Very Swollen Eye

[crittersitter]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Barred Rock,20 weeks, healthy weight

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Perfectly normal behavior

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Less than 24 hours

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
None

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Was fine at 3pm yesterday when free ranging and at 6 pm I noticed area around her left eye was swollen.Other eye is not affected. Nostrils are clear and eye has no discharge

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She's a pig,eats everything and drinks normally

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Normal

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Nothing

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
No vet

10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Sorry its such a lousy picture. I can't catch her until evening when she is roosting

They sleep in the coop with pine shavings,sprinkled DE and have a run .They free range from dawn until dusk.

It came on very suddenly so my initial thought was a bee sting.The swelling has not gone down overnight.She is acting perfectly normal other than this swelling. Any thoughts?
Thanks!

Good eye and swollen eye pics

 

[Hockeychick]

Thank you for posting this! This looks exactly like a few of my birds. My birds are a little younger - 16 weeks. It started with one bird, and she was swollen for a few days, otherwise healthy. Her swelling went down, and it appeared in 2 more birds. They got better, and 1 different bird has swelling now. I took one of the birds to the vet, and she thought that they could be passing around a mild sinus infection but she was not concerned. She told me to treat them with Tylan. ( A week ago). I haven't treated because they seem to get better on their own, but I think that it is in the process of going throughout the flock. I am torn as to whether or not to treat.

 

[crittersitter]

I have been reading up on diseases all day and haven't got a clue what to think. I have an antibiotic but am not really sure I should start treating. She is so healthy and normal other than the swollen eye. I am also scared to wait from day to day. If I find her dead tomorrow I'd be horribly upset that i didn't start treating with the antibiotic.
Plus I can't even catch her until tonight when she's roosting.

Hockeychick-While this was going on with your birds were they acting normal?Any loss of appetite ,breathing difficulties or diarrhea or any other symptoms?

 

[MotherJean]

Looks like "swollen head syndrome." You may wish to read "Chickens Don't Catch Colds": https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=123652

 

[caralouise1974]

Mycoplasma? Coryza? Possibilities, certainly.

 

[crittersitter]

Thanks for the replies.

I grabbed her off the roost last night and checked her out. I am convinced she was pecked by her bully sister. I rinsed it and put ointment around it and it looks 75% cleared up already. I will grab her again tonight and repeat. It makes things so much easier knowing I can get her off the roost.
Thanks everyone!

 

[MuranoFarms]

If it clears up and goes away then it was probably an injury. If another of your birds get it, it might be infectious bronchitus.

 

[Hockeychick]

I read through mother Jean's link - great resource by the way - but nothing seems to match with my chickens. I am confident to say that it isn't coryza because there is no odor. There is no discharge from the eyes or nose, they are eating like little piggies, and are acting perfectly normal. In fact, we got our first egg yesterday!

I purchased Tylan powder, but I am going to hold off on using it because the only symptom is 1 or 2 birds with swelling around 1 eye that goes down after a few days.

Thank you for your suggestions!!