Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Oliveview on February 03, 2010, 20:35

Title: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Oliveview on February 03, 2010, 20:35

One of our hens has what looks to be a cateract on one of her eyes and she bumps into the other hens and was getting quite thin as she was not eating, she got panicky when the other hens went close to her.
 She has had a couple of doses of antibiotics but has not gotten any better.  We have put her in the small run that the turkey was in, she seems quite happy there, she can eat the food without the other hens pecking her and she seems to be putting on weight. She isn´t laying eggs, no problem, as long as she is happy.
I don´t want to get her put to sleep if she is eating and happy.  I guess a sign that she is really unwell would be not eating at all.  She tucked into some porrage on Monday- there wasn´t a lot so I gave it to her, the other hens were not happy as she tucked into her breakfast! :lol:
I do wonder if her eye was pecked by one of the other hens and it made her go blind.
Pamela

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Foxy on February 03, 2010, 21:20

Does the pupil look a bit uneven to you, a sort of odd shape or greyish??? :(

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Aunt Sally on February 03, 2010, 21:44

I was wondering that Foxy.  Is it the cerntal black part affected or the coloured iris ?

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: mrs.ploppy on February 03, 2010, 21:48

One of my light sussex is blind in one eye from being pecked and it has no effect on her at all. She stands her ground and never misses out. Tough little thing. I have left her with the others as she would have gone down the pecking order if I had taken her away.

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Oliveview on February 04, 2010, 10:20

Her whole eye is a dusky pale pinky colour.  It doesn´t look a different shape. She was being chased away from the food by the other and was getting very thin, now she is just the other side of the fence from the other hens, we put Turkey Lurkey in with her in the mornings- they share the food together. She seems quite happy there.
Pamela

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Aunt Sally on February 04, 2010, 11:16

Sounds like it could have been an eye infection then Pamela. 

Was it ever  pussy or closed ? 

Have you bathed it or used eye drops since you noticed the problem ?

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Celaudbel on February 04, 2010, 21:03

Foxy

Why do you ask if the pupil is an uneven shape? I noticed that one of our hens eye doesn't look quite right. Her pupil seems a bit blurry round the edges. Otherwise they all seem fine. We've only had them a month. We think she was at the bottom of the pecking order to begin with but things settled really quickly and they now all eat and sleep together ok.

Celaudbel

Title: Re: Hen blind in one eye
Post by: Oliveview on February 05, 2010, 09:27

She just looked ´off colour´and her eye was closed.  No sign of any discharge.  It just gradually went pinky/white colour.  She had 2 lots of antibiotics (in isolation) She sits with her head tucked under her wing a lot now.  She eats as soon as we put the food in in the mornings or give her the odd treat.
Pamela