Old hen has right eye swollen shut

[melissamar97]

This barred rock is 5.5 years old and suddenly has one eye swollen shut. She has been broody and otherwise behaves normally. I don't see any discharge or evidence of eye worms. We get about 5 new hens every year and she is in the oldest age cohort. An Iowa blue of the same age is broody now too and she is not normally aggressive; I do find them in the same nest box sometimes. Could this be eye pecking (Iowa blue or younger hens)? Something infectious? Thanks for any advice!

 

[Birdsong 82]

Is it possible it was caused from another chicken? If she is Brody baby there was an argument over someone coming near her eggs. Just a thought. Poor thing it does not look comfortable

 

[Birdsong 82]

That’s the only thing I could come up with. Maybe one of the other hands and like you said in the first post. Especially if you’re not seeing any discharge or evidence of worms

 

[Carolrich]

This barred rock is 5.5 years old and suddenly has one eye swollen shut. She has been broody and otherwise behaves normally. I don't see any discharge or evidence of eye worms. We get about 5 new hens every year and she is in the oldest age cohort. An Iowa blue of the same age is broody now too and she is not normally aggressive; I do find them in the same nest box sometimes. Could this be eye pecking (Iowa blue or younger hens)? Something infectious? Thanks for any advice! View attachment 1454019

This happened to my young cockerel. Suddenly (at least to me) his left eye closed up and was swollen. He had no other symptoms. I took him to a poultry vet. He had a sinus infection that backed up into his eye from behind. If I had taken him to the vet sooner (I waited 3 days) he may not have lost his eye. I had him on two rounds of oral and eye drop antibiotics. He is fine now but his eye is gone.
If you can afford to do this, get her to a vet asap and get her antibiotics. Also, isolate her from the flock until well. I am sorry your dear old girl is unwell!

 

[Birdsong 82]

I’m glad somebody else read this also because I don’t know much about injuries and would’ve never thought about this sinus thing. I hope it’s a lot easier for you to find a vet that it is for me. We have nothing. I can’t even get a fecal float anywhere. If you don’t have a vet anywhere nearby I’ve reached out to my local extension before to see where I can get information or somehow help for my animals

 

[Birdsong 82]

I really do hope the best for her

 

[Carolrich]

I’m glad somebody else read this also because I don’t know much about injuries and would’ve never thought about this sinus thing. I hope it’s a lot easier for you to find a vet that it is for me. We have nothing. I can’t even get a fecal float anywhere. If you don’t have a vet anywhere nearby I’ve reached out to my local extension before to see where I can get information or somehow help for my animals

Yes, I have heard that agricultural extension is a good choice. Is there a college or university nearby?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Swelling like that there is usually pus. Does she have mucous coming from her nostril, it's hard to tell in the photo.

How long has it been since you brought in new birds?

A peck/injury to the eye, getting some type of debris in it, poor ventilation and respiratory disease are some common causes of eye swelling.

General care would be to flush the eye with saline, remove any pus that you see. Sometimes a warm compress is needed to start loosening/working the pus out (chicken pus is semi-solid (cheese like) and needs to be removed. Flush the eye well and apply an ophthalmic ointment like Terramycin (apply 2X a day). You can also order eye drops like Ciprofloxacin online.
If she has any hardened mucous in the nostrils, try to get that out too. It's always a good idea to look inside the beak for any mucous, plaques/lesions/canker also look at the Chonal Slit for any obstruction.

If it doesn't start to improve in a couple of days or if she worsens after you have been treating the eye as mentioned above , then she may need antibiotics. Tylan50 can be found at most feed stores-dosage is .20ml per pound of weight given 2-3times a day for 5 days in a row. It can be given orally or by injection.

 

[melissamar97]

Thanks, this all sounds very helpful. I'll take a closer look at the rest of her tonight, last night I only looked at her eye. I'll post an update.

Our newest chickens were bought at 6 weeks old in early March. We did cull a Marans from this group on 6/16 (~20 weeks old) who suddenly became lethargic. We've had hens suddenly die near point of lay, so it seems unrelated to the eye issue.

 

[melissamar97]

I finally got a chance to work with her. I wrapped her in a towel and her nostril was clogged. I applied a warm wash cloth and worked a small amount of smelly gunk out of her nostril. I pulled a blade of grass from her nostril using tweezers. With the grass out we're hoping the gunk will drain better, so we're taking the wait and see approach now. I didn't want to cause further damage trying to extract everything. Her headshot is from before the gunk and grass extraction.