Lavender Cochin with Swollen Eye - Won't open looks like a Yellow Stye

[heathyre]

This is my little Lavender Cochin, Luna.

A while ago all the girls in one of my coops had one closed eye but it seemed to clear up with a little medication in their water.

Then the other day I noticed that Luna had not come out of the coop for their morning bread treat, I went looking for her and noticed lots of crust over one eye and the other is closed. So I bring her inside and try to clean her eyes a bit I notice that the crust isn't on her eye, it is her lid. I managed to flush the eye that was not so bad and its looking pretty good now, and I was able to flush the bad eye and put a little neosporin over the lid but for the last two days I can't open her eye to flush it.

She's been a real trooper, I've been running luke warm water over her lid while trying to see if I can gently open the lid but its like its glued shut. I am at a loss of what to do. Any suggestions?

Here are some photos of her bad eye.

Help?

 

[CMV]

The photos are not working.

 

[heathyre]

Is the twitpic.com links working? I wasn't sure if that would work or not.

Here is what I hope is a better link to view the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/heatherperara/LavenderCochinEyeProblem?feat=directlink

 

[CMV]

Oh, dear. That doesn't look good. Did she lose the eye in an accident? It's so consolidated that it almost looks more like an injury than a disease (Good news for the rest of the flock. Bad news for her.). I'd like to hear what others have to say about it, but it looks to me like she has lost the eye.

 

[heathyre]

I don't think there was any accident...thats the weird thing. One day she had watery eyes and the next day they were crusty. Up until two days ago I could open her lid to flush it with saline solution but now the lid is just sealed shut.

The eye is under there somewhere.

She's been living in a giant laundry basket while I try to treat her. I bring her outside for a few hours a day to free range in the lawn away from the other chickens and then she comes back in with me so I can keep an eye on her.

 

[CMV]

I'd try a course of teramycin opthalmic ointment. It will deal with any run of the mill bacterial infections.

Looks nasty. I wonder if she'll have any vision in that eye after this. Good luck.

 

[heathyre]

I haven't been able to find any salves locally. I've been using for now neosporine (the non-pain relief one from what I've read on the board for similar eye issues) and I've been using the powder in the water.

The little yellow ball is under the skin like a pimple and hard.

I almost wonder if her sight was bad in that eye anyway as for as long as I've had her, she has had horrible dept perception/aim. When I bring out the bread all of the other hens (who aren't greedy) will come and peck at what I offer them. This one comes running but when she goes to take the bread she usually misses and grabs hold of my hand. *lol* But that was when both eyes were clear and normal looking.

Also, the picture makes it look like the eye is open and the yellow ball inside, the lid is closed and the yellow ball is on the lower lid near the lashline.

 

[CMV]

If the thing is on the lid and not on the eye itself, I would use a tiny gauge hypodermic needle to aspirate the contents of the ball. I suspect the innards of that ball are going to be solid, so you may not actually be able to pull anything out, but it's worth a try. If you can't pull it out then I would switch over to using a tiny razor/scalpel to slice a small incision and remove the ball in one mass. Get someone to help you with this because she is going to need to be absolutely still. Wrap her up in a towel to keep her contained. Once you pull the contents of the abscess out then use the Neosporin to keep infection out. It sounds scary, I know, but the abscess needs to be removed. She is already having some signs of a worsening condition, so something needs to be done. Just take your time and keep your hands steady.

Good luck.

 

[Jennyhaschicks]

This looks sorta what one of mine had going on when I found out there was a small piece of corn stuck under the second eye lid. I put a hot wash cloth on the eye and then took my finger and messes with the eye lids and the corn came out. Good luck.

 

[heathyre]

slice a small incision and remove the ball in one mass

Ahhh! Oh how I wish someone was local to me who could help....*cringe*

This looks sorta what one of mine had going on when I found out there was a small piece of corn stuck under the second eye lid

Thats what I thought at first but during the first few days when I had the lid open to flush I tried playing with it and gently squeezing it etc and no such luck.