5 Year Old Cockatiel With Watery Eye

Peter in around 5 years old and lives with a group of other birds in a large indoor aviary. We've had him since he was young and this is the first time that he has been ill.

Symptoms

Watery, red, swollen eye (Only in the left eye. Sometimes dustm skin flakes and such actually stick to the eyeball. But, not much crusting like with conjunctivitis.)

Snotty noises and occasional runny nose.

He's eating and drinking just fine and his droppings are a normal colour with a touch more liquid than usual. (Not much.)

This condition seemed to come and go and return again. We noticed his red eye about a week ago and put it down to injury, as we bought a new aviary recently and they are still getting used to it. I bathed the eye every so often and it seemed to clear up after a day or two, but returned again. So, I added some enrofloxacin to his water (Only about 0.1) and waited to see if it had any effect. It seemed to clear up the eye, but he was still making snotty noises. Then, last night, his eye started going red again and tonight it's back to how it was when he first started with it.

I thought at first he may have hurt his eye, then I thought it might be allergies, then freaked out about Psitticosis and other bacterial infections.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I can't get to a vet for a couple of days. (They are all closed. :C )

Wish I could help but can only recommend getting into the Avian Vet ASAP but it appears you are already looking into that. Good luck!

Vet asap and get him in a smaller cage for safety and so you can watch him closely. Let us know what the vet says!
Make sure not to give meds before a vet visit. They can cause tests to not be accurate

headfeathermistress said:

Vet asap and get him in a smaller cage for safety and so you can watch him closely. Let us know what the vet says!
Make sure not to give meds before a vet visit. They can cause tests to not be accurate

Click to expand...

Christa,
That's a very good point about meds throwing off test results.

Two things come to mind. One of course is an upper resp. infection. 2nd is that he has a seed hull in her tear duct causing all the symptoms. Either way, I do not recommend medicating till after seem by a vet. I do recommend doing eye rinses with warm water and taking him into the bathroom, run the shower and let the steam help clear his nares. A vet check is needed.

**One thing to remember when medicating birds on our own, like humans if given to many meds over time they too can build an immunity to them. When a real emergency for meds is needed they end up not curing the illness due to the immunity.

I took Peter to the vet and he said that since there was still eating and lively activity, Psittacosis looked very unlikely. He said he put it down to sinusitis and prescribed more of the enrofloxacin.

She's on a 2 week course of it and started it about a week ago. She was showing signs of improvement, but the other day her eye was at it again and she began to snot more. I had to bathe her feathers today because they are getting matted where she has been rubbing.

I don't exactly know why she had such a relapse, as it seemed to be going OK. PLus, I gave her a quick exam and found her to be incredibly skinny, even though she has been eating.

Make sure to weigh your little one daily and give what ever she will eat to keep the weight on. Maybe share toast in the morning?

Ionia said:

I took Peter to the vet and he said that since there was still eating and lively activity, Psittacosis looked very unlikely. He said he put it down to sinusitis and prescribed more of the enrofloxacin.

She's on a 2 week course of it and started it about a week ago. She was showing signs of improvement, but the other day her eye was at it again and she began to snot more. I had to bathe her feathers today because they are getting matted where she has been rubbing.

I don't exactly know why she had such a relapse, as it seemed to be going OK. PLus, I gave her a quick exam and found her to be incredibly skinny, even though she has been eating.

Click to expand...

I have be treating 2 tiels with the same symptoms with doxycycline. You have to make sure they get the right dose if it's water soluble. I have been crop medicating them & they are responding well to treatment.

The weight loss concerns me. Like Pedro mentions, are you giving the meds orally or mixing in water? I highly recommend that meds not be mixed in water. Also, you mention that your vet put her on eurofloxacin "again". If this is reoccurring your bird needs to be put on different meds. Blood work can be done to test for Psittacosis. Yes, birds can show no signs of this illness and still be positive. I encourage you to use good handwashing technique after handling anything of hers. Resp infections can also cause weight loss.
Make sure you put a heat source on her. A light directed at 1/2 of the cage or a heating pad under the cage. Partially cover 3 sides with a towel. With weightloss and illness birds have to work extra hard to maintain body heat therefor the drop weight and exhaust their systems.
*Is this vet an Avian vet? If not I highly recommend you seek a 2nd opinion. I hope your baby feels better soon.

greycloud said:

The weight loss concerns me. Like Pedro mentions, are you giving the meds orally or mixing in water? I highly recommend that meds not be mixed in water.

Click to expand...

This is done orally twice a day. The amount I've been told to give Peter is just .2 straight into the beak.

greycloud said:

Also, you mention that your vet put her on eurofloxacin "again". If this is reoccurring your bird needs to be put on different meds.

Click to expand...

Oh, no no. As I mentioned in my first post, I gave Peter the last remnants of enro in water when she first started with it just to try and get on top of it.

greycloud said:

Blood work can be done to test for Psittacosis. Yes, birds can show no signs of this illness and still be positive.

Click to expand...

I would have done, but at the time we could not afford it. We have been attempting to save up while the treatment is in progress.

greycloud said:

I encourage you to use good handwashing technique after handling anything of hers.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I have been doing.

greycloud said:

Resp infections can also cause weight loss.

Click to expand...

I'm really hoping this is all it is... I just don't understand why she responded, then got worse again.

greycloud said:

*Is this vet an Avian vet? If not I highly recommend you seek a 2nd opinion. I hope your baby feels better soon.

Click to expand...

Yes. He is a bird specialist.

It seems like you are doing everything you can at the moment I hope your baby recovers asap!

How is your baby doing? I'm sending lots of thoughts your way that this clears up soon. You're taking great care with the little one.

Thanks for answering my questions. Sometimes birds do have set backs after meds are started. I advise to not let symptoms deteriorate to much before calling vet again. A med change may be beneficial.

Thanks guys. Peter has a few more days left on enrofloxacin. I did call up again last night, but was told that other than what I am doing, not much else can be done. So, I'll be seeing how the rest of the treatment goes and I'll be taking the little bugger back after if she is no better.

This is the eye at the moment:

I wiped the feathers yesterday with warm salt water to get rid of the nasty stuff that had matted the feathers, so it looks better than it did.

If your little fellow isn't eating then it's very important to get some food into him.
See if your Vet would crop feed some warm Hand Rearing food straight into the crop. Sick birds need to be kept warm, medicated & fed.

Pedro said:

If your little fellow isn't eating then it's very important to get some food into him.
See if your Vet would crop feed some warm Hand Rearing food straight into the crop. Sick birds need to be kept warm, medicated & fed.

Click to expand...

No no. He IS eating. He's just suddenly skinny. He is also still drinking as normal.

Sorry for the double post. I just wanted to let you know about recent events.

Peter had a blood test to check for Psittacosis. I got the results back over the phone a few minutes ago. Thankfully, it came back negative. The vet just said to keep doing what I am doing and give him some of this powder that thins mucus over his food each day. If he doesn't improve by the end of this week, she wants to switch antibiotics.

They don't know what it is still, but at least it's not Psittacosis.

Oh good. So what is his weight? Have you been able to get him to gain any?

headfeathermistress said:

Oh good. So what is his weight? Have you been able to get him to gain any?

Click to expand...

http://www.parrotforums.com/bereavement/22020-rip-peter-17-08-2012-a.html