Dodgy eyes?!

[danuutka]

Adopted this beautiful lady from P@H today (along with her sister). We noticed that her eyes were a bit “funny” - the shop assistant told us that she is entirely blind, but that the vet didn’t know exactly what was up. We have a vet app booked, but just wondering if any of you recognise what this could be?

Her left eye looks a lot worse - it has a white splodge surrounded by a lot of redness. Her right eye also has the white splodge, but just looks a bit more cloudy without any redness. The eyes seem to be watering a lot too.

We were told that they are about 2 years old, and came from a very neglectful home. Little lady had a tumour which was removed recently, but has since been cleared by the vet.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Wiebke]

Adopted this beautiful lady from P@H today (along with her sister). We noticed that her eyes were a bit “funny” - the shop assistant told us that she is entirely blind, but that the vet didn’t know exactly what was up. We have a vet app booked, but just wondering if any of you recognise what this could be?

Her left eye looks a lot worse - it has a white splodge surrounded by a lot of redness. Her right eye also has the white splodge, but just looks a bit more cloudy without any redness. The eyes seem to be watering a lot too.

We were told that they are about 2 years old, and came from a very neglectful home. Little lady had a tumour which was removed recently, but has since been cleared by the vet.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Good that you have booked her in - when is your appointment?
Please have her seen asap - the left eye looks very much like an untreated infection and needs to be seen and treated as quickly as possible in an attempt to save the eye and avoid an eye removal op. Any blood in the eye counts as an emergency, and that looks ever so sore!

The other eye looks like well developed cataract to me - but I can only guess from my own cataract piggies.

 

[danuutka]

Good that you have booked her in - when is your appointment?
Please have her seen asap - the left eye looks very much like an untreated infection and needs to be seen and treated as quickly as possible in an attempt to save the eye and avoid an eye removal op. Any blood in the eye counts as an emergency, and that looks ever so sore!

The other eye looks like well developed cataract to me - but I can only guess from my own cataract piggies.

She’s booked in on Monday afternoon, and it’s the earliest appointment we could get with a piggy savvy vet. Poor thing, I hope we managed to catch it in time - she’s already been sat in the P@H adoption section for 5 days

 

[Wiebke]

She’s booked in on Monday afternoon, and it’s the earliest appointment we could get with a piggy savvy vet. Poor thing, I hope we managed to catch it in time - she’s already been sat in the P@H adoption section for 5 days

Can you have her seen by a general vet tomorrow, please? The sooner treatment with antibiotic drops or gel is started the better.
Eye treatment and medication is the same for all pets, so any general vet worth their salt should know what to do and have the medication ready - there is either isathal or the stronger chloramphenicol. She should also have metacam (painkiller and anti-inflammatory) and ideally plain artificial tear gel for comfort/rehydration and to help support the healing process; you can get the latter from a pharmacy if your vet is not prescribing any lubricant.

I always take any piggy of mine to the nearest vet that can offer me the soonest appointment on the day; if it happens in the evening, then first thing in the morning unless it is really, really bad.

 

[danuutka]

Can you have her seen by a general vet tomorrow, please? The sooner treatment with antibiotic drops or gel is started the better.
Eye treatment and medication is the same for all pets, so any general vet worth their salt should know what to do and have the medication ready - there is either isathal or the stronger chloramphenicol. She should also have metacam (painkiller and anti-inflammatory) and ideally plain artificial tear gel for comfort/rehydration and to help support the healing process; you can get the latter from a pharmacy if your vet is not prescribing any lubricant.

I always take any piggy of mine to the nearest vet that can offer me the soonest appointment on the day; if it happens in the evening, then first thing in the morning unless it is really, really bad.

Hi, just wanted to update. Our cavy savvy vet isn’t suspecting any infection in the eye - but isn’t exactly sure what is going on. We are booked in for a tonometry to check the intraocular pressure, as hopefully this will help to determine what is going on.

He essentially said that the eye is in quite bad shape, but that he doesn’t know exactly what is wrong. He didn’t seem to think it was an ulcer/abrasion/hay poke either. Lulu has been given metacam in the mean time to try to relieve any discomfort.

Depending on what different tests show, she may have to have the eye removed, but we don’t know yet. We are going to get into contact with pets at home because they failed to give us pretty much any medical history (even though she was treated by their vet), and I’m not sure I believe that they didn’t “notice” how bad her eye looked.

We’re just going to follow our vets recommendation for now, and see what happens.

Weirdly, though, Nelli (her sister) keeps coming up and licking the affected eye?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, just wanted to update. Our cavy savvy vet isn’t suspecting any infection in the eye - but isn’t exactly sure what is going on. We are booked in for a tonometry to check the intraocular pressure, as hopefully this will help to determine what is going on.

He essentially said that the eye is in quite bad shape, but that he doesn’t know exactly what is wrong. He didn’t seem to think it was an ulcer/abrasion/hay poke either. Lulu has been given metacam in the mean time to try to relieve any discomfort.

