Case  Studies

Cockatiel with cataracts and glaucoma  
Canary with inflamed feather follicles

Cockatiel with cataracts and glaucoma

I joined this list to see if I can find help for my
cockatiel-Hermie.  We found out today he is blind in his left eye and has
a cataract covering his entire lens, also has glaucoma which causes his eye to bulge.  we either choose between glaucoma eye drops that are unused on birds and can cause him death or to have surgery to remove his eye which is dangerous and risky

Hi Ellie,

The tissue salt Calc. fluor. 6x may help with the cataract, while Nat. mur.
6x may help with the glaucoma (give these internally over a long period -
can be given in his water) .  Eucalyptus honey (applied topically) also has
a reputation for curing cataracts.

On the subject of removing the eye (if it comes to that), from personal
experience birds survive this and cope very well.  I care for birds for
WIRES (a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organisation).  I have had a
wild bird recover brilliantly and go on to be released (and a wild bird
would be much more stressed by this procedure than a pet bird!).  Another eagle that came into my care had lost his eye some time in the past and had recovered without veterinary help (he had a gaping hole where his eye should have been).  Your bird is only young, and should recover and adapt well to having only one eye.

Carole Bryant

From gloria:
I don't know of any literature on glaucoma in birds, but glaucoma in
humans comes in two forms: chronic and acute.  It is sometimes
inappropriate to relate human treatment to bird treatments, however,  if
the both have the same disease, perhaps the same treatment will help.

Glaucoma in humans is related to genetics and nutrition.  Two nutrients
associated with glaucoma are collagen and Vitamin C.  Collagen helps
protein stay flexible and Vitamin C is necessary for te production of
collagen.  Since glaucoma prevents proper drainage of fluids from the
inner eye, collagen/vitamin C supplements might help.

Here are a couple of other ideas: Bilberry or blueberries taken internally contain flavanoids and nutrients needed to protect the eyes from further damage. Red raspberry leaf could also be used for this.

Chickweed and eyebright taken internally also nourish the eyes. A combination of ginko biloba extract and zinc sulfate taken internally may help to slow progressive vision loss.

Rose hips supply flavonoids and vitamin C.

Eye drops of  warm fennel tea alternating with chamomile tea and eyebright tea are helpful.

These suggestions were taken from Balch's 'Prescription for Nutritional
Healing.'

gloria 

Canary with inflamed feather follicles

From: "Carole Bryant"   

Cherane told me she used Uno en Gato (Cat's Claw) herb on her hyacinth
macaw.  This is an immune strengthening herb which would be appropriate as polyfolliculitis is believed to be an auto-immune problem.  It's not a herb
I normally use though, so I will have to do some research into it's various
properties to see if will be appropriate for Jaufre.

What would cause feather follicles to become inflamed?  The vets may not know why, but I'm sure it doesn't just happen without a cause.  Have you considered:
>food allergies (even natural foods can cause allergies)
>external parasites
>environmental allergies (does it happen more at one time of year)
>sun sensitivity
>deficiency of a particular nutrient
>Excess Vitamin A (animal form not plant form) can cause some skin
>problems.

You are absolutely right - there is always a cause (we just may not know
what it is!).  
To run through your suggestions:  food allergies are always
a possibility (he eats such a wide variety of foods, that this will be a hard
one to track down though);  he has been treated for internal and external
parasites "just in case"; it has been gradually getting worse, so time of
year doesn't seem to be a factor;  LACK of sufficient sunlight could be a
contributing factor, so I'm trying to get him outdoors whenever possible; I
think the nutritional deficiency idea is a possibility, which is why I
tried to optimize his diet (see below); I think it would be more likely to be a Vitamin A deficiency (which has similar symptoms to excess).   From an
holistic point of view, the symptoms are consistent with lowered vitality
(congestion, inflammation, tissue weakness).  All we are trying to achieve
with natural healing is to give the body what it needs to heal itself.  My
plan is basically to improve the overall function of his body by supporting
his system in as many ways as possible.  A copy of a post detailing what I
have done and what I plan to do follows:

"Jaufre was already eating seed plus a wide range of greens, fresh seed
heads, vegetables and fruit (I consider his diet was much better than the
average canary's!).

A month or so ago, I made some changes to his diet, adding dolomite, kelp, vitamin E, sunflower oil, cod liver oil, and whole linseed to his seed
mixture.  This was to provide a better range of minerals and trace elements
and to give a better balance of essential fatty acids.   I added a few
drops
of apple cider vinegar to his water and started feeding him sprouted seed
and mashed cooked whole egg (including shell) daily.  Because Jaufre is a
good eater, he is enjoying these changes (he especially loves the sprouted
seed).

