Urgent Cat scratched Lovebirds Eye

[Ilse]

Hi there, I just returned from a 3 hour trip with my family and when I came home my bedroom door (where my Fischer Lovebird, Rockie) was open, and my two cats were peeking out. I started panicking INSTANTLY. My father and his friend helped me look for Rockie since she wasn't in her cage, and after about 10 minutes which felt like forever, we found her hiding between my shoes, shaking and panicky.

I thought she was just shaken up until I saw her eye

I asked my dad to take her to the vet and he said since she seems okay he'd wait and take her first thing tomorrow morning. She seems perfectly normal, she's napping on my laptop right now but she's eaten, preened, and acted like she usually would but I'm still worried. Is the wound bad? I don't know if you can see it but it looks like there's something (blood, maybe?) covering a bit of her actual eyeball at the top.

Her eye can open fully and she can blink normally, she was just mid blink when I was taking this photo.

Please, any advice on helping it or just making her feel better will help!


Thank you so much!

 

[Mizzely]

Cat scratches require vet attention, as soon as possible. Cat scratches and saliva can cause sepsis.

 

[Garet]

She needs to go to a vet asap. Cats contain bacteria under their claws that can quickly kill a bird, and the longer you wait, the worse her prognosis could be.

 

[Erikalynnha]

It would be a good idea to take her to a vet for antibiotics. Cat scratches can cause bacterial infections. In fact a tiny sratch from a clients cat sent me to the hosiptal. I had a fever for a week and broke out in a rash. Just because she seems fine doesn't mean she is. Hope she will feel better soon. Poor fluff must have been so scared.

 

[RawPasta]

My AV said ask.but cat/dog contact requires antibiotics "like yesterday". I made the mistake of waiting once with my hahn's macaw. He seemed fine. About 2 days later, he passed. I'd get to the vet asap for meds.

 

[camelotshadow]

Glad she survived a swipe of a cats claw but they contain potentially deadly bacteria which could lead to the death of a bird.

Best thing is to get to a vet for some preventative antibiotics. Sometimes it only takes a day or two to be too late.

 

[Ilse]

My father went to the pub but right now I'm begging him to come home to take her and I've told him about the bacteria and stuff. But if he doesn't come home, what can I do? What are the chances of an infection?

 

[painesgrey]

Chances of infection are high, but no one here will be able to tell you the odds of her falling ill. If your father won't take her tonight, then keep her quiet and calm and take her first thing in the morning.

 

[Lady Jane]

Chances of infection are significant. Can you find a friend or neighbor to take you?

 

[Ilse]

I can't get anyone to take me today, I'm still in the process of asking my father. I'm just worried something will happen during the night if he doesn't take her today. She's sleeping a lot, but over the past week or so she has been (hopefully just because my laptop is warm)

 

[rocky'smom]

Get her in to avian vet asap please

 

[Erikalynnha]

If you can not vet her all you can do if keep her comfortable. Have you tried to clean around the wound? A warm compress or a little saline solution to help clean it out but don't do this if it will just stress her out more.

 

[Ilse]

I did try to clean it but she kept moving her head away trying to bite me so I just let her sleeping on my warm laptop.

I was told to mist her with water to clean it out a bit but I didn't have a spray bottle that didn't have anything chemical-y in it (like cleaning products) and I'm worried that no matter how well I clean it out there's still a chance some could get in her eye (i also read somewhere that you should only use new bottles that were bought empty so I had that in mind too)

After that I set up a bath for her with grass to entice her a little more, (I never tried to force her in obviously) but she just wanted to stay on my shoulder so that didn't work out

 

[Garet]

Could you try dripping water on her face manually? She might not like it, but it might be your only option.

 

[Ilse]

I've dabbed a bit of water on it, she didn't like it too much but I'll do whatever I can

 

[Ilse]

Another question, will she show any signs when/if she gets an infection? Right now she's acting normal (still) but it happened over 5 hours ago.

 

[AkasyaEllric]

Birds hide their illness usually until it's too late. It's a survival instinct because a weak one showing signs of illness would get picked off immediately in the wild.

 

[Shezbug]

The last time I had a cat break my skin the Dr insisted on a tetnus injection and made a big fuss of cleaning out the wound very well. Cats not only dig to use the loo but they also dig around their droppings to cover it which means chances of feces under claws are fairly high, they also often kill other animals and have many various bacteria on their feet and claws. Even when cats scratch each other there is more often than not a bad result due to the germs on their feet and claws, abscesses usually result from even the smallest claw puncture wound in other cats.
I would think a visit with the vet would be the safest thing for your bird because any wound to the eye area can be worse than we can actually see and the fact that the skin has been broken by a cat is very risky.

I hope you can find someone to take you to the vet soon.

 

[Ilse]

I've just been talking to my dad and he's claiming the scratch isn't from the cat (which I'm hoping is true) and just from my shoe or something.

The cut or scratch or whatever it is isn't big so I'm praying my dad was right. If my cat scratched her it probably would have gotten more of her eye, right? And she probably would have been flying away so it would have gotten her wing too...? It look worse than it is. The bottom of the white bit around her eye is a little pink/purple, but it has been since i found her and it may also just be a bit of blood. It doesn't seem like she can sleep properly, she can blink fine but she cant keep her eye closed completely

 

[Shezbug]

Regardless of what did the damage to your birds eye, it needs to be seen by a vet. Even small injuries to the eye area can be much worse than we think as we can not possibly see how much damage has been done to the actual eyeball. If your bird is having issues closing her eye properly and having trouble sleeping then I would be thinking that her eye is much more uncomfortable than you think it is meaning there is a good chance the damage is worse than what you can see. She is possibly in pain if she is having trouble sleeping or keeping the eye closed, I really think that if you can not get to a vet now then the morning is as late as I would personally leave it.
My ex had a serious scratch on the eye ball that he said did not hurt, lucky he got talked into having it checked out properly as he would have lost his sight and possibly even his eye......the specialist told him this after he said there was a big fuss made over nothing. Eyes are much more sensitive and easily damaged beyond repair than most of us realize or believe.
I would hate to see your bird suffer in pain or loose one of it's eyes because someone just decided it could not be the cat as the injury is too small. Maybe your bird was lucky and the cat was not so lucky?