When your chicken’s eye gets punctured… here’s what to do
If you’ve ever wondered if your chicken’s eye can explode. The answer is yes, it can.
In this article, you’ll learn how serious eye puncture wounds can be, and what to do if you find your chicken has punctured her eye.
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Disclaimer: Please note I am not a vet or medical professional. Consult your vet for advice and do your own due diligence.
When your chicken gets an eye puncture…
A couple of weeks ago, I was told by the vet that my chicken’s eye might rupture. Or it might not.
You see, she punctured her eye about a month and a half ago. On what? I have no frickin clue. When I went to lock the coop up one night, my sweetest hen, Hooter, was standing on her roosting bar with one eye closed.
I brought her inside, and upon prying the eye open, I saw it had a small puncture—it was just a little hole, like a deep tear, in her eye. I still have no idea what caused it, but these things happen every once in a while. This wasn’t the first eye injury I’ve seen in one of my chickens, but it was the worst.
Anyway, since this happened, Hooter has been to the vet a few times, and the last time she went (about 2 weeks ago), the vet was worried her eye might rupture. She said it looked like the iris might be poking through the cornea, which can cause the eye to burst.
Below you can see a photo of Hooter' bum eye—the vet took this picture 2 weeks ago:
Doesn't look right. Does it? So the vet referred me to a specialist—an avian ophthalmologist. Yes, apparently there is such a thing, and I made an appointment. What will I do if Hooter’s eye explodes in the meantime? No clue.
But it is getting worse. Here's how her eye looks today:
Not good, Hooter, not good.
Let's compare it to her good eye, so you can see just how off that bad eye is:
Beautiful girl. Isn’t she?
Hooter is scheduled to see the ophthalmologist tomorrow.
What do chicken eye doctors run these days? The consultation alone will be $193… yeah… (Any advice on how to break this to my husband?)
I’ll let you know how it goes, but I wanted to share this story with you in case you happen to find one of your chickens with an eye wound.
How to treat your chicken’s eye puncture
You’ll want to have a couple of things on hand:
A cage or safe place to keep your chicken comfortable and separate from the flock
Eyewash so you can very gently flush the eye of any debris
I didn’t have antibiotic eye cream on hand, and I’ll never let that happen again. My husband drove to the city and hit three different D&Bs (our farm and ranch supply store). All claimed to have the antibiotic cream available in the store, but none of them actually did.
So I ended up driving 3 towns over where I finally found some at a Tractor Supply store.
So be sure to check your local farm store for the cream next time you pick up your chicken feed, or order antibiotic eye cream here on Amazon. You don't want to be without it—this stuff may save your chicken's eye.
We put the cream on Hooter’s eye once a day for a week. We kept her separated in a cage inside our house for the duration of the week. We let her back with the flock after that, because the eye looked like it had scarred over.
Last bit of advice, if you have access to a vet, take your chicken in as quickly as you can. Eye injuries can be worse than they look and chicken eyes really can explode—let’s hope to God Hooter’s doesn’t before her appointment tomorrow.
Your vet should also be able to provide your chicken with some pain meds. I can only imagine how badly Hooter’s eye hurts.