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Caring for a blind bird

noribirds

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Not sure if anyone remembers but few weeks ago I had posted about my IRN who has psittacosis. She was on meds for a long time and though the issue did get resolved, the conjunctivitis that came with it ended up getting worse. There was pus alongside her beak and maybe under her right eye and that has now caused her to go blind in that eye. Her treatment is still going on and she’s getting injections for the inflammation and and eye infection but I’m not sure if she’ll ever be able to see again. Her right eye is completely glued shut and the area is swollen.

She also had crop statis last week and we treated her for it and she’s better now. She’s eating and drinking but I’m worried about her eye and if it could be fatal for her.

Has everyone had a partially blind or blind bird? How do you care for them? I would like some tips.

I’ve already moved her to a small cage along with her mate. (Her mate is healthy and she follows his lead in the cage)

Aside from the treatment going on, what more can I for my baby? Is it safe to let her out of her cage? her wings are not clipped and with one eye, I’m afraid she’ll hurt herself.

She also seems to rub the closed eye on her perch a lot.
 

Zara

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@Matto @enigma731 @SandraK @hrafn all have experience with blind birds.

 

Matto

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I'd probably recommend clipping her wings for now. I have a bird with cataracts in both eyes (from birth) who flies in circles and follows the sounds of our voices but it may be different for a bird only blind in one eye. We keep him in a relatively small cage and don't change it too much at once. We never leave him out unsupervised. Other than that, he is a very happy and sweet bird.
 

noribirds

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I’m wondering if I should modify the cage setup...? The cage setup is normal as she perches and moves around just fine (thanks to her mate who she follows along) but is placing fleece or padding the cage necessary? My concern is that since the small cage houses two birds they make a LOT of mess while eating. I know a lot of people would probably recommend moving my healthy male bird and keeping him in a bigger cage but he choose his mate and the small cage over their previous gigantic cage. Both my birds are deeply bonded and seperating them is not an option.

About the padding of the cage, I was thinking of placing newspapers, then fleece and maybe paper rolls over it? But again, they make a LOT of mess while eating and I feel like the bottom of the cage would always be messy?

Or should I leave the setup as it is and just observe how she does? She doesn’t seem to have any problem moving around.
 

noribirds

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I'd probably recommend clipping her wings for now. I have a bird with cataracts in both eyes (from birth) who flies in circles and follows the sounds of our voices but it may be different for a bird only blind in one eye. We keep him in a relatively small cage and don't change it too much at once. We never leave him out unsupervised. Other than that, he is a very happy and sweet bird.
I might clip her wings too. Her right eye was bad for a while and she only recently went blind but she was able to fly well.

The only thing is that she doesn’t seem interested in toys or playing anymore (unless its tearing newspaper to bits) even when she’s let out. My male will fly around and explore but she always perches outside in the same spot (unless she sees food somewhere, she’ll go where the food is and munch!)
 

Feather

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It's great that her mate is helping her. That was an absolute lifeline when I had my blind lovebird and I still don't know how I could have done it without him.

I would recommend a long cage with a low ceiling, something like this:
1601487167886.png
Mine had a lot of mobility problems as well, so I kept her in a cage with a padded bottom - a towel wrapped in dollar tree puppy pads works very well - and no perches. Even if your bird still perches fine, I would still strongly recommend padding the bottom and keeping all her cage furnishing low. That way if she does fall, she won't get hurt. Once the layout is established and she has time to adjust to navigating it, don't change it unless absolutely necessary.

Echoing the advice of @Matto . Blindness is one of the only times I ever condone clipping, but a bird who cannot see simply cannot fly safely.
 

SandraK

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Quaker Polly came to me already blind though I suspect she isn't completely blind. She was checked by Dr. Scott and there wasn't anything to reverse the blindness. I always had the impression that she could still see "shadows" whenever she was in partial sunlight by a window.

There wasn't much history to her; apparently she used to live in a house but separate cages with a companion parrot. Polly was surrendered for adoption because one of her owners had developed dementia and whenever she made any noise he would hit her cage to make her shut up. Fortunately she came with her cage which was a fairly small one and she wasn't very outgoing. She'd step up if she wanted to and didn't mind being cuddled a little now and then but, like an elderly granny with visiting young children, when she was done with the cuddling she would let you know. All she wanted was to go back to her cage. I didn't change the location of things in her cage so she'd be comfortable knowing where everything was. I did upgrade things like perches to rope so she wasn't afraid of slipping or falling. I had her cage positioned next to the Quaker girls' cage so she'd hear Daisy and Loofa but wasn't at risk of being attacked by anyone. She could also hear the Quakers boys, JJ & Baby, who were curious about her but never bothered her.

As for your bird's eyes, has your vet suggested any type of opthalmic ointment or drops?
 

noribirds

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Quaker Polly came to me already blind though I suspect she isn't completely blind. She was checked by Dr. Scott and there wasn't anything to reverse the blindness. I always had the impression that she could still see "shadows" whenever she was in partial sunlight by a window.

There wasn't much history to her; apparently she used to live in a house but separate cages with a companion parrot. Polly was surrendered for adoption because one of her owners had developed dementia and whenever she made any noise he would hit her cage to make her shut up. Fortunately she came with her cage which was a fairly small one and she wasn't very outgoing. She'd step up if she wanted to and didn't mind being cuddled a little now and then but, like an elderly granny with visiting young children, when she was done with the cuddling she would let you know. All she wanted was to go back to her cage. I didn't change the location of things in her cage so she'd be comfortable knowing where everything was. I did upgrade things like perches to rope so she wasn't afraid of slipping or falling. I had her cage positioned next to the Quaker girls' cage so she'd hear Daisy and Loofa but wasn't at risk of being attacked by anyone. She could also hear the Quakers boys, JJ & Baby, who were curious about her but never bothered her.

As for your bird's eyes, has your vet suggested any type of opthalmic ointment or drops?
She had both ointment and drops prescribed one after each other but they were of little use to her. Her eye would get a bit better and then her infection would get more aggressive. She’s been getting injections to reduce the inflammation of her blind eye and tomorrow we’re going for an X ray because she seems to make wheezing sounds while breathing. Her right nostril (her right eye is blind) has a little discharge.
 
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