Eye problem--foggy corneas in a muscovy

[desertdarlene]

Sorry I don't have a good photo of the problem. As you know, I often encounter a very old (I think he's 15+ years old) muscovy drake named Tom who is feral. He doesn't see very well and today I took a close look at his eyes. He seems to have something clouding up over the front of his eyes. The rest of his eyes look healthy otherwise and his peripheral vision is excellent, but he does have problems seeing things in front of him.

It kinda looks like when there's a small amount of water in a small bowl that gets covered up and the bowl turns cloudy. It appears to be on the cornea, mostly. It doesn't quite look like cataracts.

I'm asking this because I wonder if there's anything that can be done about it or if it's worth taking care of at all because of his age.

Tom is a picky eater, he mostly eats natural food and birdseed with a small amount of bread, but not much.

ETA: Here is a photo of him from the front, I don't know if you can see his cloudy eye on the right:

I know it's not his third eyelid because he's a photo of his left eye with his third eyelid covering it:

 

[Bleenie]

We have an old Purebred Black Lab that is completely blind due to Retnal Degeneration (i believe that's what it's called). It makes his eyes look cloudy but he doesnt have cataracts, they are also GREEN now that they're completely "gone"... the vet told us the green was from the retna being so gone that it just reflects the color behind it... or something like that.

Kinda looks like what might be going on with Tom. I know, with Bailey, the surgery to fix it was REALLY expensive and involved some kind of contacts or something. He was over 5 when it happened so we didn't opt for the surgery. He's 9 now and doing fine. It's a genetic disorder & others in his litter were affected by it at a young age too.

I would assume it's not fixable in ducks, because their eyes are So much smaller & more delicate. He can probably still see quite well.. it took a while for Bailey to completely lose his sight.

 

[satay]

I"m not sure . My guess would be cataracts or something else (infection etc) with the eye due to the age of the drake. I would not really think there would be too much that could be done for him due to age but a vet would be the only one who could tell if it was infection or something else.

 

[desertdarlene]

That's too bad. I was hoping there was something I could do like put drops in his eyes or give him some special water with medicine (which he probably won't drink unless he liked the taste). He can see, but his forward vision is not good. If he's anticipating food, he will nip at anything that waves in front of him. But, he sees fine on the sides and back. He's not starving and seems very healthy otherwise, especially because at his age. He even flies now and then. He does need to loose a little weight, though.