hen with swollen infected eye - possible causes?

[BillMinor68]

Ingrid is a nine month old Isbar hen, petite, healthy, active, good eater. This evening when I was putting the chooks to bed, I noticed her eye was swollen. This must have developed fast (like over the last few days); I see them two or three times a day and this was the first time I noticed anything out of the ordinary. Other than the immensely swollen side of her head, nothing is different - she was laying regularly this week, her comb's fine, breathing is fine, no wheezing or discharge from her mouth/nose/other eye and she'd been eating and socializing with the other girls.

The pics below show what I worked out of her eye (what is this??). It's hard/crumbly and stinks of infection. That's a nickel in the picture for comparison. The swelling was forward and below her eye with just a bit of the stuff poking out. I couldn't see her eye at all. I gave her a bath in some Dr. Bronner's (to loosen up the stuff in her eye and clean her feathers, just in case). I put some neosporin in her eye and quarantined her in a dog crate in the living room. She's resting peacefully with her affected eye closed.

Questions:
Is this a localized infection or something contagious?
What does she need that I haven't already done?
Is this a potentially fatal thing?
Is this something I can handle at home or does she need a trip to the vet?
If she needs antibiotics, what works best for what she's got?
What am I not thinking of?





thanks in advance for your input.

Bill

 

[BillMinor68]

Update: I'm amazed at Ingrid's improvement. Her eye looks much better. Swelling is gone and the skin around her eye has gone back to almost normal; it's still a little lighter pink than her normal skin color, but much better than last night.

Of course, as soon as she got out to the food this morning, one of the bigger hens gave her a peck on the beak to move her over. My guess is something similar happened - a peck in the eye - and got infected. I'll keep a close eye on her and update if she doesn't get better.