Now that I have a definite diagnosis, I am giving him (in his water)
Celloid minerals - these are similar to tissue salts but in material doses rather than homoeopathic doses.  These are to balance up his body chemistry.  I use the Celloid minerals a lot in my practise, they are very effective and very safe (Celloids are an Australian product made by Blackmores and aren't available in America).  I am also going to give him a mixture of immune strengthening herbs (probably echinacea, astragalus, andrographis) and a lymphatic system cleansing herb (either galium or baptisia) and a very high dose of vitamin A (for a few weeks only - I have yet to sit down and calculate an appropriate dosage for his size!).  I will also add vitamin C to his seed mix.

This probably sounds an enormous amount of stuff to be giving him, but as
his diet was already good and Gloucester canaries are apparently susceptible to polyfolliculitis, I figure I will need to take drastic action to achieve changes.  Some of the dosages will be only an educated guess - as these supplements will be put in his food and water and I will have to estimate how much he will get each day.

I will report Jaufre's progress to the list."

>You are really the most knowledgeable about using homeopathics, what
>known thing would induce the symptoms your bird is experiencing?
>Obviously it is painful (labored breathing)

Yes, I'm currently combing the Homoeopathic Materia Medica for an
appropriate constitutional remedy!

>Have you tried an herbal anti-inflammatory while you are trying to
>problem-solve the cause?  Sounds as though he needs it.

The Celloid minerals will do this, and the Andrographis is
anti-inflammatory as well as immune enhancing and a powerful liver detoxifier.

Of course, if I can turn this around I'll never know which supplement/s did
the job, but at this stage the important thing is to get him well and worry
about the how and why later!

Carole Bryant, Rosie, Jaufre & Morgan
 

UPDATE 10/31/00

I thought you might all like an update on my canary Jaufre.  One of the
reasons I joined this list over 12 months ago, was to find help for Jaufre,
my Gloucester canary who has extensive polyfolliculitis (feather cysts).
This was diagnosed by my vet, who also told me that there was no known cause and no known treatment, but that it was believed to be an auto-immune problem.  As after much searching, reading and asking questions I was unable to find any cases of feather cysts being cured and in fact was unable to find out very much about feather cysts at all (but I did learn that this is a common problem of Gloucester canaries).

Initially I treated Jaufre with Blackmore's Celloid minerals (basically a
material dose version of the Schuessler tissue salts).  These are very
effective for lots of problems as they have a balancing effect on the body
(for those who don't know me, I'm a naturopath).  After several months on
this treatment, with no visible improvement I stopped these and made the
following changes in March this year:

To each kilo (2.2 pounds) of Jaufre's seed mix (he also eats a wide variety
of other foods) I added the following:

4 teaspoons powder mix (2 parts dolomite, 1 part kelp, 1 part sulphur)
½ teaspoon Vitamin E (250 i.u.)
½ teaspoon ascorbic acid
½ cup linseed
2 teaspoons brewers yeast
1 teaspoon cod liver oil

plus 1/2 cup rape seed (and more recently also Niger seed)

I also made up a herbal mixture of: cleavers (to cleanse the lymphatic
system), hawthorn berries (to improve circulation), grape seed complex (as an anti-oxidant), andrographis (a powerful liver tonic, anti-inflammatory
and immunostimulant), dandelion (liver, bowel and kidney cleanser), fringe
tree (liver cleanser), echinacea and astragalus (to strengthen the immune
system).  The concentration of liver herbs were given as I felt Jaufre's
skin was more yellow than I thought to be normal.  I gave Jaufre 2/10 of a
drop of this mixture daily, on a 2 weeks on followed by 2 weeks off regime.

Every few weeks I check his feathers and remove any impacted feathers.  At first I thought I may be imagining things, but there is a definite
improvement, with fewer and smaller cysts.  One patch on his back now has no cysts.  However, his feathers are still not normal (his right wing in
particular has quite distorted feathers) and because of this he is still
unable to fly (he is able to move around his cage via a complex system of
perches and sloping perches).  Particularly encouraging is that my husband
heard Jaufre sing a couple of days ago - which we haven't heard for over 18 months.

So not front page news BUT Jaufre is now 8 years old and I believe he has noticeably improved over the past 12 months.  He continues to eat well and enjoy his baths and I believe he is still able to have good quality of life.

The only thing I haven't done (and which I would like to do) is install full
spectrum lighting over his cage.  I have found it ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to obtain full spectrum lighting for birds in Australia.

Anyway, I thought some of you may be interested in our little bit of
progress.  As my husband said when he heard Jaufre sing the other day "not bad for a bird we thought was going to die several times!"

Carole Bryant, Rosie, Jaufre & Morgan

I am glad you canary is improving. I have never had one as badly
affected as yours seems to be, but with those we have had I find that
about 25% of the time a cyst is cleaned out, the next feather grows back
normally (if it grows back at all).  The other 75% of the time it
re-develops.  One old canary breeder I knew said that he used to fix it
with iodine, one drop to 20ml of water was his recipe, but I have never
tried it out as a cure.  I do know that many breeders believe that it is
passed on genetically to offspring and will never breed with a canary
that has feather cysts,  however a vet told me that he thought it was a
virus that was being passed on by parents to offspring, and not genetic.

cheers,

Mike Owen
Queensland