# Hen has swollen eye



## slm622

Other than being so swollen she can't see and is easily startled I don't notice any other symptoms, eye had mucous that I cleaned away, does this look like more than another bird pecking her eye?


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## robin416

Its very hard to see what might have happened. Can you give a better description of everything you see? Is there a spot that is redder than the rest? Do you see any skin puncture? Is it lumpy? Smooth? 

The one thing you can do that would benefit her is to pick up some antibiotic eye ointment at the feed store. You might have to ask for it. And I keep saline for sensitive eyes contact lense rinse. When you go to clean her up use that, it matches the chemical composition of her eye.

Depending on what you say it could be many things. A sting or bite, a foreign body.


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## Bee

Someone else just posted a similar pic...everything I've found on this points to wet fowl pox. Can you check in her mouth and throat to see if she has any yellow membrane or lesions there and possibly a foul odor?


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## jacksonT

I have a hen like that too and I take very good care off my birds free range all day always have fresh water, food. I don't know what could have happened


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## slm622

As far as I can tell i don't see yellow in her mouth but the lump on her eye and another scab


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## slm622

No lesions that I can see in her mouth and no yellow


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## Bee

Here's some info that may apply:

http://homeoresearch.blogspot.com/2011/05/coryza-or-catarrh-poultry.html

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/730298/eye-worm-coryza-in-3-mo-lorp-pullet-help

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/88035/swollen-eye-my-hen-needs-some-help-pics

All the info along with pics like your chicken come up with either wet fowl pox or coryza. Let us know what happens?


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## robin416

I don't know of a case that shows up on just one side. That's why it never entered my mind. Every time I've seen it, its bilateral. I have seen many incidences of an injury doing this though.


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## Bee

All the pics I found associated with coryza have shown just the one eye bulged out and closed like that. 

I've never had anything like this, so my experience is limited. I found a vid on YT where the woman claimed the chicken had "eye worms" and was giving the bird VETRX orally for it, said it was improving. But the other threads said it wasn't eye worms and showed the difference, so who knows? 

I'd be getting that eye open and having a look see...


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## robin416

Yep, on getting that eye open. 

This was a Guinea hen but she looked very much like the above bird. This is where having a medical training goes a long ways in determining what is going on. Close examination, after a thorough cleaning, showed it was infection just above the eye. Probably from an injury. 

Using sterile saline I got the eye open. Once it was open it was shockingly red. Applied antibiotic ointment to the eye, applied triple antibiotic above the eye and did three days of antibiotic injections. By the third day her eye was open, no longer flaming red so I switched to the oral form of the antibiotic for another seven days. By the end of the seven days she rejoined the flock. 

The fact that most of the swelling appears to be above the eye and not below makes me wonder if this is not the same I dealt with.


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## slm622

I wear contacts was curious if that saline is usable to clean or if I should boil a tsp of salt in a quart of water as I read from one of your links Bee.


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## slm622

Updated photos closer shot

Flaking like a scab, eye was crusted shut, hard white-looking ball beneath eyelid


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## GratefulGirl

Poor girl! I followed a thread recently similar situation. Turned out it was likely a spider bite that got infected & the wound was so hidden 2 vets missed it. It was between the wattles. It took cleaning out the core of infection applying medication & packing it 2x per day until healed. I will try to find the link & post. Hope your girl gets better soon.


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## robin416

It could be several things but with these better pics I'm leaning towards what Bee mentioned, wet pox. It appears she even has some of the discoloration on her comb. 

Yes, to the saline as long as its the sensitive eye one.


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## Bee

One of the threads on the wet pox I saw showed them removing a large, yellow ball of something out of the hen's abscessed eye...looked almost like a solid mass as opposed to the usual material found in an abscess.


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## slm622

It has been raining very hard the past week and the temperature dropped drastically, this came up in a days time, I inspect my coop and chickens daily and middle of the night. Sad situation all together, I'm not afraid to operate if I have too just need as much information as possible


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## Bee

One of the things I read about coryza was that it happened more frequently when there were sudden shifts in the weather and that it was something that came on rather quickly. 

A nice, sharp scalpel or razor blade would be needed to lance that abscess and see if anything would come out or to remove a core. I'm a nurse and have assisted with many such things and even I would be hesitant to just dig in there...no way of numbing it and all. 

But then, I've read of people doing all kinds of surgery on chickens and they say they don't seem to feel them..so it may go just fine. Who knows?


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## slm622

It appears to me to be removable with a small incision, I was able to maneuver the "knot" around, she's docile and didn't seem to mind much, I'm sure the incision will make her squirm a little, but other operations have been successful with not a sound or much movement at all


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## robin416

If its a knot of solidified matter it will have to come out any way. Other wise, you'll just continue to have a repeat of this.


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## slm622

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll let you all know how things go.


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## slm622

On a positive note two of my eggs hatched today!! they are so cute


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## slm622

Update

I got off work late the other night and due to medical complications with my father in law, I didn't get a chase to perform the operation to remove the hard lump within the hens eyelid, I came home from the hospital and when I checked her out the lump is COMPLETELY gone, her eye not nearly as swollen and a small scab, how's this happen, I was under the assumption it would have to be removed. Any opinions?


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## robin416

None from me. I couldn't be sure what was going on when I saw it. It might have opened on its own and drained. 

At least that was one less thing you had to deal with.


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## Regina L

SLM, how long did the whole infectious process lasted with her eye? I had one last month with a similar issue, I waited about a week, I applied antibiotic cream to it, eventually I did "operate" on her eye using the "slicing side of a hypodermic needle" but apart from removing a lot of pus, the infection never went away. 
I also had some of my dogs large spectrum antibiotic pills, and I would dissolve about 1/4 of the capsule and feed it to her twice a day. 
Regretfully, I had to call on a neighbor after https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...01711587.118684.445887938762787&type=1another week, and had him "sacrifice" her. I still feel bad for her, and wonder if I should had dug in a bit more to have found the reason for the infection.








This was when it first started.









This was towards the end, after I operated on her. It never got better


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## slm622

It started 1 day over night and lasted just over a week. Today she has no lump under the eye and no scabs like before she appears to be healthy and ready to return outdoors but I'm keeping an eye on her a while longer before I take any risks


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## Regina L

Thanks for the information! That made me feel less guilty about my decision to have had her killed.


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