UV lamp placed horizontally may burn cornea

05-16-2008, 11:32 AM

Hello PC People: A friend sent this to me and I wanted to share it with you all.

Quote:

Could you please post? Work computers don't always let me on. here's the post:

Wednesday, I came home from running an errand and noticed that my cockatiel who was loose was on another cage with one of his eyes shut. I worried that he had gotten hurt but could see nothing wrong so put him into his cage where he remained until the following day, yesterday, when I got home from work. He now had both eyes shut and basically refused to open them. I noticed that the eye lids were pink. I call Dr. Speer's office and was able to take River in right away. There were four vets there and they all ended up examining him. Different ideas arose about what might be wrong until they stained his eyes. Whoa! Both eye corneas were burned! What!? We thought about all the ways this could have happened and the only idea that we came up with is that my UV lamp (UVB Lighting) which I put right on top of one empty cage between two larger cages and allow the birds to come and go and bask in it, had burned him. My naked mini macaw loves basking in the lamp, but everybody at some point spends some time in front of it. Sometimes a bird will spend a good amount of time preening "under" the light that is really horizontally at the same level of the bird. We think that perhaps the bird snoozed some and that is what burned his corneas. While nothing is for sure, but I live alone so pretty much know what's in the environment, it occurs to me a simple change could be made and might be safer. Also it was mentioned at the vet's office that these kind of lights have been known to burn retina in reptiles. Ouch.
So here's my thought: Place all UV lighting above the birds' heads therefore they can't fall asleep or spend time facing it. So please examine your set ups and place your light above the birds' heads just to be safe.

River should recover, but they kept him overnight and maybe will longer. He is on pain meds and antiinflammatory drugs. Blood has been drawn to check for infection that might exist. He hasn't been eating due to his discomfort so is being watched.

thanks.

Many have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it.
You remain responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
-Antoine de Saint Exupery

05-16-2008, 12:14 PM

Thanks for posting this! It's not something that people would normaly think of with respects to lighting.