Pullet with infected eye

[Heather J]

I noticed today that one of her eyes looks like it has that gooey stuff from pink eye covering it. The lid all the way around it is a little puffy and swollen, too. Her other eye looks perfectly normal, and I can see movement underneath the infection as it tracks with the good eye. The problem is I'm not sure how to clean or treat it. I don't have access to poultry medicines in my rural area except for one antibiotic which is not made for anything like this. Do I just use a damp Q-tip and keep the infection cleaned away? I can bring her inside in a cat carrier for a few days to keep an eye on her, but I'm not sure how to treat her.

Help!

 

[MoodyChicken]

Flush the eye with saline at least twice daily. If you don't have saline, water with a pinch of salt will do the trick. Do you have neosporin? Ideally, you'd want to use teramycin's ophthalmic ointment, but if you have nothing else you could use neosporin. Isolate her now. It could be something worse than just an eye infection.

 

[sammi]

try and get some saline eye wash to wash out the eye..
(Walmart or pharmacies)..don't get anything that "takes the red out"

use gauze to wipe the eye, not cotton.

but you need some antibiotic eye ointment..terramycin eye ointment is what's usually available at farm/feed/livestock stores
(such as Tractor Supply Store)

available online..
any pet supply places near you?
they might have it.
any human or other pet eye antibiotics around the house?

http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/store/index.php?cPath=21


ok..could she have been pecked or got some injury?
any mucus from beak?
any wheezing?
sometimes eye swelling and mucus is respiratory illness or infected sinuses...and needs antibiotic..I prefer Tylan 50 injectable or Erythromycin (sometimes called gallimycin or Ery-mycin)

is there any Tractor Supply Stores in your area?
pet stores?
livestock supply?
where do you get your feed?

 

[sammi]

if there are livestock supply stores..that carry meds..that's where you will find what you need..
always look in the livestock section..

 

[007Dawn]

We just went through this with Mary Jane and we moved her inside and flushed her eye two times a day. The third morning her eye was all better!

She most likely just got a speck of dirt in there and they are not as good as getting it out as we are.

But she is good now!

 

[Heather J]

Thanks, we have a feed store here, but it only carries meds for large animals (cows, hogs, horses, and an occasional canine med). Last time I looked for meds for a sick bird they had only one product which was used for a specific illness--definitely not teramycin. Everything within 40-80 miles that might have carried an opthalmic ointment around here is closed on Sundays and for the Memorial Day holiday (I told you we were rural). I do have plenty of gauze (dh and I are both EMTs) and that spray neosporin, which I bought specifically for the birds, so I'll bring her in and see what I can do right away. Thanks!

There's no wheezing or mucus from her nose. Only the one eye has been affected, so I'm hoping if we clean it out for a couple of days she'll heal right up.