What do I do? Eye injury, *warning- graphic pictures*

[Bocktobery 10]

Hi, please help...not sure what happened or how she acquired this injury. I’m assuming another chicken attacked her in the coop. I noticed her injured soon after letting the birds out this morning. She’s a 5 or 6 year old Creme Legbar hen. Has been healthy as far as I could tell up until now. She’s seemingly lethargic right now- but it appears to be from the pain of the injury. It looks like her eye was torn from the socket. I can’t see really..there’s just a lump of flesh coming out. I will post pictures here....WARNING, it’s graphic...

how do I take care of this? Do I just put neosprin on it and give her a quiet place to mend? Do I put her on anti-biotics? I have her inside right now. She is hungry and will eat voraciously for me, but she’s just sitting here, resting. Please help...what should I do withthis? Does anyone know what this is?

Thanks so much for any replies.

 

[Ralph Obrien]

She will be fine. keep area where eye was clean and all will be ok .I have this happen many times over the year in chicken ducks turkies and pigeon . I have never lost a bird from it yet.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Thanks Ralph, it would seem she should recover.

I noticed her crop did not empty overnight and she’s very lethargic today. Also seemed to have very dark beady diarrhea. Perhaps she was targeted because she is sick. So I have her inside and will be trying to figure out what she has and what to do.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

She is doing very poorly now. She was going down fast last night and so I gave her a shot of Tylan 50 (her crop is full and not emptying therefore I couldn’t give her antibiotics orally ) and she is now standing but motionless. So I think it’s infection going systemic from the wound? Can anyone help me think this out? I’m going to continue the shots of Tylan 50, but what do I do about her crop? She has been pooping- it’s very dark sludgy material with greenish tinge. Loose but not quite diarrhea but definitely not normal. I think she was fine before the injury to the eye. Speaking of, her eye formed a black scab over it but got knocked off when trying to medicate her. It now looks the same as the photos above only that the area is swollen a bit. It’s kind of seeping.

I’ve never dealt with an injury like this and I’m clueless as to why her crop is not emptying. I’m assuming the injury was from another flock member who detected she was ill, but I’m confused as to what to do. I know she did not have a problem with her crop before this injury. She ate voraciously for me after I brought her inside to examine the eye. Why would infection stop the crop from emptying...if that’s what’s going on?

 

[Friendly_Lurker]

I hear a duck whose eye looked like that. Some bunny eye infection ointment right in the eye cleared it up in a week and her eye was fine.

 

[Eggcessive]

I really think that she was probably going down hill before this happened, and she was attacked and pecked because another chicken sensed her being ill. It is unfortunate that her eye has been punctured. That looks like vitreous humor or body (liquid gel) coming out of the eye. I would just clean her eye gently with a wet wash cloth, and apply some plain antibiotic ointment to the eye a couple of times a day, especailly when all of the matter has leaked. If you want to give the Tylan, just give it orally. It works fine that way. I would keep her warm and separated, and offer water up to her beak in a small cup. If she drinks, then offer some watery chicken feed mash, a few bits of scrambled egg, canned cat food or tuna in a small cereal bowl. She may have been hungry or kept from food. At her age crop and reproductive problems are common. Check her crop first thing in the morning to assess if it is working and emptying.

 

[Eggcessive]

 

[Bocktobery 10]

I really think that she was probably going down hill before this happened, and she was attacked and pecked because another chicken sensed her being ill. It is unfortunate that her eye has been punctured. That looks like vitreous humor or body (liquid gel) coming out of the eye. I would just clean her eye gently with a wet wash cloth, and apply some plain antibiotic ointment to the eye a couple of times a day, especailly when all of the matter has leaked. If you want to give the Tylan, just give it orally. It works fine that way. I would keep her warm and separated, and offer water up to her beak in a small cup. If she drinks, then offer some watery chicken feed mash, a few bits of scrambled egg, canned cat food or tuna in a small cereal bowl. She may have been hungry or kept from food. At her age crop and reproductive problems are common. Check her crop first thing in the morning to assess if it is working and emptying.

Thank you. Yes, I’m suspecting illness before this injury. But... she really did seem ok though right after- except for the eye injury. Hard to know.

A question though... with her crop being stopped up, shouldn’t I give the antibiotic via shot? I heard if you give it orally when they are stopped up like that, not only will it sit there and not get digested but it may irritate or burn the crop? Does it still get into the system this way?

What made me think this was a raging infection last night was that she didn’t even seem cognizant. I’d wave my hand in front of her other eye and she wasn’t reacting to that nor loud sounds. She just seemed out of it and was fairly droopy/heavy. Her comb was rather warm too. She’s doing better this morning though. She’s standing now but obviously tired.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

A picture of her eye today.

The black stuff underneath I think is the scab that fell off last night. But you can see the while socket is swollen and tissue coming out.

Her crop is still super full.

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, that is a good point about her not absorbing the Tylan if her crop is not emptying. A crop slowdown can be due to reproductive disorders, ascites, impacted or sour crop. Mareks disease can also be an underlying problem in crops and the digestive system.