Pilot’s pet is flying high again thanks to eye surgery at UF’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

Champion aerobatic performer Patty Wagstaff has a thing about things that fly.

That’s not surprising, considering that she spends a great deal of time in the air, performing stunts at shows and competitions throughout the world.

So when her pet African grey parrot, Bijou, started having trouble with his own flying because of cataracts, Wagstaff and her significant other, Dale Snodgrass, were devastated. After surfing the Internet for information and discussing their situation with a Jacksonville veterinarian, the couple came to the University of Florida Veterinary Teaching Hospital in January for an ophthalmology consultation.

Thanks to successful cataract surgery performed by veterinary ophthalmologist Dennis Brooks and wildlife surgeon Avery Bennett, 1-year-old Bijou now has regained much of her independence and appears to be recovering quite well.

“We noticed a difference right away,” said Wagstaff, whose business operation, Patty Wagstaff Airshows, is based in Fernandina Beach. “She now seems to see quite well. She doesn’t just feel her way across her perch; she looks at us with both eyes as she moves.”

Brooks and Bennett removed a cataract from Bijou’s right eye in a 30-minute procedure Feb. 2.

That cataract had completely covered the parrot’s lens. Another cataract noted in Bijou’s left eye was left alone for the time being because it didn’t appear to be threatening the bird’s sight.

“She’s much more mobile now,” Wagstaff said. “Before the surgery, she’d launch and if you couldn’t catch her, she’d fly into things. The first few flights she took after the procedure, we would see her navigate around things, and it was beautiful because she wouldn’t crash.”

Both Wagstaff and Snodgrass are gifted pilots. Wagstaff has flown air shows and competitions throughout North America and around the world in such locations as South America, Europe, and Russia. Each year she performs in aerial exhibitions before millions of spectators. A three-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion, Wagstaff has been a member of the U.S. Aerobatic Team six times since 1985 and was the first woman ever to win the title of U.S. National Aerobatic Champion.

She has won numerous medals in the Olympic-level International Aerobatic Competition and has trained with the Russian aerobatic team. She is the subject of an autobiography, “Fire and Air” by Ann L. Cooper, recently published by Chicago Review Press. The book received rave reviews from leading magazines and from Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Snodgrass, a retired Navy F-14 pilot, now flies vintage World War II fighter planes in air shows.

He and Wagstaff, who also own two scarlet-chested parakeets, a cockatoo, a lovebird, a conure and a canary, flew Bijou to Gainesville in their twin-engine plane.

“Our birds like to fly in airplanes, and Bijou is definitely our best traveler,” Wagstaff said. “The other birds get antsy.”

Bijou doesn’t go to airshows with her owners, but they claim she loves to fly.

“We have a car seat, and she sits on it,” Wagstaff said. “Only now, she can look out the window!”