Aussie Finch Forum

Hello all, one of my male zebra finches jet has been closing one or both his eyes alot more recently, there is not swelling, redness or leakage and aside from closing his eyes for abnormal periods of time he is a completely normal finch eats, sings and grooms regularly, normal. When i got him in january of this year he already had large eyelids i didn't think too much of it thinking it was just to do with his mutation (eumo or charcoal) but now that he has been doing this i googled his mutation and saw it wasn't normal. No other bird in the cage has eyelids or closes their eyes like he does, and today i noticed he is closing the left one more. the one of the front is one of my older zebras (caeser) and you can see the size of the eyelid difference.

If you are talking about the one in the back, he definitely looks like a foreign object, like a lice spray, entered his eyes. This happened to one of my hens once when I accidentally sprayed her in the eye with her lice spray and then quickly cleaned out her eye with water. Before I could catch her she definitely had the same symptoms of your cock- closing her eye for an abnormal period of time. Just clean out his affected eyes with water and wait a few days as he will still repeatedly do this but will stop. Hope this method works! If it just irritates the eye more, take him to the nearest avian vet.

UPDATE: I have tried googling it and your poor finch might have the early signs of conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is contagious so please place the sick finch in another cage and clean the other cage. Bring your cock to the vet as soon as possible.

Don't want to sound like the harbinger of doom but it appears to me the eye has shrunk. It is not bright and bulging like the eye of the finch in front. Perhaps it has sustained an injury of some kind and the eye has been pierced. The body will compensate and the eye will eventually stay closed.

Just my thoughts.

Good luck

Ken.

matcho maybe you are right, but the eye is half closed so that it appears shrunk.

If its conjunctivitis. .a drop of chlorsig will fix it..

Cate,
Just following up on Ken's suggestion. Does the eye or eye socket have a sunken appearance ? Does the bird turn its head when looking at objects to suggest that it may be favouring the sight in one eye, as if he could possibly be blind in one eye ? I once read (I have no references) that a genetic weakness in some Zebra mutations can produce these symptoms and appearances, associated with partial or complete blindness.
Another cause for dry and sunken eyes in birds is dehydration. In birds with fresh water on hand, this would indicate disease.
I will be most happy to be wrong on both accounts.

thank you everyone for your replies, aside from the size of his eyelids he is completely normal, he reacts to both sides without turning his head so i don't think there is an issue with his eyesight, they get fresh water changed daily. I am just wondering if it were conjunctivitis wouldn't my other finches have the same symptoms or any symptoms? because i have read it is very contagious and he has been housed with my other finches since i got him and no other finch is showing any symptoms and the eyelids haven't changed in size they haven't gotten better or worse. the first photo i will add shows when i first got him with the other bird i brought him with (January of this year) and the 2nd and 3rd photo are of him today taken a few minutes ago. @Ken if his eye has shrunken how would i fix it?

The bottom pic looks like he has larger than usual and white eye rings on both eyes.
LML

Cate then he may have a permanent eye injury. Don’t try to do anything about it as it is most likely irreversible and he will adapt. He still might be able to see out of that eye though.