This duck has sustained an injury some time previously and now has an eye like this. What should be done for this bird, unilaterally affecetd?
The obvious answer would be to resect some of the conjunctiva and form a normal palpebral aperture. But my enthusiasm for this surgical approach is tempered by experience in other birds species such as this cockateil where attempts to correct this cryptophthalmos always met with failure and regrowth of the aberrant inflamed lid tissue. This photograph is courtesy of Ned Buyukmihci who wrote these birds up in 1990(Eyelid malformation in four cockatiels. J Am Vet Med Assoc.196:1490-2)