Green cheek conures eye swollen and red. Help!

I have already called the vets and she will be going in first thing tomorrow but I just wanted to see if anyone on here had this happen or has any idea what it is or could be. I have been very busy with work lately since its the holidays so I honestly have not had much time to soend with my little Rhea. However, I always check on her first thing every morning before I leave and then before I go to bed in the evenings. Well this morning I noticed that her right eye was sagging down a bit on the bottom lid and it looks swollem and red. Im not sure qhat it could be and it would really put my mind at ease if someone knows what this is since she can't go in untill tomorrow morning. Also, she is only 3 years old. I don't know how to post pictures on here either but if someone can tell me how I do have pictures of her eye

You can click the go advanced button under the text box, then click paperclip abd upload from your phone, they will be thumbnail size under text box but we can click abd open them. So sorry you have an injured or sick bird

Alright thanks! I didnt see it. Those pictures are all from this morning

Best of luck with the vet visit, I hope everything works out well for you and darling little Rhea!

That looks painful. You can use sterile eye saline with no additives to rinse eye if you think something is in it. But it's probably best to wait till tomorrow vet visit. I just don't know what caused that. Eyes ate very delicate, I'm glad you noticed right away and that you will be seen tomorrow. Keep us updated, best wishes for speedy recovery!

I just got home from work and her eye looks much better but I'd rathe be safe than sorry so we'll be going in first thing tomorrow morning for my little Rhea. I want to make sure it wasn't an infection or anything serious but the swelling seems to have gone way down so I'm hopeful everything is fine. Thank you both for the support. I'll update you tomorrow morning in case anyone else gets symptoms like this in the future!

It looks like it's either an eye infection of some kind, or more than likely she poked it with something, either her toenail while she was scratching herself, or on a toy, the edge of a dish, etc. You definitely should still take her to the CAV because you must make sure that her Cornea isn't damaged and that there is no ulcer on it...They will typically look at their eye with their opthalmoscope first, then they will put a drop of stain in their eye that dyes their eye green, then they turn out the lights and look at the eye, and the stain will show any damage to the Corneal. It's painless and very important to have done whenever there is any injury to their eyes, or if they are ever constantly messing with their eyes like they are being bugged by them...Also, they need to look to make sure there isn't anything in her eye, like a wood-splinter or piece of wire from a toy, etc.

I'd look through her entire cage very thoroughly and make sure there aren't any broken bars or anything else that is broken like a food/water dish, a toy, a perch, etc. that has any pointy edges, and that there isn't anything "sticking out" that she could have obviously jammed into her eye....I'm not being critical here by saying this, I understand it's a busy time of the year, but I'd also try very hard to make sure that she gets some out-of-cage-time every single day, at least an hour, and that isn't enough, but she is probably bored to tears and upset about it too...If she's been spending 24/7 inside of her cage and only seeing you in the morning before work and at night right before bed, she's probably climbing her cage frantically, and she may also have started being a bit aggressive inside of her cage with her toys and such, that's what tends to happen with very social birds like Green Cheeks (conures in-general) when they aren't given much attention each day...Again, I'm not at all being critical of you or anything of the sort, but just giving you a heads-up because she could likely become very aggressive if that schedule continues. That's just how Conures are, they are called "Velcro-Birds" for a reason, and she could have very likely injured her eye while she was thrashing around her cage...

I hope beautiful Rhea is better this morning! Good luck at the vet office, looking forward to a hopeful treatment report!

Back from the vets...
She's getting a biopsy, the vet is almost certain its lymphoma. I'm only 18 so he's going to try to work with me for price but I'm using everything I've got on her. I should know by Wednesday if it is or not. He's really certain it's cancer though so I'm afraid I don't have much hope. But it sounds like if it is he can operate on it since it would be early stages, she would just lose an eye. Thank you all for the information and kindness. I'll update as soon as I know.

I hope it's not cancer! We don't hear of that often so thanks for letting us know about it. I'm so glad you went to the vet, and it's better to tackle things head on, than not do anything. I sure hope everything works out, and I am so glad you are stepping up and taking responsibility and do everything you can!! If it's not to goofy to say, I'm Proud of you!!!! Big hugs to you and your baby.

I am so sorry for what you both are going through! I must say, you are amazing!
I pray the best for your baby!

Oh my...First of all, take a breath and a step-back for a minute. There are a few things that you need to be certain of before you agree to any surgery or treatments, especially removal of an eyeball...I'm very sorry this is happening to you and your little baby, but if we on this forum have learned anything over and over and over again, it's that when it comes to Veterinarians and birds, if the Vet is not either a Board-Certified Avian Vet or at the very least an Avian Specialist Vet who sees/treats ONLY birds, then you absolutely need to get a second opinion from the closest CAV or Avian Specialist to you...Is this vet either a Certified Avian Vet or an Avian Specialist Vet? Or is this Vet an "Exotics" Vet who sees all types of animals like reptiles, birds, rodents, primates, etc.?

There is a thread in this Conure forum right now where a senior-member's/moderator's Black-Capped Conure suddenly became ill during the holiday, and their regular CAV wasn't available, so they took him to an Animal-Hospital and saw an "Exotics" Vet, who took blood from their bird but took it from the bird's toenail, which is totally the wrong way, and the bird's Uric Acid level came back at a level that was so high that this Exotics Vet told them that he had severe, end-stage Kidney Disease, and they were actually talking about euthanizing him...Luckily our member decided to do nothing until her CAV was available in a day or two, and when they took their bird to their CAV and he drew blood the correct way (from the bird's neck with no sedation/anesthesia necessary at all, takes 30 seconds), the bird's Uric Acid and everything else came back completely normal...Turns out that their bird had a simple infection that is now being treated with antibiotics and their bird is perfectly fine now...But if they had been someone who was less experienced with birds and bird medicine, they very likely would have chosen to euthanize their bird because they wouldn't want him to suffer from Kidney Failure and die a long, painful death...and they would have killed their bird who only had a simple bacterial infection that would have been easily treated...And we see this almost every day on this forum, simply because Avian medicine is so different than any other type of Veterinary medicine, it's very specialized, and it requires a Vet with extra education and training in Avian medicine. Exotics Vets in the US have NO extra education or training in Avian medicine at all. They are simply general vets who "see" all types of animals. That's it.

