My 47 year old Yellow Amazon has cataract on left eye

[marysiawojcik]

My 47 year old Double Yellow Head Amazon Parrot has recently developed a cataract on his left eye. He's not a great candidate for surgery and was wondering if anyone has any information on how to treat this.

 

[SailBoat]

Sadly, we are seeing more of this kind of medical issues with our older Parrots.

Outside of surgery, there is little one can do except to adjust for a steady loss of sight in that eye. Adjust the cage and haut any changing of the layout of the cage and general area around you DYH. Clearly, move any bright light sources further from your Amazon to safeguard the other eye.

 

[HeatherG]

I don’t think there is a treatment if they can’t remove the cataract. BUT you can keep his environment more or less the same and not have many new people over so he isn’t startled by change or strange voices.

 

[marysiawojcik]

Sadly, we are seeing more of this kind of medical issues with our older Parrots.

Outside of surgery, there is little one can do except to adjust for a steady loss of sight in that eye. Adjust the cage and haut any changing of the layout of the cage and general area around you DYH. Clearly, move any bright light sources further from your Amazon to safeguard the other eye.

Contacted several vets who said the cataract surgery was risky and costs several thousands of dollars and then cataract can reoccur...

 

[marysiawojcik]

Contacted several vets who said the cataract surgery was risky and costs several thousands of dollars and then cataract can reoccur...

Have just heard about some drops that are being used for dogs cataracts that have no adverse side effects. Am wondering if and infusion in his little room of these drops might be of some assistance.

 

[HeatherG]

Sometimes eyedrops are not usable in birds because of birds’ relatively small size. The drops can have systemic effect rather than mostly an effect on the eye (as they do in larger animals like dogs).

 

[Kentuckienne]

Just curious…are there bright or LED lights near the bird cage? I’ve been reading about possible bad effects of long term exposure to LED light. It’s getting to be common knowledge that exposure to the blue light of screens interferes with sleep patterns. But just recently I’ve seen many pre-publication articles about retinal damage with long term LED exposure. And aren’t cataracts more common in people who don’t wear sunglasses? It makes me curious about the best lighting for captive indoor birds. Lots of places push full spectrum lights, supposedly for vitamin D production, but now I wonder if too much or incorrect supplemental lighting can be bad for the eyes.

 

[HeatherG]

retinas aren’t damaged in cataracts. It’s a deposit near the front of the eye, maybe on the lens? That blocks light and makes it difficult to see. The retina is at the back of the eye.

I have done a lot of reading about full spectrum light, and if you are using one of those lamps close up to the bird, as recommended, for an Amazon only about 2 hours of that strong light a day is recommended (this is from a veterinary journal when I was researching whether to get one of those lights for my birds).

Many older people and animals have cataracts. Over your lifetime, the lens opacifies and the person or animal cannot focus. It’s not surprising that a 47 y. o. Amazon would have cataracts. It is a disorder of old age.

 

[SailBoat]

Lighting, whether traditional or LED full spectrum is best used as 'general room lighting' and to follow the general light of the normal day in your area. Setting a bright light next to your Parrot has never been a good idea.

 

[Kentuckienne]

retinas aren’t damaged in cataracts. It’s a deposit near the front of the eye, maybe on the lens? That blocks light and makes it difficult to see. The retina is at the back of the eye.

I have done a lot of reading about full spectrum light, and if you are using one of those lamps close up to the bird, as recommended, for an Amazon only about 2 hours of that strong light a day is recommended (this is from a veterinary journal when I was researching whether to get one of those lights for my birds).

Many older people and animals have cataracts. Over your lifetime, the lens opacifies and the person or animal cannot focus. It’s not surprising that a 47 y. o. Amazon would have cataracts. It is a disorder of old age.

Yes, that's right, I am mixing apples in with my oranges. I was thinking about cataracts being caused by UV exposure, mostly sunlight, and probably most wild birds don't live long enough for this to be a problem. But full-spectrum lights do have significant UV components, and it made me wonder if it's a bad idea to have strong lights on for a long time. The part about LED and retinal damage, I have just been reading about that, and I should have separated it better in my comments. It was kind of hey, I wonder if supplemental lighting causes other problems as well.

Your suggestion about using the lights for just a few hours a day seems really good. We have UV filtering coatings on all our windows, and don't get much direct light because of trees, so i was thinking of getting some supplemental light. One more thing to research...