White spot in eye?

by Muge
(Turkey)

Hi, I have a 17 years old cockatiel, Viju, he is with us for one year. Around a month ago his left eye closed and became swollen. We took him to a normal vet (no avian vet in our city), he examined him & the eye and said it is an upper respiratory infection and gave antibiotics to put in his water for 10 days, and an antibiotic eye drop (for human) 2times a day.

But after 3 days as he started to open his eye more, we saw a white spot in the middle of the eye. He could not see from left eye but was behaving normal, whistles, eating etc. I informed vet about this and he said it is probably corneal ulcer because of itching or sth (I saw him itching his eye with his foot and shoulder) and changed the eye drop with an antibiotic+steroid one which is for animals. We have used that eye drop for 2 weeks with no progress. And I read somewhere that steroid eye drops should not be used more than 3 days on cockatiels. Since the swelling has not gone down, I stopped eye drop for 4-5 days as the swelling decreased and started again a few days ago. The white spot has remained the same size so we went to vet again yesterday, he said we should use the eye drop for 10 more days and then stop treatment, it may heal slowly in time.

Now is there anything we can do for our cockatiels eye to dissolve that white spot? He is still acting normal and seems happy. He mainly eats seed, also loves scrambled eggs, brocoli, rice. I wish you could help me.

Sorry for the detailed post.
Thank you very much in advance.

Comments for White spot in eye?

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Jan 13, 2013
 Treatment for "white spot in eye"
by: The Avian Vet

There is much misinformation in the recommendations for treatment that you have been given. First, Antibiotics in the water are no effective for treating bacterial disease, and especially intraorbital sinus swelling which I what I suspect that your bird has. Second, although eye drops are often part of the treatment for fir this infection, they are of little importance. However, your bird seems to have other ocular problems that would benefit from topical eye drops. But, If this is a corneal ulcer THE WORST thing to treat it with is steroids. In fact steroids are contraindicated in corneal ulcers, because they can make them worse to at the very least prevent healing. The only way to know that it is a corneal ulcer is to do an eye stain. It may not be a corneal ulcer; it could be a lens problem, or a corneal fungal infection. Further more it will not heal in time and in fact will progress and potentially lead to loss of they eye, or at the very least loss of sight in that eye.

I feel like with the correct treatment that this will likely heal. You need to see a veterinarian that has experience with avian species and travel to where they are. It will mean the difference of your birds sight, and potentially his life. I think it should go without saying that a second opinion is crucial.

Dr B
Please use this Find an Avian Vet link to find an avian vet.

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