Amazon's eye won't open

[JonC1991]

Hi guys,

My mother just recently bought a baby (about a few weeks old) Red-Lored Amazon. And yesterday (May 26th, 2013) we noticed that his one of his eyes wasn't opening correctly. Today, he won't open his eye at all. We are new to owning a parrot, and usually I'm the one that's most precautious out of both us. Is this something to worry about? She took a look and found a small feather.

[sidech]

This baby seems very young and should still be at the breeders. You shouldn't have gotten an unweaned baby. Bring him to the vet, have him checked and treated, then bring him back to the breeder. Please.

[JonC1991]

Well that's the problem. My mother purchased the parrot in Saltillo, off of some guy. The parents were there. He gave us instructions to hand feed him until he got all his feathers. So we've been feeding him Maseca (Corn Flour) with water and either pieces of apples or pieces bananas. From other photos I've seen online, he looks like he's about 7 weeks old.

Now about the eye, I went to the vet. He told me it was an infection due to the feather. I feel unsatisfied with that diagnose because of the fact that he didn't look at Pancho (My mom's bird) thoroughly. Just a quick look with a flashlight and said that it's an infection due to the feather being in there. I'm still looking for another vet, preferably one that specializes in birds.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Well something like that would probably be fairly obvious to any vet although your quite right you need an avian vet to take a look but I would think this would be the cause. Also the diet... you need eggfood. I can give you a recipe for it or buy the dry mix and add water to the correct consistency EMP is a good brand if you don't make it yourself, cornflour is a coagulant used to make birds stop bleeding and has very little nutritional value. Did the breeder tell you that it was OK to feed that?!

Unweaned babies tend to develop these problems because the parents would have cleaned the bird and ensure this didn't happen. This bird has been removed from the parents months before it is supposed to thus it hasn't learnt or been provided with life saving and development skills.

As the breeder was stupid enough to sell this bird to you unweaned its put this poor in a dangerous situation. As returning to the breeder now isn't an option I would find an avian vet and get them to wean the parrot for you. You should never ever buy an unweaned parrot, its like the worst thing you can ever do, which you probably didn't know so no one can really blame you no matter how obvious we think it is. However now you need to take the correct steps.

Weaning the chick yourself by instructions is very dangerous. I've re-weaned birds that have had a regression but that's because I had an avian vet at hand 24;7 and I've owned birds all my life. Even that isn't ideal. Incorrect feeding can cause crop impaction, slow crop, sour crop, complete crop statis, malnutrition, food in the lungs (their bodies operate different to ours so if you put the food in just a millisecond too soon the food goes in their lungs and causes infection). Weaning the bird yourself won't make in bond with you either, that's a myth spun around by bad breeders for people to buy unweaned chicks so they can re-breed the parrots faster ad gain more profit.

I don't mean to sound harsh but I do need to point out the seriousness of the situation. I would get the vet to do this for you, weaning a bird is a very exacting process.

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[Pajarita]

Actually, corn flour is what they feed baby birds in all of Latin America (we used it to feed baby quakers back when I was a young girl). It's not the best thing because it doesn't really have enough nutrients but you can add stuff to it like hardboiled egg mashed into a paste, pureed fruits, cooked and mashed sweet potatoes and carrots, pureed apple compote, etc. You can also add other flours like whole wheat, oat, rice, etc. as well as ground nuts (like almonds that you toast and then pulverize with pestle and mortar - that kind of thing. Don't use milk though...

Did the vet give you an antibiotic for the bird? Is it an oral or a topical one?

[Eric&Rebecca]

Really?! Oh I didn't know that! Nevertheless still not enough nutrients for a growing chick without the additions parajita has suggested.

[JonC1991]

The drops were this brand called "Tobra-Pet's Dexa ophthalmic" (Translation) which contains dexamethasone 21-phosphates and Tobramycin . The drops have been working to keep some of the swelling down. But I want to stop using them because of the fact that it's "Recommended for Canines and Felines". (Pinches Veterinarios, no valen madre aqui). A cousin of mine is recommending something called "Tetracycline" ointment but I'm not sure.

Also since this country (Mexico) is very corrupt and crime is rampant (I'm originally from the US), there is a risk of either the vet selling it to someone, or someone breaking into the vet's office and stealing it from him. And just to prove to you this area is really bad, I got mugged 2 blocks away from that place. That's why I really don't feel comfortable leaving him at the vet.

And Pajarita, we've been mixing apples and bananas with the mixture. Now we're giving him crushed sunflower seeds (no shell) with that mixture.

[Eric&Rebecca]

There aren't really too many avian specific medications generally let alone an avian specific eyedrop- which MAY be the reason why. Baytril is a common broad spectrum antibiotic used for birds with infections and there's also another one I can't quite remember now however because its specific to the eye there's probably not a specific avian eyedrop, avian medicine is unfortunately one of the least evolved areas of animal medicine purely because birds have not been domesticated as long as cats or dogs for speicific medications to be developed. Sometimes birds will have to rely on medicines for other animals so I wouldn't just stop using it- the vet may not be an avian vet but he probably knows more than anyone else you have immediate access to. Why don't you try getting an avian vet opinion via email or the internet there's a lot of avian vets willing to do this

The eyedrops will wash the infection out which is why the swelling is going down, you just need to be patient with it and see. An ointment would just sit on the eye rather than removing the infection in the same way it would protect a cut or something. With cuts, our vet uses a solution that's blue in colour and then directs owners highly diluted topical version of f10 to use to clean the wound. However this would not work on an eye either so I would stay with what the vet has given you. Tetracylcine is human grade and extremely harsh for humans!- let alone a poor bird!

Sunflower seeds with out shells will be good for now to help your bird gain weight, however this is not a good fat to have for the long term. For now this is great but I would consider making an eggfood blend too- what do you think Parajita (the eggfood would give the protein?). You can also blend safe fruits together into a puree, as well a veggies but this is more of a later stage... Eggfood is really easy to make, I do it myself because its good occassional food for birds anyway. You can get premade mix by EMP brand but I prefer to make my own You bird still needs a little more nutrition.

With regards to not being able to leave it at the vet, well that's unfortunate. However, you will need to seek professional advice on how to feed the bird properly, the vet would have an idea about how to this even if they arent an avian vet, if not I am sure there is someone here that could give you some better pointers about weaning as you have no other choice if you can't track down the breeder.

As you said in the meantime seek out an avian vet but the vet you have now is the best hope for this bird.

[JonC1991]

Well I got great news, the swelling has gone down enough that he can open his eye. But there is this milky film covering his infected eye. We are continuing with the eye drops.

Here is the infected eye opened


Here it is again


Here it is when it's closed


Here is his non-infected eye

[Eric&Rebecca]

Chances are the quill of the feather scratched the surface of the eye so the eyedrops will form a protective film like that which is the equivalent of a scab. A similar thing happened to my eye with a contact lens and I had this. Obviously birds aren't humans but I would hazard a guess that's what it is. Make sure you keep using the eyedrops for the full course and to bathe the eye in warm water after the prescription has run out. For this I would use room temperature mineral water not from the tap although consult your vet first.

Don't be surprised with medications for birds if they aren't bird specific, avian vets will locate the medicine for you if it does exist in a bird specfic format but quite a lot of the time it doesn't. My AV often locates medicines specifically from the manufacturer or has them imported from the USA for each case, he has regular broad spectrum stocked all the time but if he knows there is something he can get he will.

Keep it up and you will see it should be fine. Have you managed to find some eggfood yet? It would really help him out