My sister’s 2 roosters had an altercation today and the smaller one has an injured eye. There are no veterinarians that will see chickens nearby, but we want to give him a chance at recovery. I do have access to eye meds, etc. Anyone have any recommendations?
Injured globe? You probably need it stained or make sure you try a medication that does not have steroid in it.
She’s not sure the extent of the injury. There was blood and he won’t open the eye now. I believe I have a few fluorescein strips at home and some neo poly bac or terramycin opthalmic. Do you know the odds of it healing if there is trauma from the other rooster? Do they enucleate chicken eyes? My sister is super attached to the little jerk.
It may heal, but scarred and non-visual. I’m sure they can enucleate the eye if you took him to a vet that sees birds. I know at Penn they had enucleated and then replaced a Koi’s eye.
Is it just stuck shut with dried blood? Maybe try a warm compress?
No it’s shut because it hurts and is swollen. She cleaned it off as best as she could and I’m going to look at it when I get out of work in a bit. Despite the fact that I am terrified of birds (especially this one- he’s a teeny tiny banty rooster with a huuuge attitude, but he adores my sister. Everyone else he’ll attack when you go in their area!)
I would flush it with sterile saline and then try one of the eye medicines. They can remove it, but finding a vet to work on chickens like that is usually difficult. I had a pullet with a pecked eye that just kept deteriorating and I eventually culled her. Probably best to keep the two roosters separate from now on.
Warm compress and try backyardchickens.com—the people there are good at helping with injuries and appropriate medicines.
Have been using terramycin after flushing well with saline, Eye is looking much improved and bigger rooster has been rehomed to someone who will keep him as a pet (he also attacked my nephew shortly after going after the banty rooster). Thanks all
It’s the time of year for it, spring gets them all hormone flushed and ready to breed. Especially if one or both of them was 1 year old, that seems to be the worst time for it. I ended up selling mine as I just couldn’t handle him savaging the hens and didn’t want to make him a pen by himself for a year to cool off…
Ya the bigger guy is just turning a year. It sucks because he was, up to this point, very sweet and friendly. It’s actually the banty rooster I’m terrified of- the only person he adores is my sister, everyone else he attacks. Ole Red will have a nice home with the people who took him, so I guess it all works out
This happened to one of mine. We hot packed it for a couple days. He ended up losing sight in the eye but was otherwise fine. We did not treat with meds…