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Do No Use These Types Of Toys!

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Benji&Nia

Benji&Nia

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello my fellow piggie lovers!
So something very frightening happened the other day and I want to share it with you all!
Attached is an image of the toy that almost blinded my poor boy Benji...

Came home to find Benji (acting normal) but had a completely clouded over eye! :( I'm new to the town I live in so I didnt know of any vets open late in the area (it was 8:30pm). While Mom was looking for an emergency vet open late, I was checking over Benji. Thats when I noticed something in the back corner of his eye... A hair? Quickly I call Mom over and told her to grab tweezers to pull the "hair" out.... A 1inch chunk of Twine from a "guinea pig friendly chew toy" was pulled from his eye. We quickly rushed him to a vet who took amazing care of him. $200 worth of eye drops and 7 days later Benji is making a slow recovery and cloudiness is almost clear... DR. Ben said had he been left an hour later, he might have lost his eye...

So Story summary, DO NOT USE TWINED TOYS! i was only out of the house for 2 hours tops and thats how much damage it did :(
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Hi! I am very sorry about your bad experience.

We have got a thread about dangerous toys and cage accessories. You are welcome to add this to the sticky at the top of our housing/enrichment section: Potentially Dangerous Cage Accessories
 
It's very scary when they get something stuck in their eye. One of mine, Oreo, had a long piece of hay (I say long, I pulled out around a cm from the eye itself). It initially made her eye very sore with red swollen lids, and the eye itself was clouded. Like you we rushed her to the vet and she had a eye drops for 10 days. She's now all clear.
You certainly did the right thing and well done to you. He's lucky that you noticed and acted so quickly.

I do however feel that this is perhaps a bit of a freak accident. Hay pokes are sadly quite common, and twine pokes I suspect are rare. As with anything in life you cannot predict all eventualities and something unusual happens at times. I am personally wary of wicker type tunnels and hides because of the possibility of eye pokes, but as twine generally stays attached to the item or are chewed then the chewed bits drop to the ground, I can't help but feel that your piggy had a rare and unfortunate occurrence.

That's just my opinion though, and it is very good indeed that you have posted this, and shared the fact that these things can happen. Thank you for the warning. Please keep us updated about his eye, hope he's given the all-clear when he's finished his drops.

:hug:
 
I thankfully have never had anything bad happen to my guinea pigs eyes yet *touch wood* but it seems so scary and nerveracking that I think you dealt with this with precision and expertise well done :)
 
how scary! glad he is on the mend, eye pokes are something I will definitely be on the look out for (no pun intended!). glad you acted so quickly!
 
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