polish rooster with a foxtail wedged into his eye.

[lothefarmer]

yesterday i picked up my polish rooster to give him some attention. i usually brush his feathers out of his face to look into his big, brown eyes, but when i did, i saw a foxtail sticking out of one of them. his eye was shut, and the area surrounding his eye was watery and sort of bloody. he didn't seem to be in any pain. he was acting totally normal. he just didnt want his face touched, as usual. luckily, i had a friend to help me out, and we carefully extracted the weed from his eye. it was about an inch long, and it seems that it went all the eye underneath his eyeball, my friend said. (she took the weed out, as i restrained him. ) as soon as it came out, he opened his eye, and it looked VERY irritated and dark red. afterwards, i let him go, and he seemed to be okay. his eye stopped leaking watery, bloody discharge, but he wont open it anymore. i can see his eyeball moving around underneath the lid, so i think it's still working, but should i be worried about his eye being damaged by this? it seems like it, but i know animals can be very resilient, so i'm not sure... is there anything i should and could do for him?

 

[buckboy101]

I would just keep a close eye on him and check on him regularly

 

[Heathero617]

I know human and chicken are far from closely related, but i just went thru with my 7 year old on Easter she had a horrific injury to her eyeball, one huge scrape across her iris and pupal and several other scratches all over, the doc told me that the eyeball is one of the fastest healing organs. I'd maybe look and see if that can be said for chickens too. A topical antibiotic was used for 3 days and it was right as rain after that. Best of luck to you and your feathered friend.

 

[Anianna]

The concern will be a possible infection in the wound. You could wash the eye with a saline eye wash (from the pharmacy) and put a little Neosporine at the eye.

 

[lothefarmer]

Quote:
that's my main concern as well, since he seems to be doing fine, eyesight wise, with his eye shut, even. i'll look into that, tho, thanks.

 

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! Not too closely related, once again, but I had a lizard get a cactus spike stuck actually IN his eye. The vet just pulled it out, rinsed it with saline and put on a topical antibiotic. I continued this for about a week and all was fine. Didn't lose the eye or turn cloudy or anything. Hope yours is still doing well!

 

[welasharon]

also make sure the eyelid can open and isn't stuck shut. Pressure can build up from the fluid that needs to escape and that can lead to blindness.

 

[Firefighter Chick]

i second the saline and neosporin idea!

 

[lothefarmer]

good news! today, my boyfriend woke me up to show me little leo's eye, and it seems to be perfectly fine. he opened it up this morning, and it looks completely normal!

 

[Anianna]

Awesome.