Eye Injury in Week Old Chick, please help!

[bradyaveblooms]

Hi all! I’m new to BYC, however, I’ve been looking up amazing advice here since 2014. We are a family of four and like many, started with 6 chicks and ending up with 20, lol.

Well, last week we received our first ever shipped chicks, 16 of them (to meet the minimum of course). We ordered from Meyer’s Hatchery, and got our girls (hopefully all are actually girls, there are a couple suspicious ones), next day, alive and peeping. We noticed one chick, our chocolate Orpington, had one eye that was closed. We took pictures and contacted Meyers, who were wonderful, but couldn’t really help other than saying it looked inflamed and possibly a hatch mate pecked it. So, after reading everything I could, we’ve been following @Eggcessive advice and have been using a warm compress to soften, sterile saline with a plastic medicine syringe to wash debris and moisturize, and unmedicated Neosporin in and around the eye with my finger and a q-tip. However, there is a white opaque film and the eyelids are swollen. I did see muscle movement of the eyelids tonight though she can’t close it, and I can see a black eyeball in there moving. There has been some improvement over the last 3 days, but Wink does scratch at it after we put the neosporin on (not excessively though and we did clip the very sharp tips off her toenails), no chicks pick on her, she’s eating, drinking and pooping good. No respiratory symptoms. She has rubbed the feathers off the top corner of her wing but I treat that too. I don’t have a vet in my rural area that sees birds. Is there anything I can do? We are ordering the chicken specific eye ointment and various sprays. We just want to help because she gets around well, and we already had one loss. Please advise! Thank you so much!

Pictures:

#1 When we opened the shipping box, she’s to the right of the orange one

#2-4 The eye on day 2 and what we showed Meyers

#5-6 Tonight after treatment (3rd day)

#7 opposite eye

 

[bradyaveblooms]

I also meant to tag @Wyorp Rock as we’ve been following their advice as well and tried to follow it. Thank you so much, if you see this!

 

[Eggcessive]

Does it seem like the eyeball may have been pierced, or does it seem like gunk over the eyeball? Chicks are sometimes attracted to the bright eyes, and some will peck them. I had iPhone chicken who pecked everyone’s eye all day long, and only stopped after she was separated overnight. I hope the eye is still there, but I would keep cleaning the eye with saline, and try to gently remove the gunk with QTips or tweezers. Terramycin ointment is also good for the eye. Use the ointment 2-3 times a day. She needs to be fed and watered very often since she cannot see, or she will not gain weight. Good luck.

 

[bradyaveblooms]

Thank you @Eggcessive for your response. It does look like the eyeball is still in there, but looking at the first pictures it does look like there is a black “t” wound across the eyeball, unless that’s the puncture itself. I also asked Meyers if it was a birth defect, or possibly a slice when she was coming out of her egg, but they couldn’t say. The grey matter seems to be attached to the eye itself like a hard film, she screams when I try and move it. As she’s gotten bigger I can see a small pin size puncture on her bottom eyelid, and it does look like there is a puncture in the grey grey film on the eye itself as well. I checked for nasal discharge and haven’t seen any, the yellow crust that we were able to clean off, we thought was dried egg yolk, but it certainly could be discharge. I haven’t noticed it continuing to leak out. She steers clear of the chasing and rough playing, opting for staying warm, but she’s definitely gaining weight, eating, drinking easily on her own without guidance. We are ordering the terramycin ointment tonight since our TS and local feed store don’t carry much of anything for chickens. We weren’t sure if she should be on additional antibiotics, no other chicks have been affected or show any signs of illness. I can try removing the film, but she screams and it seems like part of the eye, so I haven’t pushed it to hard, but I will do whatever I can. Thank you so much for your help. I couldn’t find any pictures exactly like this, so I wasn’t sure if it was something beyond repair, or how long we should continue the treatment.

 

[bradyaveblooms]

Also, from what I can see of the eyeball underneath, it looks all black, I can’t really tell if there’s an iris at all. Last night was the first night though that I could separate and move the upper eyelid to really rinse it, which she liked.

 

[Eggcessive]

Well I hope that her eye is okay, but if it isn’t, hopefully, she will live a fairly normal life. Many chickens do well with only one eye, but her challenge will be to get enough weight on her to keep up with the others. Let us know how she gets along, and hopefully the treatments will help.

 

[bradyaveblooms]

I wanted to attach a couple more pictures my husband took this morning when I was doing her treatments. I’m able to move both eyelids now, however, I noticed in the corner towards her neck (2nd pic shows a close up on the top side of picture), it actually looks like the “film” or possibly skin is attached or part of her skin/eyelid. Have you ever seen a chick whose eyelid never developed properly? We weren’t sure if it may be that. I’ll definitely keep at it and let you know. I’ll monitor her weight as well. Seems some of our chicks were very tiny compared to the others, even though they are doing great and eating like crazy!

 

[Eggcessive]

I honestly don’t know if the eye is there, or was missing. My guess it that is was damaged by pecking possibly in transit. Let us know how the chicken gets along.

 

[bradyaveblooms]

Okay, I’ll keep you posted, thank you again for your time and help!

 

[bradyaveblooms]

Hi @dawg53, I saw you post about taking Amoxicillin in a similar thread about a rooster whose eye was pecked. I have an almost two week old chocolate Orpington that was shipped and seems to have sustained a pecking injury. We’ve been flushing with warm sterile saline 2x a day, using a warm cotton pad compress and applying unmedicated neosporin in and around the eye. Wink has no respiratory issues, gets around, eats, drinks, poops fine. I don’t have vet access, and I have terramycin on the way. Is there anything I can do? The eye may be gone/ruptured, but she still is rubbing it on her wing and scratches it which resulted in lost feathers around eye and a small patch on wings. I just can’t find much info with this particular looking injury. Should I give oral antibiotics? Thanks so much!