Swollen eye! -- Update, need more advice?

[Lucretia]

Ugh, if this isn't the worst possible day to see something wrong with a chicken, I don't know what is! Okay...maybe Christmas would be worse. But still. It's bad.

Anyway, I just noticed my little almost-5 month old black bantam cochin has a really swollen right eye! I've been trying to do research, but everything says something different. It's the lower skin patch on her eye that is swollen. There are occasionally some tiny bubbles at the corner of her eye. But she has no other symptoms. The eye doesn't smell funny, and she has a voracious appetite, normal energy, normal breathing, normal droppings, no nasal discharge, no ickiness inside her mouth. I isolated her from the flock just to be safe, but I'm freaking out that it might be something really bad. Then again, I'm wondering if she might have gotten pecked or stung or gotten dirt in her eye. I can't really afford $150 just to see a vet today...but she is a precious chicken and I would hate for her to get worse. None of the feed stores are open today either, and I don't have any antibiotics or animal-use ointments on hand.

Any thoughts on what this could be, or what I should do? All the other chickens are fine. No signs of any trouble there...luckily! Do you think she will be okay until tomorrow?

This is the best pic I could get.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope your day is less stressful than mine's become...

 

[dawg53]

It's possible there could be dirt or debris in her eye, possibly pecked or scratched causing the swelling. For a homemade eyewash solution, boil one cup of water with 1 teaspoon of salt. Make sure you let it cool before flushing the eye. Make a fresh mixture daily. Hopefully the saline flush will take care of it. You might want to put some terramycin eye ointment in her eye since an infection is possible. Your feed store should carry it.
The other possibility is that is the onset of a respiratory disease. Sometimes a swollen eye with bubbly liquid in the eye(s) is one of the first signs of a respiratory disease.

 

[Tracy the chick]

X2 what dawg said... Making your own eye wash is better than the shop stuff if you ask me... Bath it at least twice a day, i did mine about 4 times a day and put eye drops in too. Good luck, Tracy xx

 

[Lucretia]

Thank you! As soon as the feed store opens tomorrow, I'll get some terramycin. Should I get the stuff you put in the water, too, or just the ointment? I bathed her eye in some warm water earlier and she didn't mind me doing that. Tonight when I tucked her in (lol) she was still the same -- no new symptoms or anything. Just as perky and sweet and normal as ever....just puffy-eyed. Do you think I can put some human eye drops in her eye, like Murine or something? I think I'd picked some of that up for one of my parrots earlier this year. I'd also heard someone recommend a cool chamomile tea bath? Has anyone tried that for something like this?

All the other ladies still look fine, too. So here's keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that it isn't anything serious!

Thanks again for the help!

 

[Tracy the chick]

I use eye drops for conjunctavitis from my chemist where i work for my chickens i put 1 drop in twice a day for 4 days.. Conjunctavitis eyedrops are a broad-spectrum antibiotic.... I would bath eye, then get some cotton wool and dip it into the eye wash and hold it against her eye, she wont like it to start with but once she feels the warmth she will just lay there. Keep doing that for a good 15 mins then apply the eye drops. You need to keep the eye reasonably moist.. Good luck hun, Tracy x

 

[Lucretia]

Thanks for all the help! Tiny Chicken is doing much better today. I've been bathing her eye with the saline wash and putting eye drops in... My feed store doesn't carry terramycin...the lady said she's been trying to get it for forever but no one is supplying it!

I'm just using Neosporin instead. Anyway, Tiny's swelling has gone down immensely, and she still isn't showing any other symptoms! So I think she just got a little eye irritation, thank God!

I put her back in her coop because it's gotten really cold and I'm about 99.999% positive she's not sick, just hurt. We'll see how she does!

 

[Lucretia]

Okay, update! Her eye is no longer swollen like it was... however, the spot where she seemed to have gotten pecked had gotten kind of lumpy looking and scabby, and then I think her tear duct (?) might have gotten blocked, so I'm back to bathing it in warm saline and making sure there's no plug.

Also, I can't seem to get terramycin anywhere. Apparently it's really hard to get hold of right now. ??? Anyway, I picked up some colloidal silver and just gave her a few drops in the eye and a couple in the beak. Hopefully that will help clear up any infection, if there is one... we'll see!

 

[Lucretia]

Okay, today I took Tiny out to give her the saline wash and silver treatment. Her eye looks a little better, but she still has this weird lumpy mass on the outside corner of her eye. If you look at the first picture I posted, you can see a little red scab there above and behind her eyeball. Well, that's where this lump is. It has more little scabs on it (or the old scab got stretched out??), it's about 3/8" across, and feels kind of semi-solid. She has a similar littler node on the inside corner of her eye.

Is that normal? Err...not normal normal, but does this sound like an ordinary infection type thing, or could it be something worse? I guess I'm just wondering if I should take her to the vet after all. Should I give her another day on the silver and see if it helps? How often should I put that in her eye?

Poor little girl. She's so patient with me when I try to treat her eye, but I know it can't be fun.

I'm at work right now, but when I get home I'll post a picture.