Eye problems

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:04 am

well I didn't read your post until this evening so I'll go and try to find some antibiotics tomorrow. I did however stop past the pharmacy and ask about saline sol'n, the pharmacist said to make it myself using 1 cup boiled water and 1/2 tsp salt, so I did! I used warm water to soak the crusty feathers and managed to loosen some more and pull out another seed husk and more gunk, I with I could get more unglued, but I'm terrified of tearing his skin. Yesterday when I was ministering to him some of his skin started to lift and that's when I stopped

I was slightly more agressive today, I used warmer water and used the tweezers to gently tease more feathers free, his skin was a little red when I was done, but hopefully it's not too sore. I also rinsed his eye with saline, which he definitely didn't appreciate, I got pecked for my troubles, but a few more strings of gunk came out when I did it. I also put a nice glob of polysporin on the eye, he's such a trooper, he closed his eye while I was doing the feathers around them but he actually left it open for the first and last rinse and he kept it open for the polysporin too. I covered his cage and put him back on his hook, hopefully in covering his cage he just went straight to sleep and didn't rub his eye on his perch as much. I also caught him quicker today, so hopefully it wasn't as stressful as yesterday, chasing him around my room

Oh and he didn't even try the egg mixture, so I'll try taking his seed away tomorrow morning and giving him the egg stuff in that dish instead.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:33 am

A few suggestions;

I would remove the sand perch as I'm concerned he will rub his eye on it and do more damage. They sell those things but they really aren't good for your birds feet. And I have never known a Zebra to have overgrown nails, so the sand perch isn't necessary.

If he isn't interested in the egg food, don't withhold his seed, especially the spray millet. When a bird is ill it needs to eat so give it what it readily will eat.
Try the eggfood once he is feeling better.

If the skin is that inflamed, I would probably skip cleaning it tomorrow and maybe do it everyother day. BUT if the eye begins to crust over before then, so he can't open it, then go ahead and remove the gunk.

Keep up the good work. Your lil' Zeb will be so grateful!

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:25 am

yep
get rid of the perches altogether if i was you so he cant rub on anything as even normal perches have pooh on them ,from the birds feet so when he rubs his eye on the perch all those germs get in there.i am sure he would rather walk about a bit on the floor rather than have a gunked up eye put some paper towels on the floor and change them when they get dirty .and you could always give him a nest or a bowl to sit in when his little legs get tired..dont forget when your in hospital they change your sheets to stop germs..i hope he gets better soon

ken

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:20 am

well I got him the sand perches b/c he's actually broken off about 4 toe nails and a few of his nails looked pretty long, his perches are just smooth plastic with nothing to wear down the nails. He was less itchy last night so I'll keep an eye on him today and see how much itching is going on, if he's not itching that often I'll leave the perches but if he is then I'll take them out. He seems to like the sandpaper for rubbing his beak on too, I'll keep an eye on him and see if he's doing damage. I should take the perches out and give them a good scrub anyways though they did feel kinda sticky when I was rearranging the place the other day. I'll see what the skin looks like today, if it's still red I'll leave it, but if not I'm going to try to get more feathers unclumped. I think that that is a big part of his discomfort, since I've seen him scratching at the lump of clumped feathers moreso than at his eye. My guess is that the matt is pulling the feathers and it's hurting, just like a badly matted cat or dog. I wish it wasn't so solid or else I'd take a fine pair of scissors and snip it off, but it's solid right to the skin unfortunately

As far as the egg food I think I'll put the seed in a different dish and put the egg food in his seed dish so maybe he'll be more comfortable trying a new food in the dish he's used to eating out of.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:00 pm

The plastic perches could be the reason his nails are so long. I never used anything but wood, natural tree branches usually. Just make sure to clean the perches everyday, this is important even when he isn't ill.

I'm sure the matted feathers are uncomfortable. Clean the area as often as you feel he will tolerate. Keep an eye out for broken skin, as I know you have been.

You might try sprinkling some seed on top of the eggfood. This will often entice them to try it. Throw out any eggfood he doesn't eat within 3 hours.

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 1:20 pm

yeah I figured the plastic was his problem, that's why I got the sandpaper, I only covered 1 perch with it though I left the other plain. He also isn't rubbing his eye on the perches anymore I watched him for about 2 hours this morning and he just rubs his beak. He does reach up and scratch his eye with his foot though.
I got him to eat the egg stuff and he loves it, he ate for about 40 minutes only taking breaks to clean his beak and get a sip of water! lol I put the grit in the little treat dish I got him, and put his seed in the bigger dish the grit had been in and put the egg in the dish he's used to eating his seed out of. I did all of this as soon as I took his cover off and he flew straight for his normal seed dish and I could see him taste the egg and think for a minute then he dug right in!

