traumatic eye injury & floppy comb working in tandem to cause blindness

[gildedgrub]

I just adopted a beautiful four-year-old olive egger named Dolly. She came from a friend who had tragedy strike when something got into the coop, and Dolly was the sole survivor. She sustained injuries to her comb and one of her eyes, which is still swollen shut days later.

I've included photos of her eye to ask everyone's opinion. Do you think it's possible she has lost her eye altogether? If that's the case, should I be doing anything for her besides keeping the area clean and applying antibiotic ointment? All I had on hand was neosporin but I'm going to pick up some saline solution and terramycin today. Should I be giving her antibiotics?

The other issue is that her comb flops over and completely covers her healthy eye, effectively rendering her blind. Is there a way to gently redirect the comb out of the way so she can see? My initial thought was bobby pins but I know that's silly.

She's definitely traumatized, poor baby. She has no appetite, but I had luck with getting her to drink quite a bit of water from an eyedropper earlier. I'm going to try blending up feed and water to make a soup to try the eyedropper method tonight just to get some nutrients in her.

I've been mainly letting her rest inside a dog crate in my living room where it's quiet and warm, but as of right now I have her in the coop with the door closed (the rest of my flock free ranges) in the hopes that everyone can slowly get acclimated with each other without risk of pecking or squabbles. It's also our hope that she finds comfort in hearing she's among other chickens again.

Any advice is welcome. I'm still relatively new to being a chicken mother (nine months) and this is the first injury I've needed to deal with.

 

[coach723]

If you have not done so, you need to open the eye and take a look at it. Then you can assess what kind of damage there is, if the eye in intact, and if there is any debris or pus in there. If there is any pus, it will need to be removed in order for the ointment to help. Flush it out well, and get a good look. Chicken pus is firm and cheesy, not liquid, so has to be manually removed. There are youtube video's showing pus removal from chickens eyes, if you aren't squeamish.
For the comb, I don't know of anyway to get it to stay upright (it appears it was also injured some). If it's impacting her vision, and if she loses the other eye then for sure, it may have to be dubbed (removed or shortened). There are also videos showing how to do that, but be prepared, the comb bleeds a lot. If you are not comfortable with doing it then a veterinarian might be best. Since, in this case, it would make a huge difference in her quality of life, especially if she's left with only one eye, I think it might be best. Birds that lose an eye can adapt and live fairly normal lives, but will always be at a disadvantage in a flock, and from predators, since they can't see anything coming from that side.

 

[gildedgrub]

If you have not done so, you need to open the eye and take a look at it. Then you can assess what kind of damage there is, if the eye in intact, and if there is any debris or pus in there. If there is any pus, it will need to be removed in order for the ointment to help. Flush it out well, and get a good look. Chicken pus is firm and cheesy, not liquid, so has to be manually removed. There are youtube video's showing pus removal from chickens eyes, if you aren't squeamish.
For the comb, I don't know of anyway to get it to stay upright (it appears it was also injured some). If it's impacting her vision, and if she loses the other eye then for sure, it may have to be dubbed (removed or shortened). There are also videos showing how to do that, but be prepared, the comb bleeds a lot. If you are not comfortable with doing it then a veterinarian might be best. Since, in this case, it would make a huge difference in her quality of life, especially if she's left with only one eye, I think it might be best. Birds that lose an eye can adapt and live fairly normal lives, but will always be at a disadvantage in a flock, and from predators, since they can't see anything coming from that side.

Thank you for your reply. I took a look inside the eye as I was flushing it, and while I didn't see any pus, I do think that her eye is gone. Her comb is definitely damaged. I can see distinctive bite marks on it, and the fact that it covers her other eye probably protected her from losing that one as well. I will look into dubbing via a veterinarian as I don't think I have the stomach for it. I just feel awful that she'll have to endure further trauma after everything.

 

[coach723]

Once the comb has healed, she won't really miss it at all. They do use it for cooling in hot weather, so that's something to be aware of, but it's not uncommon to dub it when the comb is large and interferes with their vision. Some combs are so large that they get torn off by accident getting caught on things. It happens. Best of luck, and I hope you have a vet that can help.