# Need Help with Eye Injury Please



## TroyBlackburn

I know eye injuries have been discussed many times before and I've read through many of the posts, but most don't seem to be close enough to the same thing my chicken has for me to be certain of how to proceed and if I shouldn't be doing something more.

I returned from out of town 5 nights ago, my girlfriend told me that she noticed one of our 5 month old chickens was keeping it's right eye shut. We have 38 chickens ranging in age from 2 years to just over 5 months. The next morning when I let the chickens out I found that it's eye is shut and very swollen. The eye itself is very cloudy, including the iris, which is a cloudy cream color now. Before I was able to get to it I also saw one of the other chickens peck the eye. I immediately separated it from the others and treated the eye with Vetericyn; which I have been doing 2 or 3 times a day since.

On the 2nd day while I was treating the eye she discharged a very watery bright green "poop". Among the things I've read is that this can be caused by passing bile when they are not eating. I felt her crop and it was empty. I have not seen her eat on her own over the past 5 days. I have been mixing feed with water to create a somewhat watery paste and feeding her with a meat injector (without the needle of course). I do that at least once a day until I feel that her crop is at least somewhat full. The composition of her poop has improved.

She has no other signs of a respiratory infection that I can see (or smell) , the eye has not gotten worse, but probably not much better. She rests a lot and does not seem interested in food or water, however does take it when I force feed her. She still has a reasonable amount of strength and will put up a pretty good fight when I am trying to treat her and she doesn't like what I'm doing. She will also walk around the yard when I take her outside, though she is obviously cautious around the other chickens (I stand guard to protect her whenever I take her outside).






























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## TroyBlackburn

Update: I just got done feeding her in the manner described in the initial post and have just observed her drinking on her own. This is the first time I have seen here take anything in on her own in 5 days.

I could still definitely use any advice regarding anything I could be/should be doing.

Thank You


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## robin416

Its obvious she does not feel well, the question is why? Figuring that out might lead to the right way to address her issue.

There has to be a reason for the cloudy eye, Mareks? Ammonia? Injury? The swollen area below her eye should not be there for any of these possibilities. 

Have you pressed gently on that swelling to see if there is any drainage? 

I would dissolve a 325 mg aspirin in a gallon of water to see if she perks up. If she does two things may be occurring, pain and fever. Reduce those and she should perk up.

Check the swelling, come back to report the response to aspirin and the eye response. BTW, quit that Veterycin, its nothing more than glorified bleach. You should be using an antibiotic eye ointment that you can get at the feed store or that most vets can sell to you.


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## TroyBlackburn

Thank you for the reply and the advise. My initial post was a bit long and so it's probably easy to miss that I did say that her eye was getting pecked at by other chickens. What started it all, I really don't know. I'm not seeing a much in terms of discharge. Thank You


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## robin416

Please do as I asked. I did read your entire initial post, its very possible they were pecking at the difference in her face/eye and that the behavior has little to do with where she is now. You need to be willing to follow up when you are asked to do something, other wise its just a shot in the dark when it comes to making a recommendation. 

Getting a diagnosis means having all pertinent information at hand. Since she is on the other side of a computer screen those that are seeing this can not know for certain what might be going on.


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## TroyBlackburn

Robin, thank you again. I apologize if it seemed I was not doing as you suggested. I was not certain whether you saw that her eye was getting pecked at. I just checked for discharge and there does not seem to be any. I do not have any aspirin at home at this time, but I will get some. I've stopped using the Vetericyn, unfortunately it's Fat Tuesday here in the New Orleans area and many businesses shutdown for the day, so getting supplies from a vet or feed store are difficult, if not impossible today. I have read some people suggest Neosporin, what are your thoughts? I've attached another picture, it doesn't show her eye, but I guess it's a little more on her current state.

Thank You Very a much!









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## robin416

Maybe you can answer this question, why do things like this happen at the worst possible time?

Regular neosporin is a bad idea because it is not formulated for the environment of the eye which can cause even more damage. You can rinse her eye with contact lens saline for sensitive eyes. That matches the eye's biology and will not make things worse.

It is possible that they have torn the sclera of her eye when they pecked at it. If there was a way to tape her eye shut, I would highly recommend it. That's the problem, you can't.

Do you feel heat in that swelling? Once things open back up see which of these two drugs you can access at the feed store, Aureomycin or Duramycin or both. You can combine the two for extra punch. The Aureo. is 1 tsp per gallon of water, the Dura. is 2 tsp per gallon of water. You might have to add a sweetner in it to get her to drink the mixture. You can also mix some of it in to the feed you're fixing for her now.


