Appropriate forum to ask about a bird illness/injury?

What would be the appropriate forum to post some photos of a bird with an eye injury or disease? I've emailed the only close avian rehabber I could find and am waiting on a response from them. I don't know if it's avian conjunctivitis or something else, the affected bird is a House Finch.
Thanks,
Vicki

The House Fiches are subject to a few diseases. Cornell University has been doing a survey about this problem. It is a 'Bird Watching' issue, I guess. . .

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/index.html

Thanks, that's the site I was looking at earlier. I think this may be a bad case of avian conjunctivitis, I didn't' see any of the warts it says are common with pox. I'm going to remove and bleach my feeders tomorrow as suggested on the site, hopefully this is the only one that's infected.

sadie did you got in contact with your avian rehaber already??

I m sorry I was not here around earlier.

I will stick around just in case a bit longer

Sadie in case if You not here any longer , but will come back tomorrow or so, I will live some info, don` t know , what You can use.

Okay, cleaning the bird feeders is good idea anyhow. If it is House finch conjunctivitis (mycoplasma gallisepticum), then it is highly transmissible, spread by birds congregating at feeders and then by eye secretions of the infected one.
Takes around 12 weeks for the eye lesions to develop after exposure.
What you will see , when looking on affected bird is one or both eye being red and inflamed with a clear discharge, then advanced case may have extreme swelling, crusty eyelids, discharge containing pus, matted feathers around the eyes. Also some inflammation and discharge in the nares, and then..loss of vision.
The bird will starve, as it can`t forage for food.
House finch conjunctivitis is not limited to house finch only. Purple finches, goldfinches and grosbeaks can have it too Another for of Mycoplasma is Mycoplasma Sturni, , which starlings, blue jays and northern mockingbirds
As far as pox goes, thou look similarly, you would have to see some warts around the beak, on the head on the digits under the feathers, which if, you don`t have the bird in your hand, you may not notice. With the pox , there is nothing you can do, (lots of good food and support , if in your care) the bird either go thru and live (becomes carrier) or dies.
For HFC - Ciprofloxacin HC1 as a topical antibiotic ophthalmic solution ; apply to the eyes 2 x day, until eyes appear clear (this may take 7 days)
- Tylosin tartrate (Tylan) mix in the water at 1 mg/ml (1/4 tsp per quart of water) To be effective, Tylan must be the only water source (drinking and bath)
for at least 21 days

Hope this will be of some help. Let me know , what is happening . Try to take some close ups of his head, face , diggits.

Good luck.

sadie, I had this same problem a lot during the warmer months. Its very tragic. I believe you have to take down any feeders that the HF use.

It doesn't happen here during the cold winter.

birdscrazy ~ thanks for all the info! I looked again this a.m. and didn't see it anywhere. The rehabber has not emailed me back yet. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere to keep the HF inside, DH is ok with our 4 dogs but no birds. I got some very clear closeups of the worst eye, I'll dmail a couple to you this evening, I don't have them on my work computer. I didn't see any warty looking growths on the face or feet but didn't get any good pics of the legs. I took all of the feeders down this a.m. and will sterilize and air dry them tonight.

pelletory ~ I remember seeing a finch or 2 last year, during the summer, that didn't look quite right but could never get close enough to see their eyes. I was really surprised to see this one, I figured this kind of thing would be more prevalent in warm weather, but what do I know :-( The HFs use all of the feeders, except for the suet. I hate to take them down, since we're getting ready to have some of the coldest weather so far this winter, but I will if I see another one. One site I visited last night said to take them down for a couple of weeks to disperse the birds.

sadie, you can always throw some seed around on the ground.

I just finished having all my feeders taken down for over a week (not due to house finch problem but something else) so I just threw around on the ground some real cheap seeds that HF, Junco's and White Throated Sparrows will eat. They won't go hungry they have other ways of finding food too.

Okay sadie I Demail them to me. :)