# Cataracts & Blindness



## BabyMoo (Dec 19, 2012)

Hello everyone,

Last week we found out that BabyMoo has a cataract on her right eye. We also found out that she is blind of that eye but are not sure if she is blind from the cataract or from a stroke or even a tumor. She lost her vision very quickly it seems like so it was thought that she had a stroke. She also kept closing her affected eye. Anyway, she seems to be opening her eye more often but she is blind. I have seen her bump into things when walking. She walks fine though but I have noticed that he head is a little bit sideways when walking as if looking only with the good eye.

Does anyone here own a blind cockatiel or a cockatiel with cataracts? What is your advice? Any good tips that you would like to share? What caused your tiel's blindness and how did they cope/react? I'm trying to give BabyMoo all the care that she needs now that this has happened to her. It saddens me not knowing what happened to her eye but I'm glad that she seems better.

Thank you for your replies in advance. I'll check the post pretty soon.

Caro


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Poor babymoo
I never had any bling tiels and I'm not really expierenced with this but you should make everything in her cage easyer to get around, like her pearches toys ect.
Keeps up posted we are sending scratches


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

I don't have any blind tiels, but just a thought, is she having a hard time climbing? maybe move her perches and food towards the bottom of the cage, so if she falls she won't get hurt. You can work with her on sounds, so she'll use her hearing more on the blind side, like call to her while your on her blind side.


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## cknauf (Aug 27, 2012)

I'd watch her carefully whenever she's flying, if she isn't clipped--her depth perception might not be up to the task of flight anymore. If she isn't clipped, you may want to clip a few outer feathers to take the edge off her speed.

Since she's blind in just the one eye, she should hopefully be okay moving around her cage. Just be careful approaching her on her blind side, since she may startle.

I've had blind pets in the past, but not a blind bird, so I'm going with what I know from cats/dogs.


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## BabyMoo (Dec 19, 2012)

Hello *Baruch*, *Korvia*, and *Cknauf*. 

Thank you for your replies. 

I have been placing her in her fish tank to help her rest and when she is out, now that some of her strength is back, I have been placing her in her small cage with perches that are lower and close together. She stepped out of it two days ago and walked over to her big cage. She stood in front of it looking at it. It made me so sad to see her do that. She loves her big cage and it has been her cage since she was a baby. It is a comfort zone for her but last week she fell from the top perch and really scared me. I'm guessing it happened because of her blind eye and because she was weak. Yesterday my husband put her on the couch with him and next thing we know, she fell from it. I couldn't believe that she did. It happened so fast. She has never fallen from the couch. My husband felt so bad about it because he was the one watching her. We've decided that we need to be very careful about where we put her. Also, she does get startle when approached from the blind side. I've been approaching her and offering her food and my finger from the good side. I've also been talking to her even when she is facing me with the blind eye. Poor baby. I think that she is still trying to figure out what happened. She has had a couple of bad steps from her perch to her water bowl. She couldn't step on it right at first and had to try again. She is my little special needs baby now. She has a broken toe and has learned to live with it. She does great with it and gets around without a problem but now she is having to learn how to move around with only one eye.  She seems to be climbing fine but has to be careful where she goes so as not to bump into things. 

I also wonder if she can hear me well on the side of the affected eye. If she had a stroke, her hearing could be affected as well. I have rubbed my fingers right next to her ear and I don't think that she is replying. She does hear though ... at least from one ear. I placed her by the window today and she would stare at cars going by but I noticed that she looked for them before they went by because she could hear them. She can also hear the smallest of noises. Maybe she can hear from both ears. I talk to her a lot. Even before she was blind I would talk to her all of the time so as soon as I'm in the room she knows I'm there. I will try calling her while on her blind side and see what happens. 

She doesn't fly anymore. We keep her feathers clipped because of her broke toe and because of her age. She used to get on top of the window when she was young but for a few years now, we have been more careful with how high we let her go to avoid falls. 

*Cknauf*, with your pets that have been blind, were they blind of only one eye? If so, did the other eye get affected eventually? I'm so afraid that her other eye will be affected too. Being blind of both eyes would be so much more difficult for her and I'm afraid that she would stop eating all together. Right now I'm having to help her with it. Today she did go down to her food bowl and ate on her own but it took her a while to decide going down to it (this was in the small cage where everything is close by and there is not much climbing going on).


Thank you for your advice and for coming to the rescue. I'm hopeful that she will cope with her blind eye well.

On a good note, she has been asking for a lot of scritches  

Caro :tiel4:


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## cknauf (Aug 27, 2012)

BabyMoo said:


> *Cknauf*, with your pets that have been blind, were they blind of only one eye? If so, did the other eye get affected eventually? I'm so afraid that her other eye will be affected too. Being blind of both eyes would be so much more difficult for her and I'm afraid that she would stop eating all together. Right now I'm having to help her with it. Today she did go down to her food bowl and ate on her own but it took her a while to decide going down to it (this was in the small cage where everything is close by and there is not much climbing going on).


I had one cat who went blind in one eye from a cataract, another who lost both eyes to diabetes-caused cataracts, one cat who didn't go blind exactly but lost her vision (she had a massive, catastrophic stroke that necessitated euthanizing her as she'd almost completely lost all ability to control her muscles, including focusing her eyes), and a dog who went blind in both eyes from cataracts. It kind of depends on what caused the blindness as to whether it affects both sides or not.

Cataracts can be caused by infection or by genetics. If it's an infection, only the infected eye will be affected. If genetic, both eyes are eventually affected, but one goes before the other.

Aside from the cat with the stroke, all of my pets adjusted very well to blindness or partial blindness (the dog was deaf and blind by the end of his life, but remained quite happy). With cats and dogs, vision isn't their primary sense, so they appear unaffected, aside from slowing down and occasionally walking into furniture. But from what I've read on other forums, even birds (whose primary sense is vision) can and do adjust very well to blindness. Cataracts also cause a gradual blindness, so it isn't a sudden "wake up and suddenly the world is dark" kind of thing.

I hope that helps some--it's always so hard with elderly pets!


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> We also found out that she is blind of that eye but are not sure if she is blind from the cataract or from a stroke or even a tumor.


Because of her age, and the fact that the only symptom was the eye, I'm going to say that she's blind in that eye because of the cataract. Now whether the cataract was genetic or infection, I can't say. A stroke would definitely show more than just blindness in one eye I would think (like that whole side of her body would be affected.) Do you have any ledge perches for her? Those might be a good idea. I've never had a blind animal, so I'm not sure but I hope you have many more years with her.


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