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## TroyBlackburn

I'm pretty sure I can get Duramycin, I'm not familiar with Aureomycin. I do have some Tetroxy HCA-280. Are you familiar with that, should I use it? 


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## robin416

Yes, the problem is its not very effective. I'd have to check but I think its one of the Tet drugs that is not fully absorbed which makes it not quite enough to knock out serious infection. You can start with it and when stuff opens up switch her to the Duramycin.

Many feed stores carry the Duramycin, few carry the Aureomycin. The combination carries a bigger punch and covers additional strains of bacteria. 

Here's a concern I have, if that lump has been there for a while it might never go down and continue to cause her problems off and on. I had one that did that. She came to me with an infected sinus that was never treated. My vet did surgery to remove the solids from her sinus because drugs never reduced the swelling by much.

If you can figure out a way to cover that eye I would do it. I think there is structural damage done to it the more I look at that pic. It will heal more quickly if kept covered.


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## TroyBlackburn

I'll proceed as you've suggested. The swelling has been there for 5 days now. Do you have a recommendation regarding the amount of Tetroxy HCA-280 to mix with how much water? Thank You Again


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## robin416

It appears to be 1 1/2 tsp per gallon of water. We recently moved and all of my cheat sheets are still packed some where. 

If its only been five days you might have caught it in time. Fingers are crossed.


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## TroyBlackburn

Thank You! What are you thinking it might be? I'm not seeing any other of the typical respiratory infection symptoms. Her breathing is fine and relaxed, no drainage, bubbling or anything like that. Too me it just looks like an eye injury, but I'm no expert and certainly less experienced with chicken illnesses and injuries than many, perhaps most.


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## robin416

Chickens can get sinus infections just like we do. Its believed that they get feed in the nares and it sets them up for infection. 

Not all respiratory illness is the kind we never want to see in our flocks. They can get a pneumonia that is not the type that means the entire flock is in jeopardy for chronic illness.


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## 7chicks

Whew. Poor little girl.  I have no advice but just wanted to give my good luck wishes to your sweet feathered friend. She's lucky to have such a caring owner.


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## TroyBlackburn

I appreciate the help. I'm never really sure if I'm giving her too much or not enough food, possibly. Ore than is ideal for any one time, but not enough for the entire day. I'm just not able to feed her multiple times per day and will not be able to feed her manually at all until the late afternoon for the next few days. Her droppings seem pretty normal for the most part now and I can tell you that althougH she may nota be feeling well and may rest a lot, she is not weak. She can be a handful when I'm trying to feed her. She fights back a lot and is strong when doing it.


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## TroyBlackburn

New development... The feed paste I've been giving her has been made with Starter/Grower crumbles. She's been on layer feed for the past 5 weeks (she's 23 weeks old) and so that's what I had in the bowl in the cage with her. She wasn't touching it. The layer feed is in a natural grain, crushed corn etc format, not pellets. I replaced the layer feed in the bowl with some Starter/Grower feed and she immediately pecked at and ate a little. Not much, but I had just finished feeding her manually.


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## robin416

Feed her what she will eat, don't worry about which one it is. She might not like the layer at all and may never eat it. I don't use it since I provide separate containers of oyster shell and I don't have to worry about moving different ages around.


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## TroyBlackburn

Update: A little good news/bad news.

First the bad news; I got to work this morning expecting I would have a chance to go to the feed store and pick up some Duramycin either at lunch or after work today. No such luck; I got to work and within an hour was on my way out of town on a one day trip and did not get back until after the local feed store had closed.

Now the good news: The chickens condition seems to be improving. She still rests a lot, but she's a lot more active. Granted she's in a cage in the house with not a lot of room to go very far, so she may be sitting relaxing some of the time because there's no where to go. When I'm home I let her out of the cage, I just put her food and water on a towel in the family room and let her hang out in the family room so that she's not quite so confined. I got bowls out for her with starter/grower and layer feed, so she can eat whatever she wants. She seems to be eating on her own just fine now (no more manual "force" feeding, she goes back and forth between the two feeds. Her eye and the lid seem to be slowly improving; nothing dramatic, but a sight improvement. She seems to be feeling a bit better.


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## robin416

Let's hope this good news continues. She is fine with the starter grower so don't worry about her eating it. All of mine are on it, young, not so old and old. 

Maybe the Tet will be enough. But the eye should be addressed with some antibiotic eye ointment. Let's hope you have a chance to pick some up tomorrow.


