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Deteriorating Eyesight?

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Phoebe-PP

Phoebe-PP

Teenage Guinea Pig
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One of my girls Pumpkin will be four at the end of this month, and I'm worried that her eye sight isn't as good as it used to be. Little things like at dinner time she won't realise that I've put the veg in their cage until I shove something under her nose, and she startles if you go to stroke her unexpectedly, which she never used to do.

My question is really, is there anything I should be doing or is there any way to help her?

I've already got a carpenter friend to come and put a bannister around the ramp hole in their hutch for when they move outside again, and I'm getting a ramp tunnel from Cosy Cavies. I know that it's a normal part of getting older, but I'm still worried for her!
 
Are her eyes getting cloudier? Cataracts are not rare in older piggies. I have and have several piggies with congenital cataracts. Piggies usually adapt after a period of transition.

What you can do: make deliberate noises and chatter away so she knows when you come and where you are and you don't startle her. Give her vocal cues instead of visual ones. For instance, knock on the bowl to alert her to food.
 
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I have a piggie with full cataracts in both eyes, unsure as to whether it's congenital or diabetes related or both but something I do is keep important things in the same spot like food and water.
 
Both my old girls Stella and Guiness have cataracts, but seem to see well enough. However I'm pretty convinced that Prissie sees very little at all. She seems to manage just fine, but tends to prefer someone to stick with out in the run. Because she's alpha girl she tends to get treats by locating Marmaduke and stealing his. They are in a basket while thet are cleaned out and I've just fed them cherry tomatoes. I touched hers on her nose before putting it down so she knows it is there and doesn't causes punch up I a confined place.

Older rodents can also sleep very deeply - I've had a few where you can literally pick them up before they start to stir. This means they can startle when they realise you are there. I'm usually talking to them as I enter the room to give them warning.

It's a really good idea to reduce her risk of falls as much as possible. I've not had any problems with guinea pigs, but my 14 year old chinchilla broke his tail last year and we still don't really know how - seems likely that he fell in his cage which is now decked out in fleece with no drops.
 
Wiebke said:
Are her eyes getting cloudier? Cataracts are not rare in older piggies. I have and have several piggies with congenital cataracts. Piggies usually adapt after a period of transition.

What you can do: make deliberate noises and chatter away so she knows when you come and where you are and you don't startle her. Give her vocal cues instead of visual ones. For instance, knock on the bowl to alert her to food.
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Her eyes have a bluish tinge to them in the middlish which wasn't there when she was younger, could this be cataracts? I've also heard cataracts could be linked to diabetes, should I test her for it?

I do tend to be quite vocal with them, but that's a good idea with knocking on the bowl because normally I just call out "vegetables!" :))
 
gogoguineas said:
I have a piggie with full cataracts in both eyes, unsure as to whether it's congenital or diabetes related or both but something I do is keep important things in the same spot like food and water.
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I've noticed that when she gets put back in her clean cage, she does a circum-navigation of the cage sniffing to find where all the toys have been put, but I keep the water and food in the same place. She's definitely not blind though, I'm pretty sure she can still see, just perhaps not so well as when she was younger.
 
You can if you're concerned of course.
I control mine with diet, no sweet veg, took him off gerty and moved to a mix of wagg crunch and burgess excel.
It sounds like cataracts to me. My piggie lives a really normal life though, plus their eye sight isnt great anyway to start with. Infact, he's more active with his new friend (his cagemate passed last february and he went dating in june) than he ever was!
 
paulag said:
It's a really good idea to reduce her risk of falls as much as possible. I've not had any problems with guinea pigs, but my 14 year old chinchilla broke his tail last year and we still don't really know how - seems likely that he fell in his cage which is now decked out in fleece with no drops.
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Since her friend Pickles had a nasty hay poke a few years ago, they have been on fleece so I don't think they'll let me change anytime soon! With their hutch being double decker, I've piggy proofed it completely so there's no way to fall, and they'll have food and water on both levels to save climbing the stairs! :))
 
gogoguineas said:
You can if you're concerned of course.
I control mine with diet, no sweet veg, took him off gerty and moved to a mix of wagg crunch and burgess excel.
It sounds like cataracts to me. My piggie lives a really normal life though, plus their eye sight isnt great anyway to start with. Infact, he's more active with his new friend (his cagemate passed last february and he went dating in june) than he ever was!
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Aww that's nice he's got a new lease of life with his new buddy xx>>> They're on Burgess Excel at the moment, they tend to get fed salady foods (celery, cucumber, pepper etc) more than anything so probably not much sugar there. Pumpkin hasn't got much of a sweet tooth anyway, she prefers a nice juicy slab of cucumber over any fruit :))
 
I just did a search on eyes with a bluish tinge, and someone whose pig has cataracts said that her pig would often lift her head high up in the air and sniff around, presumably to sniff food out. That's exactly what Pumpkin does! Oh, and according to Peter Gurney, Abby's are more prone to cataracts, well Pumpkin is Abby/Sheltie cross!

