1 in 3 chance I become visually impaired, should I never have a bird?

[Aspie_Aviphile]

Should I give up my hope of having a parrot again because of the risk I'll become visually disabled and unable to care for them? My worst nightmare would be getting a parrot and having to give them up. Or are there people who are seriously visually impaired and manage to care for parrots safely and well? Afterall, legally blind people are able to care for dogs while living alone. How much more difficult is a parrot than a dog, according to blind people who've tried it? There must be cases out there of people suddenly having to find out, as many people lose vision every year. I'm just having trouble imagining how certain things would work, like fetching them in dangerous situations, but I don't want to assume it's impossible, because I've been looking into how partially-sighted and blind people are able to do all kinds of things that would not seem possible to me at first thought.

Context:
I got covid-19 in March, a non-life-threatening case, but never got fully back to normal health, instead weirder and weirder medical issues progressively piled up. My doctors have diagnosed "an unspecified multisystem autoimmune disease" triggered by the virus as multiple organs have been both acutely and chronically inflamed, including my eyeballs. This mystery inflammatory condition is giving me chronic uveitis in both eyes, which in the long-term has a 1 in 3 rate of some degree of visual impairment and a 1 in 10 rate of legal blindness. I've also had a bout of keratitis when it first came on, another eye condition that recurs and blinds a significant minority of its sufferers.

I'm not ready to adopt another parrot right now, financially or psychologically, but the idea of one day having back that joy he gave me is the hope I have been clinging to as reason to carry on, ever since Bo died and even more so since my health got ruined.

 

[Laurasea]

Wow, I'm so sorry you are having these scary serious complications!

Try to eat a diet that reduces Inflammation. Ask if you can have an IVIG treatment . I have read of some long hauling getting it. Plus IVIG treats autoimmune.

As for the burd , go for it, life has no promises, and you can adapt on the journey.

 

[wrench13]

Wow sorry to read of your condition, and I hope it works out for the best.

A lot would depend on the individual parrot if he could be cared for by a 100% blind person. A calm, bonded parrot might not be an issue after much training on both your parts, but a different parrot might not be able to be cared for adequately. How would you see body language prior to a bite? Or as you mentioned, finding him if he falls to the floor or behind a couch etc. I suppose you could keep him caged, but thats no life for a parrot.

 

[Scott]

Very sorry to hear of your post Covid challenges. Allow me to quote my good friend Laura - you won't imo find better overall advice:

As for the burd , go for it, life has no promises, and you can adapt on the journey.

I'd advocate adopting a bird when you are ready on all counts as adjunct to your recovery and quality of life! The good news is you would likely acquire and settle in with new companion before becoming potentially impaired. Certainly not a medical professional, but the odds discussed are far from absolute, total blindness. I would hope all but worst-case scenarios would leave you with some degree of vision in at least one eye. Counterpoint is you might be helped by a seeing-eye dog in the event of serious visual reduction. You'd have to consider a canine companion with existing bird - but that's putting the cart well before the ox!

Given the immense research focus on Covid and secondary effects, it is possible over time therapies will become available to prevent or alleviate the very worst of potential events. I wish you the very best recovery, never lose hope of complete restoration!

 

[Tman]

I am sorry for all you are going through.
My prayers are with you.

As for a parrot I feel that not only go for it but start planning now for it. By looking into witch part you want. Get a book on that species. Read up on them. Look to to see where you are going to put the cage. The best thing to do is get a positive attitude. I realize the unknown is hard. But that's just it you just don't know. By focusing on what.you love owning a parrot will help keep you mind off of negative things. As so as you feel ready just do it, it just maybe the best medicine for you.
Once you get.your parrot we need pictures.
OK. Good luck to you.

 

[bug_n_flock]

As far as I know(for "nearsightedness"):


Normal vision is 20/20
Good vision is 20/10
Legally blind is 20/200


The last time I had my vision checked my vision was 20/400. This was at least a good 5 years ago, and it has gotten worse since then.



It corrects with glasses, but sometimes I hang out without glasses. You learn to cope honestly. But then, I have been legally blind since I was in elementary school. One time I had a teacher being a jerk and claiming to be an expert on everything(you know the type) and insisted I was lying about being legally blind because I could read books and stuff without my glasses. I had to get a note from my eye dr, who was absolutely blown away. Said, "you could literally walk into a wall and say, 'oh, excuse me!' To the "person" you walked into!"



Don't give up, get fired up. This is just a hurdle to jump over, not a brick wall to stop you. <3

 

[SailBoat]

I have a love for numbers as their purity clearly define so very much. An example is what you have been told you have a one in three chance of impaired vision! To be honest, that is a great percentage, yet you likely see this as a detriment.

My position is different from my fellow members as you already have a pet and there is a chance that you may have a special dog added.

IMHO, there are a thousand decisions you will be making in just the next six months. At this point, you're experiencing a created 'must have', because you may not be able to! Hence, you must act now! This is exactly why you should not. This is precisely the wrong time for such a choice.

Six months from now would be better time as your knowledge of your situations will be better defined.

Just my two cents.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Have you any insight on in what way specifically your vision might suffer? Vision impairment is not all the same. For example, my mother in law and her sister both have macular degeneration, but from how it has been explained to me their vision is very very different from mine. I see colors just fine, movement, etc. It is just that everything is very, very, very, extremely blurry. Certain things are harder or easier to see. For example setting up a rat cage yesterday with my husband, dim light thin white wires a few feet away, on dingy brown carpet and skin tone hand and dark metal pliers.... I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing at ALL, and hubbs had to do all of the pliering and much of the hooking . Even with me in glasses.



Light affects things a lot, and as I said color also plays a major role. I can always see where Alex, Hima, etc are because they are so BRIGHT. Even if all I see is a diffused haze of yellow in a blurry diffused mass of other colors, I know it is one of them depending on what shade specifically it is. Birds like Boomer, Rin, the girly tiels are much harder to see because they are more grey, colors which otherwise are present in the home. But they move, so I can tell plus they are not silent. I've never really thought so much about it because it is just my everyday, and you really, really do just learn to cope in ways you don't even realize you are doing.



With glasses at dusk and dawn it is really hard to see, or low light and certain patterns, colors, and shapes are hard to see. Without glasses just a diffused blur.



Mother in law apparently it is similar to tunnel vision in some ways? But I have never spoken to her directly about it. She was able to raise 2 babies, 3 cats, a dog, and a pair of squirrels. Her sister raised 2 children and IDK what else(she is evil, I don't talk to her). Both of them live in the city and get around independantly on public transportation, etc. Only recently started using a cane(stubborn embarassed people). They are much "blinder" than I am and get along just fine.


I am more than happy to talk to you more about this publicly or privately. It really is scary but it is not the end of the world I promise you!

 

[Aspie_Aviphile]

Have you any insight on in what way specifically your vision might suffer? Vision impairment is not all the same.

I am more than happy to talk to you more about this publicly or privately. It really is scary but it is not the end of the world I promise you!

Thank you very much! I will PM you later.

As far as I can tell, if extended or permanent vision loss happens, it could be of almost any type, because there are multiple possible mechanisms that can occur together or alone and might be different in each eye.

Keratitis would do it by scarring or perforating the cornea. From what I've read, the most common causes in uveitis are hypotony (too low eye pressure), glaucoma from too much eye pressure, and cataracts or the high rate of surgery complications when cataracts are caused by uveitis. But uveitis could also do it via retinal detachment, retinal scarring, macular edema, or in the worst case scenario, the necessary removal of an eye.