Rooster Help

[BlueLineClucker]

This is our sweet boy, Jack.

Jack came to us with only 1 eye. Now, as you can see, his other eye is completely swollen. Jack eats, drinks, crows and knows his way around the coop. We have tried lancing the bump, but only blood came out. We have tried penicillin, and Tylan to no avail. While we were administering medication, he was kept alone, but wouldn't eat or drink. We bought some eye stuff from the farm store, again nothing. Antibiotic ointment isn't helping and we do not have local vet who treats chickens. The bump has no 'head' that we can tell, no white point or tip. We have tried squeezing, lancing and squeezing...but nothing. After medication, and no success, we let him back in the coop. Nobody else seems to be bothered by what he has, and nobody bothers him. Keeping him with his coop-mates is the only way we can get him to eat and drink.

Prior to this, several months ago, he got in a scrape with one of our guinea fowl. He had no swelling after the fight and was fine. We medicated his eye and cleaned it out, releasing him back out into population when he was healed.

Please help our Jack. He's an awesome addition to our family and we have tried what we can to help him. Again, his day to day is fine, but I know he is uncomfortable. We don't want to cull him as he doesn't show any other problems except what you see visually.

Thank you!

 

[Chickassan]

Ok, backstory is needed. What happened? Looks like his eye is gone.

 

[BlueLineClucker]

We don't know his back story. The eye that is swollen is still there, his eye is just swollen shut. The eye that is missing is on the other side of his head. The swelling has just gotten worse and worse no matter what we try to do. I know his eye is still there because when we first started, when the bump was smaller, his eye was fine.

 

[Chickassan]

Is it hot? Is it smushy or firm? Sorry for the questions but it helps to know as much as we can.

 

[BlueLineClucker]

It is feverish, more hard than soft/squishy.

Ask away, I'd love to find something that will help him. Despite all our efforts, he just keeps getting worse. I don't want him to lose his 1 good eye, or worse, him.

 

[Chickassan]

How far down did you lance? And have you tried baytril at all? Might even be worth a shot making an asprin paste and applying it to the lump. Definitely could give Jack a baby asprin to maybe reduce the swelling. That looks like an abscess to me and you're probably going to have to lance deep to get it,probably not going to squeeze it out either they're usually hard and cheesy.

 

[Chickassan]

There is a member here @casportpony who has some experience with these types of things .

 

[BlueLineClucker]

No baytril. We did a baby aspirin when we 'operated' before. We'll try an aspirin paste. Approximately how deep do we have to cut? I did not cut that deep the first time, just a razor to the skin?

 

[Chickassan]

Last one I had to lance was at least a quarter inch deep .Looks like the bad stuff is down close to the beak. Have some cornstarch or stypic close it will bleed alot.

 

[BlueLineClucker]

Ugh, I dread doing that again. I'm afraid to go too deep, I hope to not hit his eye. I guess we will try it. I don't know what else to do.