Hugely Swollen Eye

[Uncluckable]

This looks like it needs antibiotics to me. I'm no expert, but I'd use Penicillin I think for it. It looks infected and not just wounded... especially since the swelling seems worse. I think I would use antibiotics.

Yeah, I'd say it's definitely gotten infected. Thanks for the suggestion. I had some general antibiotics in the water supply for a period, but presumably that's a bad idea for just one chicken. Probably we should quarantine it? Would it be better to use injectable antibiotics?

And does anyone have an opinion on whether we should continue squeezing the cheesy stuff out of her eye, even though it's not runny any more?

 

[Fox]

If this is just a wound that is infected, I don't think you would have to quarantine. As long as the others leave her alone and you can tell she is eating and drinking well. If not, then separating her to allow her first choice to food and water would be the key. If this were infectious, as in a symptom from respiratory problems, it should have already spread through your flock. It can happen over the course of just a few days. That's why people normally pull a chicken out of the flock that looks off, just in case. But since yours has been there for over a week and no others have symptoms, that makes me think this is an infected wound. Here is a link on Penicillin doses. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/585188/chicken-penicillin-dosage Don't miss a shot because I think she is going to really need the constant antibiotic treatment to get over this. a full 7 days. Supplement her diet with some plain yogurt to help get the friendly bacteria back into her. Hope this helps.

 

[Uncluckable]

I very much appreciate the insights and detailed information! We will most likely try the penicillin route you suggest. Fortunately she is eating and drinking fine, and doesn't seem to be getting picked on unduly, and we haven't seen any particular symptoms in the other chickens over the at least 2 week period since she started showing symptoms, so we won't quarantine her then unless one of those things changes.

We'll also definitely add some yogurt into her diet.

Many thanks!

 

[ramirezframing]

keep cleaning the eye out, so that the puss/ cheesy stuff doesn't get to her brain. Good luck and keep us updated



ETA if it scabs over just use a warm wet wash cloth to soak the scab off than clean the eye, might have to do this several times a day

 

[G-Dekeyser]

this has happened to a few pheasants of our, give tylan 200 injectable solution and doxycyline in the water for a week plus, if it dosent clear up after that it isnt going to.

 

[G-Dekeyser]

I very much appreciate the insights and detailed information! We will most likely try the penicillin route you suggest. Fortunately she is eating and drinking fine, and doesn't seem to be getting picked on unduly, and we haven't seen any particular symptoms in the other chickens over the at least 2 week period since she started showing symptoms, so we won't quarantine her then unless one of those things changes.

We'll also definitely add some yogurt into her diet.

Many thanks!

definitly quarantine, very very contagious

 

[Uncluckable]

Oh ok -- we went ahead and quarantined her. Makes it easier to give only her antibiotics in the water, anyway, and ensure she can rest and eat and drink in peace.

We did as suggested and softened up the scabby eye surface with a warm wash cloth, then managed to squeeze out a huge lump of cheese the size of her head, this time! She looked so much better after that, and seemed to have a much easier time holding her head up and moving around (as you might suppose).

We'll continue the treatment, as suggested, and hope that she'll recover! Thanks so much for all the advice and info and examples and support!

 

[cllewis.1]

How are things turning out for your swollen eye chicken? We've had one of our hens (Barred Rock) looking exactly the same as the photos you posted here...so based on the instructions seen here, last evening, I put on a pair of exam gloves and held the poor girl down and cleared all that white cheesy pus out of her eye socket. She tolerated it well and looks a lot better now. There wasn't quite as much in there as what you described, but it was still large (marble sized, really.) Ours are molting and they get kind of testy when molting so I think maybe she just crossed one of the hens higher up in the pecking order...and got pecked in the eye for it. The eye is missing, nowhere to be found (I wasn't sure if it was in there or not.) This morning, it appears to have scabbed over but looks a lot better. The pus didn't stink or anything, and there was no blood. I'm hopeful she will heal.

Did you go with penicillin or something else? Topical eye ointment or something in the water?-

 

[kuntrygirl]

How is your chicken?

 

[Uncluckable]

Sorry to hear about your hen!
Ours generated ridiculous amounts of the cheesy pus stuff, and it did tend to smell bad when we squeezed it out. We never were completely sure if we could see her actual eye or not -- it was so messed up that we knew she'd never see again, we just wanted her to recover and be a happy half-blind chicken. It seemed like she was getting gradually better, and feeling spunkier and such, but then one morning last week when we were starting to get pretty confident, she suddenly took a major turn for the worse (got terribly weak/lethargic), and was dead by that evening ):

We'd been washing the eye, squeezing out cheese, dabbing it with hydrogen peroxide, and then smearing a little antibiotic ointment on it. We had her in a separate area with her own water that had some soluble antibiotics in it. I can't remember what kind it was -- it's a yellow powder the guy at the feed store sold me. Might be tetrachloride?

Of course, I guess you may not be that interested in our technique now that you know that she died /:
I do suspect that we might have succeeded had we started treating her sooner.

I hope yours fares better! Let us know!

James