Hen with Swollen eye lid

[dazandali1]

Hi,
1 of our 6 month old hens has a swelling on her outer eye, it has come up over the last 4-6 weeks, she is eating as normal & she has no other symptoms, we don't know if its a growth - with no sign of other infection we wondered if anyone has any ideas.
At this stage we are reluctant to visit the vet due to the costs, particularly as she seems in very good health apart from this lump
Very many thanks

 

[PeepersMama]

It looks like it might be an abcess, but I think it looks more like a tumor

Is it actually her eyelid or is it right above her eye?

If it feels like it has alot of fluid inside it (abcess), take a sharp box knife and cut it open so it can drain. After that you should probably bandage her eye shut, so that it can heal and not get infected.

If you don't think it's an abcess, then I would take her to a vet if you have one avaliable. If you really don't want to spend alot of money on her, then you could just put her down yourselves as soon as you notice signs of it hurting her or making her (noticeablly) sick. Chickens are incredibly tough, so she might not be showing signs that she is in pain right now, but I'll bet that hurts her. If she starts acting sluggish, I would send her to heaven asap.

Keep a close eye on the rest of your girls and (if she is still running loose) keep an eye on her to make sure that she isn't getting picked on. If the other girls start pecking her, it could lead to an eye injury, and if her eye get's infected it has a straight path to her brain, so be extremely careful to not let that get infected.

Hope this helps and that it isn't anything serious!

 

[dazandali1]

Thank you, we suspect some sort of tumour as it is hard to the touch, it seems to be on the eyebrow as she can still blink - so not the eyelid, we will see how she goes for now as she doesn't appear to be in any discomfort.
We will keep a look out for anything similar with the rest of the girls.

thanks again

 

[PeepersMama]

Keep a close eye on her and if he starts acting strange, put her down. Something that close to the eye has a shortcut to the brain.
I hope she stays happy and mostly healthy!

 

[fairie]

Hi, I know this post is from a few years back. But can you tell me what happened with your hen?
My hen has not been laying for the last week so I thought I would give her some calcium and a snuggle. Then I saw her eye. It looks just like yours did. It is definitely the eyelid. Her skin is black so it looks shiny and tight. She has no other symptoms and seems to be "healthy".