Swollen eye and face: Treatment Progress (ADVICE WELCOME!)

[deacons]

Are you treating the other eye, just on the possibility that whatever is bothering the one side has moved to the other side? Sometimes you never know what has caused something like this. It could be anything from an allergy to a bacterial infection to a viral infection.

I will be interested to hear what the vet has to say about it at this point but the original affected eye does look better.

@microchick - I had not been putting any drops in the "good" eye. I will ask the vet about this later today (will probably call around lunch time, after mid-day drops).

Do chickens have allergies?

 

[microchick]

So how is your girl doing?

 

[deacons]

Day 4: More good progress!
Swelling has continued to go down- you can see her full eye now. The color in her face looks good.






I put in a call to the vet yesterday afternoon, but he was booked up in appointments for the rest of the day, so I left my update and questions with the receptionist and hope to hear back today. If not, I'll give him another call.

I did go ahead and just put the drops in the left eye too. It is slightly puffy, but not any different than yesterday.

 

[microchick]

My, she does look better. Still a little puffy but there is definitely an eye glaring at you today like she's thinking "GET ME OUT OF THIS TOWEL!" Hope she continues to improve for you. I'd continue the drops and hot packs if she were my hen. Don't stop the drops too soon. Unless your vet gives you different instructions, I'd continue the drops for at least 48 hours after all the swelling has disappeared. You are doing a good job with her.

 

[tonyschicks]

Wow,she really took to the meds. So glad to see her getting better

 

[deacons]

Thanks everyone! I am feeling optimistic today. I spoke with the vet a few minutes ago, and we agreed we'd continue with the medication for the prescribed 7 days (which will bring us to this Friday) and talk by phone again at the end of the week. I told him the left eye was a little puffy, and he said it was fine to use the drops in that one too (good, because I did!).

Still really no idea what caused this, but it's encouraging that she seems to be responding to this approach.

 

[deacons]

And @microchick - she was definitely GLARING at me today. I'll take the fighting spirit though, I'm happy if she's feeling good enough to fight.

 

[deacons]

Day 5: Looking good, about the same as yesterday.

I think the swelling is probably about the same. It seems to be mostly towards the back:





The good news is that this is the first day her face felt cool to the touch. Up until now, whenever I'd grab onto a wattle to open her mouth or hold her head for drops, it's been really hot. But not today!

I think the left side is looking fine as well:

 

[microchick]

IMHO I would say that the swelling in the right eye is down ever so slightly from the last pics. It looks as though the lower margin is flatter. No heat is good and her eye looks normal sized now. Still minimal swelling around the medial margins but so much better. I'm so happy she's getting better and her old spunk is coming back. I hate to see any of our animals not feeling well. Right now our 11 year old Border Collie is suffering from back pain-probly arthritis-and doesn't want to go up or down stairs. Poor baby, we have to help her up our stairs when she goes outside. She is such a good dog, it kills me to see her not being her old rambunctious self. But this isn't her first flare up of hip/back pain. Back to the aspirin/ultram therapy along with glucosimine. Unfortunately we can't make them young again but we can do our best to make them happy and healthy.

 

[deacons]

@microchick , it's amazing how spending time nursing them gets you more attached. I can admit that up until now, Broody has not been one of my favorites- in fact, at times she's downright annoying with her intense broodiness (wish you could explain to a hen that with no rooster and no intention of getting fertilized eggs, she should just give it up!). But spending so much time with her has softened my attitude towards her a little

My husband teases me that since all our animals are on the older side, when this group of them passes on, we should not get any more and use our newfound freedom to do something crazy like move to a small apartment in Europe. Right now, we have a 21-year-old horse, dogs who are 12 and 8, a 15 year old cat, and chickens who are all 2-3 years old. Knock on wood, they are all in pretty good health for their ages and still plenty entertaining to be around. They are all spoiled pets!

I hope your dog gets to feeling better. This year, we put both the dogs on Dasequin and the horse on Cosequin, so am very familiar with helping them feel more comfortable with arthritis.