stop my chicken scratching her eye !

[Lissasmith]

I am new to this chicken keeping but last week Pauline our light sussex had a swollen eye , took her to vets was given antibiotics and drops and all seemed to be going well once we finally managed to get the antibiotics in her ( savoy cabbage !) BUt now she wont stop scractching it ! I guess its like us scabs itch ! We had 2 mornigns of what looked like carnage in the coop so now have put her in a box indoors to just check its her and not another one pecking but its her as just done it again ! she eats well and is very lively and it looks better except now she keeps gettign covered in blood !!! Are we just going to have to perservere and keep washing her till it heals ???? should i wrap her up so she cannot scracth herself ??? she looks so sad her beautiful whote feathers covered in blood and so much for a wee lady ! all our girls are approx 26 weeks and so are a bit concerned. Vet said she was a healthy weight and gave her a good look over so know its not mycoplasma !!
Any advice woudl be grateful even thinking about scratch mits !!!!!!

Thanks
Lissa

 

[Crazy4mypeeps]

Can you keep it moist? Maybe its drying out enough to make it itch.

 

[SillyChicken]

I had a chicken with what was thought to be an infection, but she had a piece of wood shaving caught down in her eye lid. I took a large bottle of eye wash solution and rensed her eye really good, got the shavings out and she healed up fine. Could you rig up a collar of shame for her to keep her from scratching her head? Maybe our of a 20 oz pop bottle? (also trim her nails)

 

[Anianna]

First, I would suggest flushing the eye with saline to clean any debri or junk from it that she may have gotten in there while scratching. Then, apply Neosporin (it can go in the eye if there is wound in the eye). If you are concerned about this, contact the vet and ask her if there are any other steps you can take. They may have some sort of contraption that will work to keep her from scratching (like the cone they put on dogs for the same reason). It may be necessary to bandage the eye, keeping the bandage on with something like vet wrap so that she can let it heal. I would definitely call the vet and see what they recommend.

 

[dawg53]

I agree with Anianna, flushing the eye with saline solution and using neosporin or terramycin eye ointment if there's debris in it. Another possibility is eyeworm. You can see eyeworm using a magnifying glass if in fact that's what it is. If you see it, treat with equal parts of valbazen and water mixture dropped into the eye. Then dose her orally with valbazen 1/2cc, repeat eye treatment in 10 days and orally in 10 days as well.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
More info for the treatment thread! Thanks again, dawg53.

 

[Lissasmith]

Thannkyou for your replies ! i have washed her down and when i let her run about with the others i noticed she was having a good go at herslef pecking wise now ! aahh so having checked out another thread shall i give her protein ? all so new to us here !

 

[Anianna]

It's likely she's pecking from the stress of her discomfort from her eye issues. Give her some Bach's Rescue Remedy and see if that helps her settle down. You can get it at Whole Foods or order it online.

 

[Lissasmith]

oh my really ? i have that for my flight panics so will def give that a go thankyou so much !!!