Rooster with bulging eye, loss of vision

[Pbaxter]

Hello,
I have a Blue Americauna rooster who is 10 months old.
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that he had gone blind from one eye. No sign of bleeding or injury. Just a discolored, swollen eye.
However, as time has passed, the eye is bulging more and more.
Today, it’s bulging a lot more and even oozing/bubbling.
He otherwise seems healthy. He’s a sweet, timid rooster who doesn’t say much.
We do have another rooster that is the same age. I’ve never seen them fight, so I don’t think he hurt him…but I can’t say for sure.
They free range in my backyard but get locked into a coop at night. When this started, we were using sand in the coop.

I have not administered any treatment because I have no idea how I’d treat an eyeball.

 

[coach723]

I would get some terramycin eye ointment (some tractor supply stores or feed stores carry it- it's a tiny tube it may be locked up) and use that 2 or 3 times a day in the eye. It may have been an injury, hard to say. But I would treat to help prevent any infection from spreading to the other eye. If you can't find terramycin then you can use plain neosporin ointment in the eye instead. I would also flush the eye out well the before the first application with some sterile saline or eye wash (veterycin makes one) to make sure there is no debris in there. If it's getting gooky, then flush again as needed before reapplying the ointment.
The other option would be vet care, they can prescribe a stronger eye drop.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

I have had an issue like your boy’s. I agree with the person above me and what they said. The only thing I will say is that the eye probably got pecked and ended up going blind so there isn’t anything you can really do. Just let him do his thing until he starts to show pain or discomfort because of his eye. Once he visually shows pain than that’s when you can make the call to euthanize him. When birds show pain, they are really hurting as they are usually very good at masking pain.

The vets can’t really do anything other than saying for the option of eye removal or giving their opinions on what could be happening (I say this from experience).

 

[coach723]

They can adapt and do well with only one eye. The caveat is that it's a boy, and he will be at a disadvantage if there are more boys. He won't be able to see anyone coming from that side, so it will leave him more vulnerable to attack and injury from other boys. Even if he's docile, he won't see them coming and be able to get out of the way. If you have more than one boy I would recommend separating him from the others with his own little group of girls, where he won't be at risk of further injury from another boy.

 

[Pbaxter]

Thank you all so much! I purchased eye wash and the terramycin today, so hopefully I can get it under control soon!