please help! What do I do for this chick's eye?!!**GRAPHIC**

[Titania]

This chick hatched early this morning with its eye like this. I've left it alone the whole day just in case something should change, but it looks the same, just drier, darker & scabbier.
It's horrible. it pulses or jiggles around when it tries to move its other eye.
So far it's standing, walking, eating and drinking normal. The other chicks aren't pecking at its eye, which is good. But, its balance is iffy & it isn't using its good eye as much as it would. My husband who's a phsyician thinks i should lance the bad eye & drain the vitreous fluid so that it can lose the bad eye & learn to use its good eye.

What would you do? It doesn't look like there's an eyelid around the bad eye.

It's really fine in this photo. I don't know why it did this. It looks so sick! But it's fluffy, strong, and walking really. I just wanted to show the good eye and the bad eye at the same time for this photo.

The sad thing about this chick is that it's a purebreed Araucana from Ann Charles at Blue Sky Egg. Out of 11 eggs, only 4 hatched. 1 died and 1 has this eye. It looks like it's a pure white Araucana too.

 

[froggiesheins]

I am confused by the pics, the "good" eye is the right eye and the "bad" eye is the left (closed one)?
Is the eye swollen? Can you see the pupil or iris? Is chickie moving the eye or is it just "floating" around in the socket? I take it you have NOT seen it blink with the eyelid? If it is not blinking and the eye is markedly protruding from the head Dr. Hubby might have the right idea about lancing & draining. Blinking is very important to keep the eye moist, clear the cornea from dust & foreign matters. If there is no eyelid then the eye really does need to be drained as it cannot maintain any type of moisture/cleaning functions. I assume that he would be doing that surgery with sterilized instruments? And then giving antibiotics for any possible infection. Chickie would HAVE to be isolated from the herd to recooperate.
Good luck to you and I hope that chickie gets better.

Keep us posted.

 

[Titania]

sorry about that. the good eye is the one that is closed. The bad eye is that dry, scabby thing protruding from its head. There is no eyelid so it doesn't blink. That thing just hangs off its head. I think that it never finished developing and never got an eyelid. You can tell where there is supposed to be a pupil in that scabby thing. It can't see with it, I'm certain of that.
I'll try to get a better picture with its good eye open later so you can get a good comparison.

 

[froggiesheins]

Thanks for the clarification...I sort of thought so, anyhow, if there is no eyelid then the eye has to be removed / drained to render useless otherwise infection will set in and....you know the rest of that story... That is ashame the he started life that way. If it was my chickie and I had a Dr. hubby I would be telling him to get the surgical suite ready.........My prayers are with you.........