please look at my hen's eyes and tell me what you think

[Titania]

So I'm new to chickening (only over a year with chickens) and have to find out everything through experience, I guess. My little mille fleur d'uccle hen, Miette, has something different going on with her eyes. It could be nothing and just how she's made genetically. But, either way, there is a fluid sack that fluctuates in size (larger with the heat, smaller in the evenings) near the corner of her eye. Sometimes I've seen bubbles inside the fluid sac. I don't know what to think. Is she sick? Is it some rare spongy-tissue tumor (a friend who's a professor of biology mentioned something about that)? I'd appreciate your thoughts & suggestions.

This is her left eye

And this is her right eye

Some days they're barely noticeable and somedays they're large like today when I took this picture. What do you think? No symptoms other than panting from this heat. Thanks!

I'm adding a picture of her hatchmate cockerel, Charlemagne. It's not a close up of his eye, but you can tell that it doesn't droop in the corners like hers does.

 

[AngelzFyre]

It looks a lot like conjunctivitis and you can try washing them out with an eye wash(usually available from drugstore or Walmart), and then using an antibacterial opthalmic ointment without steroid 2 to 3 times daily for at least 10 days and seeing if that helps. Terramycin is a good one as is Triple Antibiotic Opthalmic.
They don't look runny but they do look irritated, especially her right eye.
Flies can aggravate the condition and also tall grasses with seeds or heavy dust.
The only way to rule out tumors is to take her to a vet and let them do biopsies, but it looks to be more of irritation than tumors from your pictures.

 

[theparrotletdude]

Get a plastic dog pen and keep her inside a shed/your house

You'll want to keep her isolated so the other ones can't catch it. She might need a check up at the vet

 

[ChooksChick]

I agree it's looking like conjunctivitis, and the same drops used for humans will work to treat it, so if you have any around, you could use them. Ciprofloxacin, etc.

 

[dawg53]

I agree with all the posters here, seperate her for the time being just in case it's not conjunctivitis.

 

[Titania]

thank you. I will go get eye drops then.

Unfortunately, we're going out of town in a few days so this is a bad time to just be addressing this issue. To be honest, we've been so busy lately that I had noticed her eye like that for weeks but kept forgetting to take pictures. I finally did take pictures but realized that it was last week and it has just taken me all this time to post them. Her eye is really always the same. Sometimes it looks better but the worst it looks is how it is in the picture. We have bermuda grass that is always too tall (b/c who wants to mow grass 100+F?) and so maybe that is what is irritating her. I guess I doubt it's anything else because there are no other symptoms and she's had her eyes like this forever. But, what do I know? That's why I always have to come here and ask questions.

So, thanks everyone for the advice!