I'm not sure if he's found his normal seed in the different dish yet though, but I just moved it so it's right beside his normal food dish.
here's the latest pics, the swelling has gone down tremendously and his eye is now in a more normal placement.
head on shot, sorry it's blurry I took 40 pics this morning to get these 2 usable ones!
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265 ... G_0467.jpg
Side view:
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265 ... G_0474.jpg

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 1:39 pm

He is looking better. At least his eye is visible now. I'm glad you got him to try the eggfood. Good work Thalia! I noticed he is a bit "fluffed" though. Finches do this when they are chilled. If his cage is hanging above the heat vent, perhaps you could drape a towel over part of the cage to help keep the heat in.

You are doing a terrific job.

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:00 pm

oh he was fluffy b/c I had him on the coffee table in the livingroom so I could take some pictures. Those pictures are also number 28 and 37 or something like that so I'd been snapping a lot and he doesn't like the flash so much. He isnt' normally fluffy when he's in our bedroom, but the b/f was sleeping in today so I couldn't watch him in our room like I usually do

He's in there now and is singing and happy, he finally figured out that the other cup has seed in it and he's been eating that too now. I put some mandarin orange segment in that had the membrane removed as well as some cucumber to see if I can get him to eat some different foods, so far as I know he's never been fed fresh foods. Anyways, I should go and tend his eye now before I have to go to work. I'll take more pics and post later. I'm surprised at how quickly he's starting to look better, I hope the improvements continue

Oh and he shunned his deeper bath water today

I'll try again tomorrow.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:57 pm

hi thalia
he is looking better already looks like you are doing a great job with his eye

ken

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:19 am

thanks guys! I cleaned a significant chunk of that lump off his face. While doing that I've found the cause for his lack of colouration on that side... the feathers are all dead and he's bald under the lump! The lump appears to be comprised of gunk, old feathers and seed husks and the gunk has glued it directly to the skin. Poor guy is bald now almost all the way around his eye. I hope to get the rest of the lump off with today's cleaning. He was a good little guy with the cleaning again yesterday, he sat fairly quietly until he'd had enough (after about 20 minutes of cleaning) when he started pecking my hand. He is definitely visual in that eye, it took me 4 tries to get the Polysporin in it yesterday, as he'd see my finger approach and whip his head around and peck me! I'm taking his feistiness as a good sign too

I don't think there's any swelling left and the saline wash didn't produce any more goop, so hopefully once I get the rest of that lump off he'll just need to regrow those feathers to be good as new. I kinda wonder if the feathers will come back after all this time though

I'll take and post some pics later today after I get home from work.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:35 am

That is great news Thalia. All your efforts to save this bird are worth it as he sounds like a fiesty little bird and will probably be fine soon. Yes, the feathers may never regrow, but there are many well loved birds with bald spots. My CB male has a bald neck and has always been that way, but he is beautiful to me.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:20 am

hi thalia
well done its great news and you will be well rewarded for it...by seeing him fit and well in the future

ken

zookeeper · Post by **zookeeper** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:44 am

Wow! You are doing a great job.

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:20 pm

thanks guys! I just finished, what is hopefully my last cleaning session with him. He had managed to stick a new seed husk to his face

and he was not having any of my cleaning attempts without a fight. It took me more that a half hour b/c he kept pecking the rag and squirming loose and flying around and so on and so forth. I did however unclump the rest of the lump. There were a few large chunks of goop and 2 more seed husks in there but not a whole lot of dead feathers. I think I even saw some new ones sprouting (fingers crossed), there were little white bumps all in a uniform row right above his ear. He is bald from just above his eye around the eye on both sides down to his ear, his entire cheek that is supposed to be brown is bald, poor little thing. I didn't get any more goop out of his eye today either, although this morning when I checked him it looked a little goopy, so he must have cleaned it himself. He's definitely feisty and eating well, he really likes the vitamin drops on the seeds, he got all excited when I put new seed in for him tonight. I'm making sweet potatoes tomorrow so I'm going to try some of them cooked and mashed and maybe some parsnip too, give him a little Christmas dinner

I think if he remains bald I may change his name to a pirate name since the bald patch looks kinda like an eye patch lol

I didn't get pictures yet but I'll post his final pictures tomorrow maybe, he's had enough trauma tonight. I'm also going to stop such intense cleanings with him and only rinse his eye and ointment it if it looks goopy. I don't think he needs the added stress, although he's been a little trooper! I'd like to take all the credit, but I think the vitamin drops have had a big effect too, he's been singing more and more active since I started him on them

Happy Holidays!

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:41 pm

What is the little guys name anyway? I've been wondering. So happy you were able to save his eye. He will be forever grateful. Once he is healed you should get him a buddy.