I'm getting more and more convinced that there is something wrong with her eyes, but when I look at pictures of pigs with cataracts, their eyes are white and really obvious, whereas Pumpkin has normal looking eyes, just with a blue tint that you can see when staring deep into her eyes rolleyes :))

Is bluish-ness the start of cataracts maybe? Or a different type to the white ones?

Sorry for so many questions, I just want to figure this mystery out!
 
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In my experience that was the start, now fuzzys eyes look like they have a pale blue contact lense in them. Fuzzy always climbs the grids and sniffs the air too lol
 
Not all cataracts look the same, Wally's one is very obvious and cloudy white on the surface but Moonpig's are less obvious. They manage fine btw. Wally's only got one eye now ( had his other out in feb ) and of course that's the one with the cataract but it doesn't seem to stop him from doing stuff. :)
 
I'm glad to hear that they manage well without them, these two are my first pigs so I've never really experienced a full piggy life time, even though they're four! I've stopped giving them fruit now, until I can get Pumpkin checked for diabetes just to be sure. I've heard there are home-kits, where can you get them from?
 
I got my home kit from amazon, I use it just to keep an eye on the readings, anything higher than normal he'd go to the vet but since I altered his diet its dropped right down and I haven;t had a problem for nearly a year :)
I can now give him a small piece of fruit once a week, like last night they had some banana skin and a couple of tiny pieces of apple between the two (tyler loves fruit too)
 
Phoebe-PP said:
Her eyes have a bluish tinge to them in the middlish which wasn't there when she was younger, could this be cataracts? I've also heard cataracts could be linked to diabetes, should I test her for it?

I do tend to be quite vocal with them, but that's a good idea with knocking on the bowl because normally I just call out "vegetables!" :))
Click to expand...

That sounds like cataracts indeed. They are not unusual in older guinea pigs.
If you are worried, have her tested for diabetes. One vet explained to me that cataracts were actually a reaction to the diabetes medication and not to diabetes itself. Not absolutely sure whether that it is true. Anyway, none of my cataract piggies has ever shown any other symptoms of diabetes (excessive drinking/urination and sudden weight loss) and most of them had congenital cataracts (early adulthood onset). Excessive drinking is more than 300ml a day.
http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html#cataracts
http://www.guinealynx.info/links.html#diabetes
 
Wiebke said:
That sounds like cataracts indeed. They are not unusual in older guinea pigs.
If you are worried, have her tested for diabetes. One vet explained to me that cataracts were actually a reaction to the diabetes medication and not to diabetes itself. Not absolutely sure whether that it is true. Anyway, none of my cataract piggies has ever shown any other symptoms of diabetes (excessive drinking/urination and sudden weight loss) and most of them had congenital cataracts (early adulthood onset). Excessive drinking is more than 300ml a day.
http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html#cataracts
http://www.guinealynx.info/links.html#diabetes
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I didn't realise excessive urinating was one :{ She is a bit of a wee-er, you can't have her out for longer than about 10 minutes without her peeing.
 
My Poppy is nearly five. She has had blueish cloudy eyes for several years now. Her eyesight has got noticeably worse over this time and the other day she didn't see me reaching for her until it was too late and there was nowhere to run. She knows "tea time" = food, and where the food is going to be. It hasn't really caused her any problems. I was told it was nuclear sclerosis which is just age related deterioration.
 
Thanks everyone, I'm getting some of those urine test strips to double check there's no underlying cause of the cataracts, so I'll let you all know the verdict!
 
Hi i have a girl who's diabetic and has cataracts and is blind, i manage her diabetes with diet. She has lots of hay, green vet and NO fruits, this has made a huge difference to her tests, she now doesn't have a positive reading anymore!
I always tap on things when i'm about to move anything or come up to their house so she doesn't get a fright. Their house has two setups, one for day one for night, but she knew the routine before she lost her sight.
Sounds like you have your cage setup just fine :)


GOOD LUCK WITH LITTLE PUMPKIN XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Glynis said:
Hi i have a girl who's diabetic and has cataracts and is blind, i manage her diabetes with diet. She has lots of hay, green vet and NO fruits, this has made a huge difference to her tests, she now doesn't have a positive reading anymore!
I always tap on things when i'm about to move anything or come up to their house so she doesn't get a fright. Their house has two setups, one for day one for night, but she knew the routine before she lost her sight.
Sounds like you have your cage setup just fine :)


GOOD LUCK WITH LITTLE PUMPKIN XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Click to expand...


Thank you :) If she gets to the point where she can't manage in her hutch, she'll be moved indoors into their 5x2 C&C cage which is all on one level. But hopefully that won't be for a long time yet!
 
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