Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Went to do chores last night, and sort of dazed outside the coop was this girl with blood all down one side of the face. I caught her, came from the bad side and she didnt see me. Eye was swollen shut. Put her in isolation while I did chores, then got a wet cloth and cleaned her up, removed blood that would have caked, but some salve on it. It looked at the time like it was cut and swollen below the eye.

Checked on her this morning, and not 100% sure, but I think the eyeball is either gone or has been kind of deflated. Was hard and dry around it, almost like a coat of varnish, glue. I salved it again, and I just put her back in the coop where food and water are in familiar places.

So my question is, has anyone had a one eyed chicken? How do they do? Is it likely that she can be in the general population and live a reasonable life? What is anyone elses experience or thoughts?

I would give her a chance. SIster had a really bad eye infection (didn't lose the eye) and adapted fast. I used Polysporin pink eye drops 3x per day. Now she is a very dominant bird and the others don't mess with her.

I had a blind chicken and she did fine, gave me eggs and found the food and water on her own. Yours will be fine just keep her separate until the eye heals so the rest don't pick at it.

We had a similar thing happen to one of our chickens last year. We suspect that the dominant hen was pecking at her face as they were learning their 'order'. I would suggest monitoring the her and her eye. Unfortunately, our hen's eye got pretty swollen and infected and we put her on anti-biotics (from the vet) to fight that infection.

Once that was over, she healed up fine and is coping just fine with just one eye!

I have an Ameraucana hen that got injured in one eye over a year ago. It wasn't bleeding, but the eyeball was flat and I found her in the nest box facing the back and looking sickly. I couldn't see an injury, but her eye was watering a bit and she kept it closed. It was 2 days before she was out moving around. She is blind in that eye. I think she got pecked there. I still have her and she does ok. She is still with the chickens that she was with when her eye was hurt and they have not bothered it or her.

Our rooster has been blind in one eye for years. He gets the job done and cares for all the hens

I feed a can of grain on the ground every afternoon. I brought her out of the stall for that. She pecked a little and drank some water, then went and huddled under the goat house. An hour or so later, I went and caught her to put her back in the stall, she followed me out, so I put her in the coop, thinking if she wants to huddle there she can. I certainly wont be putting her down or anything, unless something develops differently. Thinking she is still getting used to it, but I am guessing it will be ok in a week or two.

i have a one-eyed quail male, blinded by some of his higher ranking males. He's doing just fine with one eye, so live and let live. Will elaborate on his story line at a later date.

I've had several sight-impaired chickens: just one eye gone or both, and varying degrees of sightedness in between. It hurts, there's an adjustment period, and they lose flock status while they're recovering. Sometimes, especially if they've lost sight in both eyes, they will never regain their previous status. Survival of the fittest.
But they tend to do as well as the sighted with a little extra help at first. Protection from bullies while they're recovering, showing where food and water is until they remember, and medication to make sure they regain as much sight as possible, extra time to adjust to any changes in the coop and they will be just fine.
I've had half a dozen blind roosters and 3 blind hens ; the boys never breed again after losing both eyes, but I wouldn't want them to anyway. The girls will carry on as normal, except they need extra protection from amorous cocks, as a slow blind girl will suddenly become everybody's favourite and will soon be humped to death.

Caught her yesterday and examined. She kept flicking her head. There was a dangly piece of eyelid or something, got the scissors and trimmed it so it isnt dangly any more. No maggots or anything, the eye is gone. Have put her back in the coop, and she hangs around inside most of the day, no one seems to bother her.

She now had a name. Diane. As in Moshe Dayan.

Something else, after I put her down, I had a few mites crawling on me. Sure wish I could get that dusting powder they outlawed. Other than DE which they have, anyone else got something that works? Seriously thinking about a PFT of raid into the feathers near the vent, but decided not to.