Red irises/bloody eyes?

[Joy & Holly]

Brought my 13yo CAG into my local vet yesterday for wings/beak/talon trim. When we came back into the room her eyes were deep orangy red and she was really out of it. I flipped out and asked why her eyes were bleeding. That shook up the vet (non-avian, small animal only) who said that's normal from stress and would return to normal color within 12 hours. (I've had birds for 20 years, and Holly since she was a wee bappy thirteen years ago, and I have seen her little white face turn pink with anger, but I have NEVER seen her irises turn bloody like that.) I hurried up and got Holly back home then called my avian vet and sent over pictures of Holly's eyes. The a.v. said that she's never seen the eyes hemorrhage like that. It seemed to us that she wasn't seeing very well all evening and was spacey. I kept a close eye on Holly all night, and now this morning she is behaving and looking more like her normal self. I'm relieved but livid. My dog vet should NOT be grooming birds if he doesn't know how to do it safely, and I'm mad at myself for trusting him to do it. The reasons I didn't bring her over to my avian vet for a grooming are twofold. First, Holly gets a little car sick on the hills between here and there (over a half hour ride), and also the a.v. requires an expensive full blood workup and exam each year or they won't trim her wings. Today I'm dedicating myself to learning WTH happened in that room to nearly kill my bird.

 

So my question for you is, has anyone here ever seen such a thing happen to their bird's eyes??? I have pictures on my phone but don't know how to get them here.

 

Thank you,

Joy (and Holly)

[Talon]

Sounds like blood tears. My cag gets them when she is stressed from the vet. They do stop on there own once we are home. If they don't contact your vet asap

[judygram]

So sorry to hear of your distress, I have heard of this but have never experienced it, glad she is ok now.

 

I have a suggestion that will solve part of your problem, let her wings grow out and leave them that way, allow her to be flighted. I don't clip any of my 3 birds and I think they are happier that way.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Does sound like from screaming and protesting too much! Vasodilitation! Try finding someone that can do the job without as much protest Nancy

[Greytness]

Poor baby was completely stressed out from her experience. Glad she's doing better now.

[BaileysPapa]

Yes, I, too, have seen this. It is from major stress. Also, maybe the vet gave her a sedative to calm her down. Sometimes that can affect their eyes. Also, other than the cost, why wouldn't you want your bird to have a yearly wellness blood panel? You should be doing that anyway.

[Muse]

I am no vet, but I am a human nurse and I think have put several vet's children through college... We had a cat who had a sudden change in color of the iris. It was caused by an incredible spike on blood pressure which forced red blood cells to leak from the tiny vessels in her irises. The eye color eventually returned to normal as the body reclaimed those lost cells, however it was a sign of a larger problem in her case (she was NOT at the vet but at home when this happened). She was diagnosed with extreme hypertension and remained on blood pressure medication for the rest of her life until she passed away at an unknown but certainly older age in November of 2013. The undetected hypertension caused other issues that eventually led to a decline in quality of life as well as contributing to her death. In our cat's case, it wasm not something that just spontaneously happened but rather a symptom of a hidden problem, however in your bird it sounds more like a situational event brought on the stress of being handled by this other vet. I would assume any large surge in BP in a bird could cause the same condition. Blood pressure is not a static value but is very variable (as it is designed to be) and an extreme spike can be the result of stress.

 

I agree with BaileysPapa on the yearly blood work. I know people who don't but ours (for ALL animals in our care - not just the birds) have caught problems we didn't know existed and allowed us to treat problems before symptoms advanced to being apparent (and often irreversible). It's a small price to pay for that ounce of prevention that has proved over and over to us to be more than worth a pound of cure. As a nurse, I recommend a yearly full work up to all human patients as well because it gives health care providers a good baseline to compare in the event of something going wrong, if nothing else. This is true for human or animal. We do not trust out birds to any vets but their avian vets (board certified) and a vet that sometimes helps us out that has a very large flock of her own and lots of bird experience. We have a separate and very competent mammal vet for the cats and dogs but the birds really need to see someone that is familiar with them.

 

UPDATE: About that yearly bloodwork - I just got another strong lesson in importance. My eldest feline, our first baby together, had her annual and the doctor called me with some concerning lab values. He recommended an ultrasound, which we had done on Wednesday, and found she has kidney disease. Had we not had this bloodwork done, we may not have caught this. It appears she is developing some hypertension, which is no surprise as the kidneys regulate blood pressure among other things. She's going back in a month for another BP check, and if this 3rd check is elevated, she will go on medication, probably for the rest of her life. The good news is, I have a consult pending with a holistic vet who is going to develop a diet for her specific to her kidney issues. I will have to cook her meals for the rest of her life, but I refuse to feed her the traditional toxin-laced, cooked from euthanized pets commercial "prescription" kidney diet. I am so thankful we had this blood work done. With Mama, the cat who had the bleeding into the eyes, the BP had remained elevated far too long and had done considerable damage to other organs, eventually leading to her death. I don't want that to happen to Gwyn.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Muse

[Greywings]

Agree with the majority here STRESS is the causative here.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Its important to have an avian vet, when that is possible! I know some don't have one in their area. Sophie is lucky to have one and he is amazing! He was amazing when I first met him after having Sophie for two days. She was sneezing and saying " achooo" within 48 hours. I thought she had a cold!!! I couldn't wait for her well visit and scheduled her appointment as an emergency!!!!!He laughed at me, asked me if anyone was sick ( my son was), and explained she was imitating my son. Who knew? ( I was certainly a naive mama!) He has expanded with several new doctors, but has kept his original clients. Sophie is one of them. She seems him yearly, and wags her tail when he has her stepup. He never orders many tests. He always tells her " you're a keeper!". She just wags her tail as she likes what he has to say Nancy