Greetings and a question regarding a blind bird

[Carol M]

I have been involved in dog/cat rescue for many years and never knew much about birds until one day about four months ago when a little budgie was found in our warehouse where I am employed. Of course, being the resident "rescue" person the bird was brought to me and as they say...the rest is history.

I took the bird (now named Robin, he is the white one in the picture) to a local AV for a checkup and also started reading up on budgies. Robin proved to be a very healthy young bird, about two months old. After spending a few days with Robin, I was hooked and decided that I would be keeping him and that he needed a friend. I went to a local bird store and watched their budgies for a long time before selecting one. The bird I chose seemed a bit calmer than the others and wasn't terrified of me when I came near him. Of course, that would have been great criteria for selecting a shelter dog but as I have since learned, probably not the best way to choose a bird...who knew???

Anyhow, I brought home this little guy (the green one in the picture, he was born in November of 2008). This new bird liked to hang upside down a lot in his cage and I started calling him Batbird, it stuck so now I have Batbird and Robin....okay, I admit these names are a bit strange but after naming hundreds of dogs/puppies, you start to get pretty creative with the names.

Batbird and Robin are with me in my office at work Monday to Friday and I take them home on the weekends. It became apparent early on that Robin was crazy active (playing with toys, singing, flying around the cage etc.) and Batbird was very calm, the more I observed them, the more I started noticing that Batbird didn't seem to be able to see very well, if at all. I took him to the vet this week for a checkup and my suspicions were proven correct, his pupils respond to light, however, he appears to be blind and apparently was blind when I took him home from the bird store.

The vet took some blood and is running a test for Chlamydophila, he also wants to run a test for heavy metals. We started him on Milk Thistle for liver problems just in case.

Does anyone else have a similar experience to this? Is there any hope that he might recover his eyesight? For his sake, I would like to see that happen but if it doesn't, he will have a home with me for as long as he lives.


Carol
Dallas, TX

[Congobongo]

A friend of mine adopted an African Grey off Craigslist only to find he is blind too. But from being hit on the head. Who would do that to a bird is beyond me.

We know he will be fine too. You just need to know they are blind.

[meisters]

welcome to BB from sunny ohio!!!!

I can only wish you the best !!!!

[shelhed217]

I can't offer any advice as I am new here, but I really enjoyed your bird's names. I have been in dogs for a long time and I appreciate the creativity :)

[RubyMuse]

Well, I adopted an Amazon who is blind. I took him to two vets and a specialist. They could not detect any retinal function and wanted to do further testing. One eye is from trauma and the other might just be a cataract from age, poor nutrition, or a combination.

Birds have a gland on the tops of their heads that allow them to detect a photoperiod even in the abscense of optical perception of light.

I began doing everything by voice: I announe myself when I come in the room, I say "door" when I open or close his door, " food" for the food bowl, "water" for the water bowl and most importantly I do not change the cage furniture because he knows exactly where everything is supposed to be and seems very stressed if something is out of place.

Good for you for taking in this little one - he sure got lucky with you!


(And to the person who posted about the blinded Grey - those people should have been charged with a crime!)

Also, I take him outside in a smaller cage for time in the sun for vitamin D, and give him foods like sweet potatoes and carrots, to help him nutritionally in case that is a factor so maybe add fresh foods in to a seed based diet and even better -begin spouting fresh seeds for them which are really full of great nutrition... Best of luck to you!