How do I get her eye open?

[illinichick]

I have a one year old hen that is fighting fowl pox, Her right eye is swollen shut. I got the One Drop One Time medicine, but I can't get her eye open to get the drops in. I tried a warm wet washcloth, but she only tolerated me wiping at it a few times and it's still stuck shut. An other options?

 

[illinichick]

Please anyone have any ideas?

 

[mrs.67]

well it may sound strange but I had a bantam hen with a eye infection, and I read that coffee drops in the eye helps.

Now I am not sure it really did because I got the Terramycin for the infection but....she did like it when I soaked a q-tip in warm coffee and just rubbed under her eye (like a little massage)
maybe you can just soak a q-tip in something warm and rub it back and forth enough to get it open.

Good Luck

 

[gypsy2621]

Be very gentle with the qtips near her eye. you can actually do more harm than good.
a warmed tea bag on her eye will help loosen the sticky stuff so you can get the drops inside.

I take a cup of hot water and a tea bag( no herbals though only black teas) , let it steep untill cool to touch then with a 2x2 inch bandage hold the chicken close and rest the soaked pad against the eye for a few minutes, then wipe slowly and carefully from the inside corner of the eye to the outside never from the outside in as it will create infection in the clean eye.

Dispose of the cloth and use a new one repeat untill you can gently open the eye.

Between the warm tea and the Tannin thats in the tea leaf it sooths and opens the eye.
Warm tea packs can help sooth irritated eyes in every wam and cold blooded animal. the Tannin acts like a mild analagisic slightly numbing the area.

hope this helps.

 

[onthespot]

I had a hen get a pox right on her eye, the pox eventually sealed her eye shut, and got dried out and bigger like a wart. She didn't want me to touch it, and I just let it be. I did not treat it, and it got about as big as a lentil, sticking out flat wise from her head like a flying saucer, and she didn't appear to be in any pain as long as I left it alone. In about a week it dried up and fell off and her eye was perfectly fine under it, just lost a little bit of pigment under the actual scab area, which filled back in in a few days. I would just leave it alone if I were you. Try any home remedies in your own eye before you put them in your chicken's eye just so you know what you are doing to her. If it ain't good enough to put in your own eye, it ain't good enough to do to your chicken.

 

[illinichick]

Thanks for all your help. Onthespot, Your situation sounds just like mine. Her eye is as swollen as a pea and she really fights when I try to rub it with a warm wet cloth. She's eating and pooping fine but she's gone broody and we have to remove her from the nest box twice a day. She does eat and drink when we take her out but she's awfully grouchy to the others.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'm not familiar with that product. Would a tube of medicated eye ointment work for her? You could maybe try putting that on her eye. It might help soften the crusty stuff, so her eye could eventually open. Then you could try cleaning her eye up a little more. Normally you'd put it in the eye, but she can still absorb the antibiotic through her skin.

If she's willing to let you hold some type of warm, wet compress against her eye, while the crusty stuff absorbs moisture and softens, that would be great. If that's just not going to happen, then I'd try eye ointment, as a back-up plan.

Poor girl. That sounds terribly uncomfortable for her.