swollen eye in chicken

[amieml]

Ok, new problem.... I posted yesterday about the coughing our chickens had been doing with no symptoms but the lack of laying. Today we went out and one of them was still on the roost with her eye swollen to three times its size and she's having trouble breathing. We started them all on Tylan and Vet Rx and brought her inside to try to clean it out and keep an eye (no pun intended) on her, but if anything it looks worse now. I can't even tell if she even has an eye in there, seriously, it looks like she has a golf ball in there. Any ideas?

 

[Jabbok]

Don't know where you live, but we have tick problems here and sometimes a tick will be attached to a chicken's eyelid and cause swelling. Do you have fans blowing at the chickens at all? We also found that dust was getting into our chicken's eyes from the fan and swelling a few of them up. Mainly I try to keep their eyes clear of ticks, only use the fan when necessary (our weather was SO hot a few weeks ago) and when they were swollen I would put some antibiotic ointment (like neosporin) around their eye. If your hen is patient enough, maybe put ice on it for as long as she'll let you - to help with the swelling.

 

[Whiskey Bay]

It could actually be a number of things.First off you're going to have to open it up and clean it out.If it already has a cheesey stuff in it,you'll have to try to get it all out.Use latex gloves, pull apart the eyelids and if it's "cheesey" or puss-e squeeze as much as you can out gently.Use some lukewarm water or saline to rinse the eye.Use Qtips if neccessary to get all the ick out. Once done with this put a few drops of VetRx in the eye. Depending on how back,you may have to do for several days.Keep away from other birds AND be sure to disinfect yourself. It could be caused by black fly gnats,eye worms,upper respiratory infection, allergies....so many things. But most is contagious,better to be safe than sorry.