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## TroyBlackburn

Do you have a recommendation regarding the antibiotic eye ointment that I could pick up at a pharmacy? I agree regarding the feed; I just decided to have both available for her so that she could eat whatever she wants and hopefully with that, eat more. Seems to be working so far.


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## TroyBlackburn

Do you know anything about giving Doxycycline to Chickens? I just stumbled across some references to it being used for chickens. Would it be better or worse that using Tet? I've got plenty of Doxy! I've got it in both dissolvable capsule and pill format. I'm in the Navy and they give use plenty of it every time I deploy to an area with increased risk of exposure to malaria as a preventative measure.


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## robin416

I need to check to see if its effective against a respiratory infection. BRB.


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## robin416

The answer is . . . maybe. It works against staph and strep. The problem is we don't know which bacteria she might be harboring. And it says treatment for three days duration. If anything is going to improve you should see it in that three days. 

You will probably have to add probios to her diet to help her gut health. Yogurt with live cultures is an option. Most chickens thinks it a super treat.


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## TroyBlackburn

I found the following:

http://www.twincitypoultrysupplies....id=878&zenid=d23228a70e8e14cb62497ed1d05a86ca

http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7976185

Both the capsules and tablets I have are 100mg

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## TroyBlackburn

What would your suggestion be? Use it, don't use it? If so, how much? Capsule or tablet? The one site recommends 100mg twice a day. Which seems a bit high to me as I know the typical dosage for people is 100mg once a day.

Oh ya, also... Any suggestions of an antibiotic for the eyes that I can get at a pharmacy?

Thank You Very Much for all your help.


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## robin416

It is the same dosage as for humans. This has to do with how much it takes to kill off the bacteria is not based on weight or size. Go with the easiest one. You will be mixing it in to something to get her to take it so which ever works for you. 

You can get the eye ointment at the feed store or probably your vet. Call them, I know some vets sell it over the counter without seeing the animal. You can't find it at the pharmacy without a prescription.


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## TroyBlackburn

If I give her the Doxy, would you suggest I continue or stop giving her the Tetroxy HCA-280 mixed in her water? Thank You Again!


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## robin416

Stop it. But if you are seeing improvement after this short run give it some serious thought before switching.


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## TroyBlackburn

My last update was "optimistic". She was eating a little better and I bit more active, but overall not as much as I thought when writing the post. Also her eye really hadn't improved; in fact when checking it later that evening there was definite discharge coming from the eye and there was no decrease in swelling. I switched her from the Tetroxy HCA-280 to Doxycycline that night and have been giving her 100 mg tablets twice a day. As of this morning there is definite improvement in how she acts, her eating and activity level. The discharge from the eye is all but gone. The eye itself is a completely clouded over cream color and there is still swelling. The local feed stores do not have any antibiotic eye ointment, they have Vetericyn, but I already have that. I've been rinsing her eye out twice a day with an eye wash solution. I'm not optimistic about her eye, but I realize eye injuries can take a while to improve. 


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## robin416

That's good news on the over all improvement.

The eye? That's never coming back. I still have many concerns that the eye can/will infect. 

Did you call your vet to see if they will sell it to you?


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## TroyBlackburn

I did, they will, I just have not been able to get over there. As I previously mentioned I'm in the Navy and I've had to fly everyday for the past 3 days. I'm going to make some calls today and if I can't find anything today, go by the vet on Monday. The vet did say that the non pain relief Neosporin was acceptable when unable to obtain a proper eye antibiotic, what do you think? I figured the eye was gone as far as function, I'm just hoping for no further complications and the the swelling will go down so that other than being blind in one eye it might not have future issues with that eye. You mentioned having a vet remove solids from a chicken's eyelid after a respiratory infection. May I ask how much I might expect that to cost if necessary? Thanks Again!

Update: I just took her outside for a few minutes and let het walk around a bit. She immediately started walking around foraging. Last time she was outside the only walking around she did was to find a place to rest/hide and she did not forage at all. I stood guard so that there was no chance of any of the other chickens picking on her and brought her back in when they all got too close.


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## robin416

If you asked a doc specializing in the eye they would have an absolute cow about using regular ointment in the eye as an option. If I can figure out where my tube is and can still read the ingredients you will be able to compare the two. The issue is not the antibiotic but what it is suspended in. Even the consistency between the two is completely different. One is very fluid, smooth. The regular is more gritty feeling.

Not the eye lid, the sinus. And prices vary greatly depending on where you live. I was in TN when the surgery was done and it cost me about 100 bucks. 

Ah, so were you one those that buzzed the house at tree top level panicking my animals and making my windows vibrate?


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## TroyBlackburn

Update...