***So if this Vet is not a CAV or Avian Specialist who sees only birds, but rather an Exotics Vet or General Vet, then you absolutely need to find the closest one to you for a second opinion. That's a no-brainer...Also, has your bird been acting at all sick or unusual in any way?

****Big question: Did this Vet draw blood from your bird and run Blood-Work? What exactly did they do? Without running any Blood-Work they are basing a diagnosis of Lymphoma on simply looking at your bird's eye? Lymphoma is a very specific type of cancer that is easily diagnosed; it's not like having a cancerous growth/mass/tumor and trying to figure out where the source of the cancer originally started, etc. Lymphoma is a specific neoplasia, and in birds it usually effects much older birds, and typically effects their livers, spleens, and kidneys...But the main point here is that running simple, basic Blood-Work (specifically the CBC) in a bird with any type of Lymphoma should show either Leukocytosis or Lymphocytosis, and the bird is also typically very Anemic as well, even if the bird is completely asymptomatic and not showing any issues with their liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.. So I'm hoping that this Vet did take blood to run routine, basic blood-work???? That should always be step #1 when any type of Lymphoma is suspected...

What exactly did this vet do? What tests did he run?

He took a sample of the swollen area under her eye, it already looks much better after using the drops he gave us as well which is making me think it was an infection... he said he took enough for the biopsy test for the lymphoma and enough for another test but I forgot what it was. I won't know till Wednesday what it is. I will call when they open on Wednesday to check the test and I'll make sure to ask what he is certified as. We've seen him before when she got sick from dehydration, I wasn't home for a few days due to visiting my father and unwisely trusted my mother to take care of her. Her water bottle got clogged and she didn't have water for nearly two days and then drank too much after she realized which started seizures. He knew exactly what to do for her the second we got her in and she recovered extremely fast. We also know our local bird rescue suggests them and thinks highly of him. I know he does see other exotics for sure but I know he also has a passion for parrots in particular and studied them extensively during school which leads me to believe he should be an avian vet but I will 100% check as soon as they open. He did sound pretty sure about the lymphoma because he couldnt find any scratch or material in her eye and the shape of it is odd to him. I'll post pictures of what her eye looked like this morning. I am becoming hopeful though because its looking much better despite swelling and some bruising. The actual bump that was coming out looks way better though. It looked even better this evening but i didn't get pictures and she's in bed now. I can try to snag some in the morning after her eye drops.

Okay, well just hearing what you said makes me want to beg you to not make any decisions at all until you have a CAV see her. First of all, any Vet who is suspecting a systemic cancer based on a swollen, red eye and because they don't see any scratches or other deformities on the eye is just wrong...The first thing he should be thinking is "infection", and he should have taken a culture/swab from her eye and sent it out to the lab to test for bacteria/fungi...And the VERY first thing he should have done if he suspected a systemic cancer like Lymphoma is take blood!!! If your bird has Lymphoma, her blood-work will very likely show Anemia, Lymphocytosis, or Leukocytosis, and other certain tip-offs...

***Here's the other thing, and this is a big deal..."Lymphoma" isn't a "localized" cancer. What exactly did he "biopsy"? Lymphoma is not a type of cancer that will show-up IN THE EYE at all. It's not a localized-cancer, it isn't found in a growth/mass/tumor unless you biopsy a piece of the lymph-system...So how in the world this guy is going to diagnose "Lymphoma" by doing a biopsy of a bird's eye is beyond me...You diagnose "Lymphoma" by taking blood (which he didn't do), doing CT/PET scans and looking at the Lymph system, and by doing a biopsy of or removing suspicious lymph nodes to biopsy them...I went through my texts yesterday and then went online, and I could not find A SINGLE REFERENCE to a swollen, red eyeball being a tip-off for Lymphoma, nor are there any Lymph Nodes near the eye that he would be able to biopsy without putting a bird under anesthesia and opening their eye area up...In fact, the ONLY mention I could find anywhere about Lymphoma in Parrots and the eye in-general being effected was that sometimes in end-stage Lymphoma they lose their sight and become totally blind very suddenly due to swelling of the lymp-system behind the eye, and that putting pressure on the optic nerve. That's it...So I don't know what he's looking at or what in the world he's biopsying around your bird's eye that is going to diagnose Lymphoma, but it's kind of maddening that he would even bring something like that up without first culturing the eye for a simple bacterial or fungal infection, and without drawing blood to confirm ANY actual signs of Lymphoma...

What eye-drop did they give you? Was it Neo Poly-Dex? If your bird's eye is already clearing-up after only a couple days on an antibiotic eye-drop, then guess what, it's an eye infection, which could have been cultured and proven. So you need to be very leery of this Vet and anything he tells you from this point forward, and certainly do not let him remove your bird's eye or do any other procedures at all...And I'd ask him specifically why he didn't run blood-work if he suspected a systemic cancer like Lymphoma, because that's the very first thing any doctor would do in that situation...You need to have all of the tests that this guy ran sent to a CAV for them to look over and get a second opinion if this guy tells you that your bird's eye needs to be removed due to Lymphoma...And that's the other thing, removing your bird's eye would not at all treat Lymphoma, again it's not a localized cancer like a tumor is. It's a systemic neoplasia of the lymph-system...