Turkey - Eye pecked out!

[City2FarmGirl]

Help!

I came home to find my bronze orlopp turkey (full size, and my favorite bird in my whole flock) sitting in the snow outside in their run with her head down. Upon inspection we found blood splatters on the side of the coop and the area around her eye had been removed to the bone with her eye missing. I'm not sure what happened, either something from above tried to pull her out of the fence or she got her head stuck somehow.
We brought her inside, treated the wound with saline solution and polysporin. We got more saline and injectable penicillin from the vet. She is currently in our bathtub which we lined with towels. We are on day three since this happened (day one we found her in the evening), she doesn't seem to want to eat or drink-we try to feed/water her with a syringe but she is really good at flinging her head away. Her good eye is now swollen as well. It has been swollen since last night. We cleaned it out last night and it was open but this morning it was closed again. She has pretty much slept these past couple of days.
My other half is considering putting her down but this is my favorite bird in our flock, she's always excited to see me and comes in for Turkey snuggles so I'd hate HATE to see her gone
Does anyone have any suggestions as to why her second eye is now shut and anything else we should be doing? How to make her eat? We have another shot of penicillin left and we clean her head before leaving for work and then every couple hours when we are home. Is it possible for me to get my bird back ??

Thanks,

Emily

 

[Pigpie]

Anything is possible, would you be able to take her to the vet so they can further examine what's going on ? I think that's your best bet with the good eye being swollen despite having the pennicillin

 

[ticketism]

I second taking her to the vet. If her other eye is swollen and sore looking even with saline cleaning and penicillin, it's possible that whatever happened left her with something actually stuck inside her eye or eye socket, and her body is responding by trying to remove the foreign body, hence not responding to antibiotics. Like an infected splinter in your hand will keep getting swollen and sore until the splinter itself is actually removed, which antibiotics won't do. Hopefully it's something like that and not just that she's not responding to treatment because it's too bad of an injury or too far spread D= How's the other side looking, the one where the injury occurred and the eye was lost? If that bit seems to be getting better but the other eye worse, it could very well be an independent injury wasn't noticed at first. Usually fowl birds are pretty hardy and can come back from some truly horrible injuries, so I'd say give her more chance to live until (if) it becomes apparent there's nothing more you can do or possible avenues left to explore, then you have to do the kindest thing... But all hope is not lost yet!

 

[maddysmamaw]

Last year my alpha rooster, Lemondrop, lost an eye protecting his girls from a hawk. He healed and has adapted to having only one eye and still rules his flock. He is such a good rooster. The picture is not his best as he was molting at the time.

 

[ticketism]

I know someone who had a chicken lose her tongue due to eating a fishing hook that had somehow ended up in the free-range space! She had a terrible infection and really seemed like she wasn't going to make it, until her dedicated human decided as a last ditch effort to stick his finger right down her throat and felt the little hook lodged right at the very back of her tongue! Once he removed it the infection cleared right up with the same treatment that was doing nothing before, and now she's completely back to her old self in full health, minus nearly all of her tongue. Doesn't seem to bother her though, so I guess that's the main thing. They really can surprise you with these kinds of injuries, that's for sure. Hehe, Lemondrop looks like he knows he's not ready for his photoshoot too But he's a lovely looking rooster - I'm sure he's absolutely beautiful when fully clothed, haha.