Eye problem, free range peacock

[MountainPea]

Hi everyone! Hoping someone might have experienced this with their bird. We bought a farm (84 acres), moved in a month and a half ago, and with it came a beautiful peacock. The previous owners opted not to relocate it as they moved into a rental in town while they build. Plus he's been happy here for 8 years so I guess they figured he would prefer to stay here.

He was happy and vocal when we moved in and all was fine. About 2 weeks ago he went very quiet and seemed to sit and rest a lot. I started to notice that he closed his right eye a lot and sometimes scratches it.

Unfortunately at the moment I am not home a lot because my 4 year old daughter is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer (her prognosis is good I might add, but the chemo is intense). We are in hospital a LOT. Right now I'm in hospital with her actually.

Anyway so I haven't been there much the last week, a total of 3 hours in 7 days to be precise. I popped home today briefly and he seems a little perkier today which I'm happy about. I was particularly worried a couple of days ago as the temperature reached 40°C two days in a row. We left a few buckets of water out for him (and the native birds of course) and my boyfriend did see him drink while he was home.

He has still been foraging around and I feed him scraps when I'm home (mainly fresh cut up fruit, rice, leftovers etc, all healthy), plus I bought some free range poultry grains as a treat which he likes.

I'll try to upload a few photos to show his eye. Should I get him treated? Or does this type of thing fix itself? He still flies up to his favourite roosting spot in a big pine tree and I do think he looks better in himself today than he did a week ago, but I'm concerned that he is so quiet. We barely hear a peep from him, whereas he was very vocal when we moved in.

It's also hard because like I said, he is totally free range and won't let us get too close (we can get about a metre from him but if we move directly towards him he quickly gets out of the way).

 

[MountainPea]

Here are a couple of photos, hopefully you can see what I'm talking about. Not sure if you can see that he's feeding with his eye closed (the good one is open)

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Hello and

!

If your new pretty boy seems to be active and eating and roosting in a tree, I would think that you can just wait and see how he does. He may just have scratched his eye slightly and be protecting it, keeping it closed. His face doesn't look like he has any kind of infection or sinus problem. But keep us posted if you see any other problem or symptom, and of course someone with more knowledge about this may jump in with other advice!

Best wishes for your daughter

...

 

[MountainPea]

Thanks for the advice, I will try that. We are leaving hospital in about 45 minutes so he hopefully hasn't gone up to roost when we get home (it's summer here and at 8pm it should still be light). Hopefully he is ok.

 

[Birdrain92]

Since there's no swelling in the face and he seems fine other than the eye he might have just got something in his eye or got scratched by a twig. If it gets worse post another pic. That's the one problem with free range peafowl is they can be difficult to treat them for things. If you have a barn or coop to kind of herd him into and then lock him inside and get a large fishing net to catch him with. Peafowl are strong fliers so be careful. Wings hurt when hit by them.

 

[MountainPea]

The main thing that worries me is that he's just silent, not making a sound. He now and then lets out a little sound, but he's otherwise quiet as a mouse, it's weird. I'll keep my eye on him.

 

[drumstick diva]

In one of your photos he has that eye fully open

 

[MountainPea]

He seems ever so slightly better, but still not quite right. He is only going up to the first branch of the big pine tree to roost at night (used to go right up high). He is still eating and drinking but still no sound at all. His eye is still a little swollen, I will post new pics.

Also I was able to get close enough to see that he has tiny mites crawling around on his skin. Are these something I should be worried about?

My challenge with all this is of course my daughter's cancer treatment. We have literally spent half of the last 5 months in hospital. This month I've hardly been home at all. She had blood tests this morning and if her cell counts are good we go into hospital tomorrow for at least 6 nights for her next round of chemo.

When we moved to this house we deliberately didn't get any pets as we knew we don't have time right now, but we were OK with the peacock staying on as he is free range and was no problem to have even if we weren't here. But now he's sick and I am worried about him, but money is tight and I seem to always be in hospital (and my partner works a lot because he's the main bread winner now).

Today is a public holiday but I plan to call the local vet tomorrow. I just hope that whatever it is can be treated relatively easily.

 

[MountainPea]

Photos from today:

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Now it looks like there may be some swelling around his eye, which could indicate a sinus infection.

Consulting a vet is always highly recommended, but it doesn't sound like you'd be able to catch the poor fella to take him in person for a checkup? It's possible that your vet may be able to give you medication without seeing the bird. If so, you might have to try to put the meds onto food to get him to take them. Let us know what the vet says and someone here will certainly have further advice for you...