The chicken appears to be feeling fine now. She eats normally and is much more active! What I had previously though was the eye itself, a solid cream colored substance fell out of the eye socket today; it looks to me as though it might be the kind of solid mass material I've seen some people post as the solidified mass that has been removed from some chickens sinuses after a respiratory infection. It also looks like some of it might also have been part of the eye, it's hard to be sure. The sinus swelling is going down; it's not back to normal yet, but progressing (I noticed this before the mass fell out of the eye). She still stays inside most of the time for now. I let her out on her own when the other chickens are not out and I take her out with my supervision when they are out. I'm going to give her more time for the swelling around the right eye to diminish as much as possible and then see if I can't reintegrate her into the flock. I'll try and post some updated pictures later.


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## robin416

That's very good news. She just might go back to normal given a little more time. The eye will never be normal again but she will adjust to having just the one to see with.


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## TroyBlackburn

I was updating the previous when you replied. Overall I'm pleased with her progress. I never expected the eye to come back and she seems to be adjusting to one eye just fine. My only real concern at this time is whether or not I'll be able to reintegrate her without her being the target of being picked on.

The update was as follows:

What I had previously though was the eye itself, a solid cream colored substance fell out of the eye socket today; it looks to me as though it might be the kind of solid mass material I've seen some people post as the solidified mass that has been removed from some chickens sinuses after a respiratory infection. It also looks like some of it might also have been part of the eye, it's hard to be sure.


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## robin416

What did the eye look like? 

All I can say is that that is disturbing. It might have come from the sinus but if the eyeball has an infection then this could be pretty serious.


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## TroyBlackburn

Upon looking at it more and looking at her eye, it looks more like a coating that developed over the eye than the eye itself. I don't see anything in the eye that would suggest any sort of infection. At this point I would describe her behavior as very active and acting normal.


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## robin416

I am really curious about how she does so please update again. Situations like your girl helps all of us learn about some of the odd things that can happen with these guys.


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## TroyBlackburn

I will!

I agree; I've learned a lot by reading threads about other peoples chickens (and ducks), what happened, what they did to treat them and what the outcome has been. I know that whenever a thread stops without sharing the final outcome that I always wonder what happened.


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## robin416

I've figured out that most of the time the outcome was not a positive one. Not many want to talk about a failure when they worked so hard to try to help them.


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## TroyBlackburn

Update: First and foremost she's still alive and acting as though she feels fine! She eats well, is active and the swelling around her eye continues to improve. I let her out both on her own and supervised with the other chickens; she does get picked on a bit, but I try to stand guard as much as possible to keep other chickens from pecking at her right eye. While I'm continuing to see improvement in the area around her right eye, I think it's still attracting others to pick on her. I'm hoping that as it returns to a normal appearance that the others will be less interested in picking on her. She stay's in a smaller (8' x 4') coop outside so that even when she isn't running around with the other chickens they have exposure to each other.

I'll post further updates as she progresses.


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## robin416

Well, that's positive news. That eye was/is a mess. 

Do any of the others seem to be a bit indifferent to her problem? You might be able to provide her with a buddy as long as the other bird ignores the eye.


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## TroyBlackburn

I hadn't thought of that... Actually so far the number that pick on her seem to be far fewer than the number that don't. I haven't made any specific observations regarding which ones seem to be indifferent to it. I'll let her out with the others and watch for chickens that might make a good buddy. I'll probably do it over the course of a couple of days or so, just to be as sure as possible. I would hate to give her a "buddy" only to have it go after her when I'm at work and not watching.

I agree, the eye was/is a mess, however it seems to be slowly improving towards a more normal appearance. Even the eye itself seems to be slowly looking more normal. I'm sure she's blind in that eye, but I wasn't expecting the appearance of the eye itself to improve at all.


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## robin416

It would provide her with company, chickens like having one of their own nearby.

But I agree with you. Only do it when you can closely monitor what is going on.


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## TroyBlackburn

Very possibly the final update: The area around the eye has returned to a completely normal appearance. The eye itself looks a bit different and as previously stated she is blind in that eye, however given the previous damage to the eye it has healed nicely. I've let her out with the others as often as I've been able with my work/flying schedule, but not as often as I had hoped. She gets picked on a touch from time to time when I first let her out, but the rooster (we have one) seems to like to hang around with her and even protect her. I'm planning on reintegrating her with the flock full time starting this weekend.


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## robin416

I love a good ending. Most of it was her will to live and your dedication tending to her. Congratulations. 

I'm pulling for her to have a quiet reintegration to the flock. The eye should not hold everyone's attention now that it has healed so much.


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