# Lutino Eye problem ??



## treycie (Aug 12, 2013)

SO I posted this on cockatiel talk but was told here is where I should probably post- I am just going to copy and paste 


So when I bought Sunshine (lutino pearl) I think ** - I really felt more like he needed a better home than I actually like fell in love with her*. .. her wings literally looked chopped off.... whoever clipped her wings did a HORRIBLE job , that to this day they have still not fully grown normally.. :S I don't plan on clipping them until they are normal. and she was pretty much in a corner of a house alone. she also is clumsy with her feet and then I get told that seed shells get stuck in one of her eyes? so I took her. 

the woman who had her said that she had taken her to get checked and was given eye drops to put in the birds eyes and every now and then she would have to clean out the eye like wipe out the shell.

so I have been doing this because poor bird it keeps happening.. Has ANYONE ever heard of this happening ? or could it be something else and not a seed shell?? when I take it out I guess I never really check a lot I just kind of went with what this lady told me but now I have doubts? and just would like any info ? 

I understand that I could take my bird to the vet. but its a little far and I would like to know if it really would be necessary, because if she needs medical attention I might not be able to afford a treatment. so any thought would be appreciated . thanks : ) 













so it seems like a booger... really.. but I don't know what it is or why. 

she just seems to be a little weird... I also believe her feet are deformed.... any thoughts ?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Birds have a third eyelid, aka the nictating membrane. This can get torn or damaged, and it's possible that this has happened to her and pieces of it are hanging down and/or breaking off. Apparently these injuries can be treated to some degree. You'd need a good avian vet to check out the problem. You might be able to consult with someone by email to at least get an idea of what they think the problem might be - if it's actually a seed shell you don't really need a vet.

It would help to have pictures are at least a good description of what's wrong with her feet. If the feet seem mostly normal but the toes lay kind of sideways when she stands on a flat surface, this is probably from a nutritional deficiency in infancy. If the actual bones seem to be abnormally bent, she may have broken them at some time from being attacked by another bird, getting in some kind of accident, or from brittleness caused by calcium deficiency.


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## treycie (Aug 12, 2013)

I am starting to think that actually may be the problem ?? I did know that about their eye lids... and today it looks like it may be peeling or something :S I will have to keep on checking. do you know if loosing that eye lid affects them?? 
thanks for the info- 
as far as her feet , I am having a hard time uploading but I will post what I was able to upload. I don't know some pictures may look normal ( I am not sure what normal is ) haha . but she just doesn't seem to stand well on perches like she will loose her balance sometimes. hopefully the pics help; thanks !


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

I'm not a vet, but my feeling is that losing the third eyelid probably wouldn't affect her life too dramatically if there are no complications. But that's just a guess and I could be wrong. I'm more worried about infections, irritation etc while it's slowly falling apart, if that's what's actually happening.

In the last picture the toes are laying sideways on one foot, like the juvenile nutritional deficiency that I mentioned. But it's possible that the toes just happened to be in that position and she doesn't usually stand that way. The toes seem to be sitting up more or less straight in the other pictures, maybe leaning a little bit sideways but not looking particularly abnormal. Cockatiels are kind of pigeon-toed but it seems to me that she's more pigeon-toed than most. So my inexpert opinion is that her feet might be a little bit abnormal but they don't look dramatically wrong. A vet could tell you more, and they would also be able to see how she uses her feet when she moves around, which I can't do. It would definitely be a good idea to see the vet about the eye problem, and you could find out about the feet while you're there. The eye problem might be something treatable but the feet probably aren't.

If she does have foot issues because of a deficiency when she was a baby, she might be losing her balance on the perch because her toes are too weak to grip it well. A rope perch is easier to grasp than a wooden one so it might help her if you add one to the cage.


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## treycie (Aug 12, 2013)

Yea i need to buy one thanks for all the advice/opinion  last night i had to clean her eye again which ix unusual usually it doesnt happen that fast. But yes i will be calling a vet to take her in asap. Thanks


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