# Need opinion on eye problems



## Paleghost13 (Sep 14, 2012)

Good evening all! It has been forever since I've been on here or TB, but life has been insane. Good, but insane. I keep hoping to wander back, but now I have for a less-than-happy reason. I need some advice on an on-going eye issue with Tessa. 

About a year ago I came home to find her eye looking like this:





She was obviously in pain and kept closing that eye. I actually had a broken right foot at the time but I managed to driver her almost two hours (in quite the rain storm) to the nearest veterinary clinic that had an avian vet. Since it was after hours (they have an ER) there was only a regular vet on staff, but she was able to take a look and then took a bunch of pictures to email to one of the avian vets. They said it looked like a prolapsed inner eyelid or inner eye tissue. She prescribed meloxicam 1.5mg/ml by mouth twice a day for 7 days. It was _so much fun_ dosing her, but we managed and eventually the swelling went away.

Until 5 months later. This time I was out of town so I took her to a different avian vet, who I've used before and really, really like. The swelling happened at night and by the time I got to the vet's the next day it was gone. She prescribed Tobramycin ophthalmic solution drops (2 per eye twice a day) instead of the orals. It stayed gone. 

3 months later it happened again. I called this time and she said to use both meds. It went away.

3 months later, it happened again. I administered both meds and it eventually went away.

And, then today I gave her a bath and about two hours later I found this: 



She keeps closing her eye like it hurts her. You can see the tissue protruding from the lid if you look close.










It is always the same eye. The other one is 100% perfect. I called the emergency vet again (University of Illinois Clinic of Veterinary Medicine) but they cannot see her until Friday. I made an appointment anyway, but I'm pretty sure it is going to be gone again, so I'll likely cancel the appointment. I'm giving her the meds. I'm just getting frustrated. It _appears_ that this is connected to molting. One doctor theorized she may be getting dust in her eye and aggravating it. I'm wondering if the shower may be triggering something. 

Have you guys ever seen anything like this? Any suggestions on care or questions for the doctor if I end up keeping the Friday appointment? I'm thinking about bringing her in with lots of pictures even if the swelling is gone, since I'm going to need refills of the prescription. I'm just worried about her and then I thought about you all. So much cockatiel experience and it is available _right now_. Lol. She is eating, pooping, preening, and sleeping. And begging for head scratches. Except keeping that eye shut and being a bit more quiet and sleepy than usual, she is normal. I've noticed that when the eye isn't swollen, I can see the tissue more than on the other eye normally. Almost like the tissue is stretched or damaged somehow.

Here are a bunch of extra pictures to help illustrate this. Sorry for the quality of some, she is hard to photograph sometimes. Let me know if anyone needs a picture from a different angle or something.






The next two pictures were taken just after I put the meds in her eye.
















I would really appreciate any advice people can give. Thank you all so much.


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## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

I agree that it looks like a problem with the third eyelid, but beyond that, there's not much I can tell you unfortunately.


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## JoJo's Mom (Oct 20, 2012)

Poor baby...sending prayers that it heals for good...


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## ParrotletsRock (Oct 8, 2013)

dogs get an eye condition called cherry eye, looks very much the same... They can do surgery on the dog to hold the prolapse in place... Wonder if they can do that to birds too??


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