Depending on what different tests show, she may have to have the eye removed, but we don’t know yet. We are going to get into contact with pets at home because they failed to give us pretty much any medical history (even though she was treated by their vet), and I’m not sure I believe that they didn’t “notice” how bad her eye looked.

We’re just going to follow our vets recommendation for now, and see what happens.

Weirdly, though, Nelli (her sister) keeps coming up and licking the affected eye?

The licking is a sign that the eye is painful and not right. Guinea pigs care for each other! The eye licking has several times alerted to me to a hay poke or other eye injury.

All the best!

 

[danuutka]

The licking is a sign that the eye is painful and not right. Guinea pigs care for each other! The eye licking has several times alerted to me to a hay poke or other eye injury.

All the best!

Wow no way! Hopefully it all works out for little Lulu

 

[Betsy]

Hope Lulu and her eye are sorted soon.

 

[Merab]

Good that you were able to get Lulu seen by your own vet.
I also hope that at the very least PAH will pay your vet bills.
Hope the eye can be treated.

 

[danuutka]

Hope Lulu and her eye are sorted soon.

Me too! Hopefully the tonometry gives us more clarity about what to do. I don’t care whether the eye stays or goes, as long as she is comfortable and not in pain for a neglected, mistreated piggy she is so loving and sweet

 

[danuutka]

Good that you were able to get Lulu seen by your own vet.
I also hope that at the very least PAH will pay your vet bills.
Hope the eye can be treated.

Do you know what they are like with this sort of thing? Because we wil be getting into contact with them, as I’m not happy with how much information must have been withheld from us.

We were told she had a surgery two weeks ago on her back, but weren’t told at all that the sutures are still in - if we had known, we would’ve been a lot more diligent about whether she is itching/pulling at the area. The area is also tender to the touch for her, where we were told it was completely healed (we were none the wiser as her fur has grown over it, and we assumed she was wriggling so much cos she’s not used to human contact.

Also, we were simply told “she’s blind and may require further treatment”. Turns out she’s still light reactive, and has some reflexes suggesting she has very limited vision. So either the vet just didn’t notice how red/irritated/nasty her left eye is, ignored it, or failed to write it in her adoption notes. If not, then it must’ve happened to Lulu in the time she was in the cage in the pet shop, and I struggle to believe that no one noticed her very obviously nasty looking eye - when it was the first thing I noticed when I walked in...

We will be contacting them to try to get a more thorough history/vet treatment history (as this will also be useful to know for our vet), and see what they say. When we asked, the only information in her notes was that she’s blind, and when we asked about her eye, they just said that it’s probably Cosby she’s blind... I’m very disappointed, I’m just happy Lulu has a loving home now

 

[piggieminder]

Well done for taking on these piggies and for giving them a lovely caring home.
I think how helpful P at H is depends to a large extent on the individual store and is even down to who you speak to whilst there. When I adopted a boar who had had vet treatment while he was with them the receptionist at the in store vet printed me off a copy of his notes in case more treatment became necessary. If you don't get the reponse from them you require I would write to head office and complain. This piggie doesn't sound like she was ready to be rehomed and certainly not without information/support for her medical needs.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Aw, poor little mite, hope Lulu gets better soon x
Don’t be fobbed off with P@H, make them pay for her treatment

 

[Merab]

Do you know what they are like with this sort of thing? Because we wil be getting into contact with them, as I’m not happy with how much information must have been withheld from us.

We were told she had a surgery two weeks ago on her back, but weren’t told at all that the sutures are still in - if we had known, we would’ve been a lot more diligent about whether she is itching/pulling at the area. The area is also tender to the touch for her, where we were told it was completely healed (we were none the wiser as her fur has grown over it, and we assumed she was wriggling so much cos she’s not used to human contact.

Also, we were simply told “she’s blind and may require further treatment”. Turns out she’s still light reactive, and has some reflexes suggesting she has very limited vision. So either the vet just didn’t notice how red/irritated/nasty her left eye is, ignored it, or failed to write it in her adoption notes. If not, then it must’ve happened to Lulu in the time she was in the cage in the pet shop, and I struggle to believe that no one noticed her very obviously nasty looking eye - when it was the first thing I noticed when I walked in...

We will be contacting them to try to get a more thorough history/vet treatment history (as this will also be useful to know for our vet), and see what they say. When we asked, the only information in her notes was that she’s blind, and when we asked about her eye, they just said that it’s probably Cosby she’s blind... I’m very disappointed, I’m just happy Lulu has a loving home now

If you don’t get satisfaction from the store then I would suggest an email directly to the CEO.
There is a website that gives names and email addresses of all CEOs.

List all your complaints - facts only - and insist on talking to the store manager.
If that doesn’t work then go straight to the CEO.

We went down that route recently with an insurance company and after weeks of getting nowhere the whole issue was resolved in a week.