <3

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Hi, Kathy --- The procedure you followed was fine but it states right on the package not to use Neosporin in the eye. Not being sterile nor meant to treat eye infections, it could cause more problems than not. I've always used ophthalmic ointments only on the eyes.

I am glad all turned out well for your hen.

 

[Blackberry Hill]

Just have a good look and flush it out with the saline. Let us know tomorrow. OK?

 

[Please]

Just have a good look and flush it out with the saline. Let us know tomorrow. OK?

I certainly will c:

 

[Blackberry Hill]

You can do it!!!

 

[mithious]

As long as it is medical quality and not just a health food store colloidal silver. The stuff found in most health food store can be dangerous to both humans and our animals. It's not the same stuff you get from a doctor or pharmacy. Just an FYI here. I have the medical quality stuff and it is awesome, but I would never think of using anything else other than that.

X2

O have a daughter that is going through med school ( late in life ) and I had asked her about this new silver fad, for myself. She told me that silver builds up in the system and cause heavy metal poisoning...I would be VERY careful about some of these types of things. For one, the herbal medicines are not regulated by the FDA, so they are not accountable to anyone. Also, the dose may not be consistant with each pill or whatever form it is in. I personally DO use some medicinal herbs, but ONLY what I KNOW are safe. I use white willow bark, which is the basic ingredient in asprin, for pain relief. I also used cherry bark and red clover for coughs with my kids when they were growing up...but those are tried and true and don't build up in your system as silver does and I knew how to make them( from my great grandmother) and you would have to take copious amounts to hurt yourself!

All things in moderation, is my motto. That goes for treating my animals, as well as myself! Just be very careful, research what you are doing, not just on one BYC thread, but within the whole community..there are many threads that have a tremendous amount of info, especially from the older folks that have been doing this for 30, 40, 50 years, OR have faced many forms of illnesses and have successfully treated for them!!!

I too would gently TRY to clean the eye out, but would NOT use any med for something that it is not indicated for. I also would give it a day or two, after gently attempting to clean it, before treating it, unless you absolutely know for sure, what you are dealing with...I always go with my first instinct

too!

Hope she gets better soon, best of luck!

 

[Elzy]

Since I haven't had any experience with this I can just give you lots of good luck and hope your chicken gets better as soon as possible

 

[ernie85017]

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.