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Eye problem in older Piggy

Elizabeth Beadle

Elizabeth Beadle

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
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Location
Moray Scotland
Hi, A few weeks along my 6 year old Piggys right eye was flickering and rolling around it looked every strange. I took him straight to the vets. She checked him over and couldn't find anything wrong and just gave him eye drops as there was a little bit of damage from eye poke. After we took him home we noticed that on the same side of his face it looked different like it had slipped back a bit. Since this has happened Ollie has lost alot of weight slowed down alot and showing his age almost over night. We took a wee sample in and it showed alot of crystals so we removed certain things from his diet. His face seems to be gradually returning to normal now, however, his eye is getting worst. When we took him back the vet did a test which showed that there wasn't much fluid in his eye and gave us another gel for his eye for dry eyes. We give it too him four times a day and each time its gunked up again so we bath it and put the gel in. It doesn't seem to be helping at all. Has any one had similar problems like this Ollie? Ollie has been a great brother to his poorly brother and looked after him for 10 months. Sadly Peanut passed over rainbow bridge on Wednesday. We are syringe feeding Ollie regularly to try and get his weight back up and we are going to talk to the get today about different eye meds. Thank you. Elizabeth.
 
Elizabeth Beadle said:
Hi, A few weeks along my 6 year old Piggys right eye was flickering and rolling around it looked every strange. I took him straight to the vets. She checked him over and couldn't find anything wrong and just gave him eye drops as there was a little bit of damage from eye poke. After we took him home we noticed that on the same side of his face it looked different like it had slipped back a bit. Since this has happened Ollie has lost alot of weight slowed down alot and showing his age almost over night. We took a wee sample in and it showed alot of crystals so we removed certain things from his diet. His face seems to be gradually returning to normal now, however, his eye is getting worst. When we took him back the vet did a test which showed that there wasn't much fluid in his eye and gave us another gel for his eye for dry eyes. We give it too him four times a day and each time its gunked up again so we bath it and put the gel in. It doesn't seem to be helping at all. Has any one had similar problems like this Ollie? Ollie has been a great brother to his poorly brother and looked after him for 10 months. Sadly Peanut passed over rainbow bridge on Wednesday. We are syringe feeding Ollie regularly to try and get his weight back up and we are going to talk to the get today about different eye meds. Thank you. Elizabeth.
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Hi

It sounds rather like Ollie may have had a stroke and has lost the ability to control his and to wash/hydrate his eye. You will have to do that several times daily. Use the eye gel every 6-8 hours, at least 3 times daily to rehydrate the eye.

Has your vet checked the teeth for dental overgrowth one side because that will likely also have been affected? Have a look at the front teeth. If they are very slanted, the chewing is likely one-sided and higher side has started to overgrow in the crucial grinding premolars and molars at the back of the mouth - hence the weight loss. Please contact your vet in this case. Unfortunately, dental care in guinea pigs is not an area most vets are familiar with.

Please step in with feeding and watering support asap.
These practical step-by-step guides with all the how-to tips that we cannot repeat at length in every post tell you exactly how, including with pictures and videos:

- Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
- All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
- How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

My fingers are firmly crossed for your poorly piggy.
 
Thank you we thought the same but because it says its rare we wasn't sure. We are familiar with syringe feeding and and doing it every four hours but I will read the links to check we're not missing anything. Do you know of a biscuit version of recovery plus as he likes his biscuits of course we will continue with Revovery plus too? Our vet is getting us some better drops for his eye and we will check his teeth at his next feed time. Giving him lots of tlc at the moment. Thank you.
 
Elizabeth Beadle said:
Thank you we thought the same but because it says its rare we wasn't sure. We are familiar with syringe feeding and and doing it every four hours but I will read the links to check we're not missing anything. Do you know of a biscuit version of recovery plus as he likes his biscuits of course we will continue with Revovery plus too? Our vet is getting us some better drops for his eye and we will check his teeth at his next feed time. Giving him lots of tlc at the moment. Thank you.
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No, I don't know of a biscuit version but have you tried feeding him from a spoon or a bowl if he is eating by himself and see how that goes?

Strokes do happen but they are often fatal. :(

My little Nimue came was a stroke survivor. She could also no longer clean/hydrate her eye and had to be sadly put to sleep when her teeth started overgrowing on her affected side but as she had started to have more mini-strokes again she was sadly not in any state for any dental treatment.
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The flickering of the eye could be nystagmus - this can be a sign of a neurological issue. I agree it would be worth getting his back teeth checked - this will need to be done by a vet unfortunately as a special tool is needed to see them.
 
Wiebke said:
No, I don't know of a biscuit version but have you tried feeding him from a spoon or a bowl if he is eating by himself and see how that goes?

Strokes do happen but they are often fatal. :(

My little Nimue came was a stroke survivor. She could also no longer clean/hydrate her eye and had to be sadly put to sleep when her teeth started overgrowing on her affected side but as she had started to have more mini-strokes again she was sadly not in any state for any dental treatment.
View attachment 278446
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Sorry to about about Nimue 😍
 
Thank you for your help. Iam pleased to inform you that Ollie is gaining weight again and seems better in himself. The antibiotic eye drops seem to be helping his eye and its not as bad as it was but not as it should be. We are going to leave it a week of giving him the new eye drops and then take him back for the vet to check his eye and his teeth. His back teeth were checked not so long along and we have recently checked his front ones. It would appear that its just his eye that is affected, well I certainly hope so. I will keep you posted. Thanks again.
 
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