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

[Bocktobery 10]

Just to note...she’s still hanging on, but nothing is changing. I’ve been giving her shots of Tylan 50 since she’s not eating. 1 cc twice a day - one every 12 hours. Her crop is still full. Her eye is swollen even more. Nothing is working. I just have no idea.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you cleaning the drainage and matter from the eye? How does it smell? Are you seeing any pus or white drainage in the eye socket? Are you using any antibiotic ointment in the eye? Is she eating and drinking? Is her crop squishy soft or firm?The ones I have treated with crop problems seem to not get better. Two Crows and Azygous have some good articles on crop disorders.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Thanks Eggcessive.. She’s not eating and hardly pooping. She does about one big large sludgy dark green watery poop a day which has that type of smell I’ve seen with other dying hens. Like that flat smelling urine smell in cats with urinary issues. Hard to describe.

I am putting antibacterial ointment on the eye. I haven’t attempted to clean it simply because I can’t tell what is eye matter and what is possibly pus or goo. Plus she will not let me touch it. I don‘t really think I’m seeing pus, it looks like possible flesh. I say this because it has a very congealed consistency and coming out of directly what would have been the center of the eye. I do see seepage of liquid from all around the eye and it’s certainly expanded and swollen over the whole eye area. I would say I’ve not cleaned the wound real well and I’m not happy with that but honestly I don’t know how I could without stressing her. It doesn’t seem like the ointment is doing anything for it either in terms of reducing or helping the infection. It might be keeping it from getting worse though.

Her crop is squishy, watery, not firm like one would feel with impaction. I even felt around deeper to see if there was a small impaction at the bottom, but felt nothing. She did not have the crop issues before this, nor on the morning I noticed she was sick. It wasn’t five minutes after letting them out that I found her sitting on the edge of the porch, huddled. So she had exited the coop and walked quite a ways to get there- she was energetic enough then.

I agree with you on the crop issues. I’ve only had one case which resolved with kefir grains. But most all others died. I suspect this crop issue is due to something other than a crop issue. That this is secondary since it came on suddenly and along side this injury.

She did eat a very small amount of dampened feed this afternoon. She looks the same as yesterday really. I am expecting her to pass and somewhat surprised she has not already. I’ve just let her rest comfortably in a cage in the house. For thus evening, I’ve decided to forgo the antibiotic. It doesn’t seem to be helping. It’s a hard call to make as I don’t know if I’m giving up too soon or being realistic. As was discussed before, I suspect there was an underlying illness before to which another sensed and attacked her. She is on the thin side and that means something was going on for awhile now.

Thanks again for your help and expertise. I really do appreciate it since I’m at a loss at what to do.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

This is how she looks now and how sh’s looked all day. Her breathing is slow and light.

and this is her eye now.. sorry it is blurry, it was hard to get a good shot.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry that she is doing worse. I would consider putting her down if she doesn’t go on her own soon.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Remarkably, she’s the same this morning. ? Except her crop is now mostly empty. I did see her eat a little this morning. I decided to try again with the shot of Tylan. I thought she was going to pass last night but she was standing up this morning. So as long as a bird is showing me any pep (and isn’t seemingly in a ton of pain- pupils dilated, panting, breathing heavy) I get back to work for them.

I also had an epiphany early this morning to use a needle less syringe to flush out the injury. I used a saline solution and warm water to keep flushing it, getting it inside. I’m now happy as I got the goo removed. It does appear her eye is gone...the front portion. I then patted it dry as gently as I could and applied the antibacterial ointment topically then. I plan on continuing to do this twice a day.

As for the other issues.. Anyone read chicken poo illness into this?:

This was her dropping from minutes ago. (I had her on the back porch outside doing the eye flush) Obviously the green is bile from not eating and the whitey yellow stuff tells me that there’s infection? Am I correct about this? Not sure if anyone can see any indications of any pathology in the dropping, but I’d appreciate any commentary on what it may indicate.

Here is a photo of her eye after flushing it:

and a shot from the front...

I then gave her some kefir to help perhaps the crop and possible digestive issues. She ate some but not a lot.

Thanks again to everyone for their help. When it’s someone else’s bird my mind thinks better, but when it’s my own chicken, I can’t seem to think straight as to how to proceed.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

One other thing... Unless I’ve got a mean hen in the bunch going after eyes, I don’t think this is from another chicken but a RAT. I think this because I have another creme Legbar hen who has a nip right under her eye that is just large enough for a pair of teeth.
so my concerns are now could this be an infection from rat bite? And also getting the rat out and securing the coop. I had this issue (rats in the coop) about a year ago, so it’s very possible they’ve found a way to get in again.

I know rat bites to humans can be deadly... could a rat bite to a chicken cause raving infection, and could that infection cause a crop to not empty? Does infection cause a chicken’s digestive issues to slow down or stop? Also, would Tylan be the antibiotic to use fir such an issue (rat bite infection)?

The other hen seems ok as does the nip under the eye. I’ll be monitoring her of course.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

I wanted to wait a bit to post, just in case it was a fluke, but my hen has started to eat again and the eye is mostly healed up. Can’t see the eye itself as there’s a cloudy white haze covering it, but swelling and redness is down almost completely. She keeps the eye shut though. Poop is returning to normal as well..on the greenish side but bulking up. I had stopped with the Tylan a while back and just continued with saline washes twice a day with warm water. I started to put her outside during the nice spring sunshine for a while and watch over her and this perked her up. I think she was depressed to be inside and away from the flock. Her eating has increased over the past few days. No sour crop either. Energetic enough to take dust baths and walk around without trouble.