not emergency but still with prior ; broody blind !

[strangeanimal]

Hi all ,

Few days from now one of the two broody hens got injured quite bad and went somewhat broody ' off ' but still no one is allowed to touch her eggs
Well today my Sussex her eyes were totally swollen and better yet she sat on the marans ' nest , now I am guessing they had a huge fight about that because there were lots of screams this afternoon and when I went for a check up both of them had their eyes closed and swollen BUT the Marans can still see with one eye , the sussex is totally blind and the worst part ?
I called the vet on this , he told me to wait after a treatment due the fact it is possible she is MISSING an eye ! Also did he say it is not from a fight they had , it would be some infection ??? PLUS on top of that ofcourse some heavy pecking on eachothers eyes too !
so I honestly do not know what to do besides the treatment for all hens now and desinfecting the two broody's eyes.

now the question here , the sussex was on the wrong nest and can't be independent in eating , drinking etc , can't even find her nest ...
What do I have to do ?? the egs are too young to leave and too long hatched as well , let's keep it up " it is obvious there is life in it and in Belgian law it is forbidden to ' break ' a broody if development of the eggs is already that far due the fact there is already possibility too feel pain " .
So , do I have to move the eggs along with the hen ??? Do I have to move the marans ?? Do I just have to take away the marans nest ? she is broody off but still ...
I gave my broddy sussex girl water with the syringe and same went for food because she really does not see a **** thing at all , she stumbles and she can smell where she is usually sitting on her eggs but she sat next to it first and later on she did not even notice on of her eggs rolled out the nest so if there is anyone to give some advice on this , I have never had this before ( not even broody hens ! never in front of me anyway ) I would really like to be able to take care of her without to have to " break " her in her hatching , she has untill so far always done great from the start and is really in love with those eggs .

P.S. : It is POSSIBLE she is missing an eye BUT due the fact there is too much swelling we (the vet and I ) decided to take a closer look at it later because this has to be done in an area without her nest first of all and secondly it is really going to hurt her for a check up . The swelling should be gone in a few days ( about 4-6 days ) but what was clear was that her eye on one side indeed looked gone (totally flat yet swollen around it ) She is in pain but she is managing that part in fact very good , it is just that she is not able to do things on her own , like for example I hade to build a ramp for her so she could enter the coop better , she can't get in anymore and it is a real sad look )

Kind regards out of Belgium ( where this one is clearly having lots of issues with broody hens , feeling ashamed ! )

 

[Lelilamom]

Move a few of the Sussex's eggs to the Maran's nest. Take the rest and the Sussex to an isolated place where she can heal and stay close to her nest. Put a tiny bit of Bacitracin around the eyes but not in them. Keep her environment as normal as possible but keep her away from the other birds.

Let us know if she heals.

 

[strangeanimal]

Move a few of the Sussex's eggs to the Maran's nest. Take the rest and the Sussex to an isolated place where she can heal and stay close to her nest. Put a tiny bit of Bacitracin around the eyes but not in them. Keep her environment as normal as possible but keep her away from the other birds.

Let us know if she heals.

Hi ,

Thanks for the advice , why I didn't think of that in fact but I'm really totally new in chickens sitting on eggs , even tough I'm having them for long time I always had my brothers doing all and if we noticed so called strange behavior / finding eggs , clutches we always removed that so this idea would have never gotten into my mind .
The marans has always stayed close to the nest but not with other birds because the sussex and marans are seperated by a plate and wire , they can only see eachother when they would both enter in their own enterence ( the broodys both have their own ' suite ' I builded because that can be taken inside more easily in case of emergency , weather changes and especially if the chicks are born , last was the main reason in fact ) , but since the marans actually didn't look at her eggs for some time ( not turning them anymore and finally taken out into the house for the care she needed(still needs daily) I decided to just leave the eggs and let her decide further but she s not really active anymore on the nest , she more like ' hangs around ' , only when you touch the eggs she gets angry or upset so maybe it is for the best she no longer can see the eggs too and so the sussex can just sit in all peace and quit where she likes including the eggs of the marans , I assume she is anyway going to kick out the eggs she considers not to be good enough right ??
And about the marans , is she going to act strange not being able to have all of her eggs and nest ? she is more broody 'of' but still ... there are some ' hormones active tough :s...

Her eyes will certainly heal soon but I am only hoping it is not the case she could be missing an eye ! she is getting a cream for her eyes now and h20 sterile water , the cream is also containing some antibiotics , it is actually the most old antibiotic a chicken ever got , very well known , it does not sting and desinfects , it is just such a sad sight to watch her bump into everything .
Also gave her nutrition due croptubing but I only hope she gets the right amount and doesn't start to feel worse ... Might be bad for the chicks inside the eggs too . Keeping fingers crossed here !

 

[Lelilamom]

I wouldn't worry about the eye, I had a Wyandotte that I thought was blinded by a hawk and the eye appeared to be completely removed but it was only pushed way in. After two weeks of care and isolation the eye returned to normal and her sight was completely restored.

 

[strangeanimal]

I wouldn't worry about the eye, I had a Wyandotte that I thought was blinded by a hawk and the eye appeared to be completely removed but it was only pushed way in. After two weeks of care and isolation the eye returned to normal and her sight was completely restored.

Hi happy to read it turned out just fine with your wyandotte ! Well , I do have to admit these birds are just so amazing in healing ! Fascinating isn't it ? I just love to see them regain all their health like nothing ever happened and after they do ? I wish I were a chicken , not only for their amazingly strong healing but also for the time of care to get spoiled haha .

I also do have a small update here ;

Left eye is swollen still but she is blinking every now and then , trying to see we did a test with a dark room and a lightsource , responsive to the light so that was a relief yet she does not follow it so we started trying it both sides and left is responsive so she will be able to see again but now the bad news ;

right eye : not responsive at all plus her ear looked strange so we did some checking now and this is really bad , the eye is replaced and needs surgery , she is having a slight chance to see again that side but it is not certain due the fact the eye is not intact , eye went up and moved to direction of ear , appears to be ' smashed in ' , so she most have had her eye wide open while they had a fight .
Usually her eye would have been closed in that fight with the marans but since there is some infection amongst all of them she probably already was blind during the attack and so we can only picture the marans pecked the eye with the biggest infection on , so there could not be a reflex to close it .
Now having an extra fulltime job because I swear this one is losing her weight horrobly !
At six she ate banana mixed with critical care formula , calcium , vitamins and minerals and some grain I first left in water to more easily mix ( she refuses all food so it is forcing her , yet I'm doing it with the hand and not the syringe (yet ) ... Hopefully at 11 am she is finally going to be more likely to eat and she gets some crumbled apple with critical care (contains lots of elektrolytes too ) and some tuna few hours later , also giving her catfood now due her weightloss . She eats only veryyyy small amounts and spits it out or just leaves it risking herself to choke so if today she is going to act like that again I stop the feeding her multiple times a day by hand and switch over to the croptubing , I so hate croptubing because she can't taste it .
P.S. every meal contains some extra ' spoiling ' , today she is going to be eating TONS of sunflower ) , but surgery will have to wait too since she is too weak ofcourse ...
Still on her medicin as well ..

Kind Regards out of Belgium ( had to say hi from my kid over here , so HI )) )

 

[Lelilamom]

Hello to Belgium from U.S. Tell your child we are in a very small town in Upstate NY. The damaged eye still may recover without surgery. My Wyandotte's eye was pushed all the way back and looked like it wasn't even in the socket for a week before it reappeared. Don't lose hope. Keep her with nest, put bacitracin around eye and ear and you might even put some antibiotics in her water. Keep her eating.

Keep us posted!