Closing Eye

[meagan]

So I went outside this morning and got Zoey to weigh her..brought her into the garage and set her onto the scale and noticed that she was closing her right eye. And not with her nictating membrane but with the feathered eyelid.

She opened it when I took her onto the fist and we took a short walk around the house and noticed that she kept trying to close it halfway. I think she might have something upon her eye but I am unable to see anything. If she keeps doing this then I will take her into the vet tomorrow but I was unsure on if this is sometimes normal.

[falco]

I would have to say its probably not normal since you were walking around with her while she was doing. I have had birds that will close one eye while perched and watch everyone with the other but thats different.

[Master Yarak]

Encephalitis can cause this. It was the very first first symptom of WNV I noticed in my bird. She had already been given the equine vaccine. Not to say that is what is but I will say that it is not normal.
Yarak

[meagan]

Thanks Yarak....I am taking her to the vet tomorrow if it does not clear up per sponsors orders. He thinks that she might have hurt it crashing through the trees and such when we were out on Sunday...but its still not clearing it and she's doing it again this morning. She was doing it last night as well. I looked through my raptor care book in the chapter over illnesses and the first picture I saw had a red-tailed hawk with its eye closed and the captions read something along the lines of the sign of a bird with WVN....my boyfriend thinks I am over reacting but I'd rather be over reacting then have my bird die on me.

[Migisi]

As I PMd you, I'd suspect a hair-sized thorn or a tiny puncture in the cornea, given the other signs you described to me.

Closing eyes IS one sign of WNV. However, it's not WNV season in the Midwest. I've never encountered it at this time of year (typically ends in October). Additionally, most WNV patients I've observed close BOTH eyes, and present other symptoms before eye-closing.

[meagan]

Thanks Migisi....yeah I figured it was too late for WNV to be happening....seeing as its frigid as heck here and I've seen no mosquitos or anything of the sorts....she's going to see the doc tomorrow...I hope its not going to be a permanent thing with her eye... .... I'll post tomorrow when I find out...

[waterbug]

If it is just a puncture or scrape, it should be fine in a few weeks at most. It sounds major, but my sponsor's MRT had a blackberry thorn embedded in his eye (from crashing brush) and there wasn't really anything that could be done about it. After a few weeks it had completely dissolved and he was fine.

[meagan]

Yeah my sponsor said that there is really not much we can do...just wants me to feed her up and not fly her for a few days and call him tonight or tomorrow with some insight onto how she is doing. She is in the GH today, I dont want her to move around too much. I'd rather be safe than sorry. She was crashing hard through the brush and I assume there is just something in there I can see. I still feel bad though, hopefully she will be flying within a few days, she keeps giving me that look when she is on her scale as if to say "So we're hunting today right?"

[meagan]

Going to go on and take her to the vet today....arrived back home and noticed that there is a white spot that is forming on the lower portion of her eye.....argh!

[Migisi]

Dec 8, 2008 12:22:13 GMT -5 waterbug said:

but my sponsor's MRT had a blackberry thorn embedded in his eyee.

A little story:
Had a wild GHO with a rose thorn embedded. Poor owl couldn't close its eye lid at all, and the nictitating membrane couldn't do its job... which meant a very dry eye, constant exposure to cold, and much pain.

When my doc removed the thorn, all the fluid in the eye leaked out and the cornea went totally flat and wrinkled. Ugh, what a sight. He sutured the hole in the cornea with thread only as thick as a human hair, added a touch of vet glue on the sutures, and injected saline under the cornea to re-fill the eye. What freaked me out were the bubbles still left under the cornea after re-filling. Doc said they'd be absorbed by the body. They were - overnight.

Anyway, about a week later, the sutures let go, the fluid leaked out, leaving the owl with a totally flattened cornea again. I was bummed. Brought it back to the vet and left it to be worked on later. If it couldn't be fixed, he had instructions to euthanize.

Well, while waiting for the vet examination, the cornea healed itself and the eye re-filled with its natural fluid. No leakage, no sight impairment, and both lids functioned perfectly. The vet called me - asking why I'd left the owl, cuz it was fine. The owl was released a two weeks later - with only a barely visible scar on the cornea.

The body has amazing healing powers. But without removing such a large thorn, I highly doubt the eye would've ever healed on its own. Infection would've likely set in.

[meagan]

Well guys just got back from the vet...good news is that nothing too bad is wrong with her eye. Its just inflamed and that is why the cornea on the front side is flat and not circular. We took her into a dark room, unhooded her and we did not even have to cast her or anything, just looked at both eyes and they said that the tiny debris within her eye would go away. They noticed the cornea as well and said that it was due to inflamation. Since I work with them we just talked and they asked questions and the one of them, who calls me a bio nerd even though she's the one who went to vet school asks if I read a book about rabbits in the first person....ummm nooo...I guess its a first person story in the view of a rabbit and all his friends get killed by hawks and such...hmmm....but I am just happy that Zoey is ok...I over react sometimes but I guess thats better then not doing anything at all.

[waterbug]

That's good news.
It's actually a good book. Watership Down I think it's called. The rabbits have their own language and everything. English rabbits these are, so they live in burrows. But, basically, they get kicked out of their home and have to go across the country and there the adventure begins lol.
Edit: Orr.. maybe she was talking about a different book about rabbits. I can't remember if that one is in first person or not.. but the idea sounds the same.

[meagan]

Yeah thats it...me and my mind which cant remember anything to save my life...it was "Watership Down"...and she was talking about how if I read it I would never again want to hunt rabbits...lmao!!! YEAH RIGHT!!! lol!!! But I think I might give it a try....she said it was pretty big book...I am going to buy her the movie and the soundtrack for it for Christmas...and yes they really have a movie and a soundtrack for it...lol...

[waterbug]

Lol I didn't know about the movie. Yes, big book. 400+ pages. Nah, it won't make you want to stop hunting rabbits. I mean, if you read a book from a hawk's perspective and the author made its mind sound evil, you wouldn't start hating hawks!

[Migisi]

Dec 8, 2008 17:24:14 GMT -5 meagan said:

...I over react sometimes but I guess thats better then not doing anything at all.

I'm glad you took her in. Better to be safe than sorry.