Urgent Cockatiel keeping eye closed

[TielTrio]

Hello all, my oldest cockatiel (age 30) has been keeping his right eye closed all day And has been rubbing at it with his wing. I flushed his eye out with some saline and as of right now he’s asleep so I can’t tell if it helped yet or not. I’m currently in a debacle with my father since I want our birdie to see a vet but my father is refusing saying “I’m not going to pay 2k just for the bird to die”, I’ve tried repeatedly to tell him that if it’s any sort of infection it could spread to our other two cockatiels (both age 5) which would be an even bigger vet bill and we need him to see a vet so whatever is going on doesn’t spread to his other eye. What can I do to help my oldest until I can finally get through to my dad and have our birdie see a vet?

 

[Pixiebeak]

That's tough .
Eye stuff is always a veterinarian thing , for me and for advice I share.

 

[TielTrio]

Update: He’s opened his eye up a little bit but nowhere near fully. I’m going to continue to press my dad to see a vet because i’m so worried that the longer he goes without proper treatment the worse it’s going to get. He’s my childhood pet (adopted 2 years before I was born) and I want him to get the help he needs before whatever is going on becomes potentially fatal due to his age.

 

[TielTrio]

Big update: I’ve finally gotten through to my dad and we’ve booked an appointment with his vet for Monday (the earliest day they had an opening). He’s still keeping that eye closed for the most part and looking at it today it’s gotten cloudy, no puss/discharge still.

 

[TielTrio]

Final update: He has been diagnosed with cataracts. This right eye has a very developed cataract and his left eye is in the beginning stages of developing one. No infection, no eye scratch. My old birdies age is now finally starting to impact him.

 

[Zara]

I am glad you got answers.

Is there anything they can do for him?

 

[TielTrio]

I am glad you got answers.

Is there anything they can do for him?

The vet said that if he ends up getting glaucoma it would be better to let him permanently rest instead of dealing with the pain. He’s lived a very long life and we have no idea exactly how long we have left with his so to quote the vet “Give him plenty of the treats he loves, spoil him rotten”