Birds may act happy and healthy all the time but birds aren’t always in good spirits and aren’t always healthy, and if something is wrong you’ll definitely pick up on it.
One thing that you may pick up is the bird closing one eye, this article explores why your conure is closing one eye
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Conure closing one eye:
A bird’s eyes are meant to be open, bright, alert, and clear, if your conure closes one eye then there is something wrong with the bird. Here is why this may be happening:
Something stuck in the eye:
Things can get stuck in your conures eye very easily, your bird’s eye is usually kept clean by an extra eyelid that humans don’t have.
This extra eyelid also keeps the eye safe from dust, wind, and any other hazards that may harm the eye.
However, things can still get onto the bird’s eye and irritate the bird’s eye causing the bird to close its eye.
Your conure may be keeping one eye closed because there is a seed husk, a feather, millet seeds or something else under the lid that the bird can’t remove.
What to do:
If you suspect that there is something stuck in your conure’s eye gently open the bird’s eye and look inside.
If there is something stuck in the bird’s eye you can remove the foreign object by wiping the bird’s eye with a piece of cotton wool or a cotton round soaked with warm water.
You can also try to flush out the irritant from your conure’s eye by dropping a drop of a preservative-free saline solution, or eye wash, into the bird’s eye.
You can also use a syringe filled with tepid, sterile water when flushing things out of your conure’s eye.
After flushing, wipe the bird’s eye again with a cotton ball.
Scratch on the eye:
Another reason why your conure’s eye may be closed is that the bird, or an object or another bird, scratched the bird’s eye.
This may be more difficult to see as the scratch may be superficial, but the scratch may still cause the bird to experience pain and squint or keep its eye shut.
What to do:
It is recommended that you take the bird to the vet to be examined, or, examine the bird’s eye yourself to see if the bird has any visible scratches.
Luckily for you, a scratch on your conure’s eye isn’t always serious, the cornea has the ability to heal itself and will do this quite quickly on its own.
If you choose to take the bird to the vet, then the vet may prescribe a topical antibiotic eye ointment to use on your bird’s eye.
Infection:
An infection can also make your conure’s eye swell up.
The bird may be suffering from an eye infection but an infection does not have to necessarily be an infection of the eye, a respiratory infection can make the bird’s eye swell shut as well.
If your bird’s eye has some sort of discharge coming from it then the bird may very well have an infection of the eye.
Conure’s can develop bacterial or fungal infections, one infection, called sinusitis, can cause a discharge so thick and gummy that the eye becomes matted shut.
Getting treatment for your bird is a must, if not treated, and the infection gets worse, then the bird may permanently lose its vision or even lose the whole eye if the condition is bad enough.
What to do:
The solution to this problem is to take the bird to the vet as soon as you can.
The vet will do a physical exam on the bird and may also run some tests on the bird to diagnose it. If it is found that your conure does have an infection then the vet will prescribe antibiotics for the bird.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Conure Poop Watery, Why Is My Conure So Clingy?, Why Are Cockatoos So Loud?, Parrot Stomach Infection, How To Clean Cockatiel Tail Feathers, No Urates In Bird Poop, Cockatiel Feathers Turning Black