Eye Problems

[Hops_in_Heaven]

Hello again to everyone here!

In my last thread, a few weeks ago, I brought Cuddles to the vet because one of her eyes was swollen shut and boogery. I was given eye drops and some honey-flavoured anti-inflammatory medicine to syringe feed her. It worked wonderfully! In a day, her eye was better, but I still gave the medicine for a week, as prescribed.

The day we discovered her bad eye, we also pulled a piece of hay out of said damaged right eye. We thought this was a one time event due to this piece of hay. Every day since, I've been checking her eyes in the morning and night for pieces of hay because she clearly can't be trusted to remove them herself.

And yet... just an hour ago, after returning from a party, I found that her other eye is now having the same problems. I read my book next to my pigs, fed them their veggies and saw that everyone was fine. Came back from the party three hours later and now her other eye (left one) is all bad.

I spoke with a vet on the phone, who said that no place in my city has the eye drops I used last time in stock. However, human eye drops should do the trick since they are also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. I'm thankful for that since it's a lot cheaper. I'm going to try them and hope they work. If I see no improvement in a few days, I'll set her up for another vet visit.

I'm worried. If it's not a piece of hay that is causing her eyes to get bad, what is? Why is this happening again? I clean the cage once a week. I took them all to the vet in June for their yearly check-up and was told that everybody is perfectly healthy. Could this be a sign of a bigger problem?

Has anyone else here had problems with guinea pig eyes before? Does anyone have any advice?

 

[Wiebke]

Hello again to everyone here!

In my last thread, a few weeks ago, I brought Cuddles to the vet because one of her eyes was swollen shut and boogery. I was given eye drops and some honey-flavoured anti-inflammatory medicine to syringe feed her. It worked wonderfully! In a day, her eye was better, but I still gave the medicine for a week, as prescribed.

The day we discovered her bad eye, we also pulled a piece of hay out of said damaged right eye. We thought this was a one time event due to this piece of hay. Every day since, I've been checking her eyes in the morning and night for pieces of hay because she clearly can't be trusted to remove them herself.

And yet... just an hour ago, after returning from a party, I found that her other eye is now having the same problems. I read my book next to my pigs, fed them their veggies and saw that everyone was fine. Came back from the party three hours later and now her other eye (left one) is all bad.

I spoke with a vet on the phone, who said that no place in my city has the eye drops I used last time in stock. However, human eye drops should do the trick since they are also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. I'm thankful for that since it's a lot cheaper. I'm going to try them and hope they work. If I see no improvement in a few days, I'll set her up for another vet visit.

I'm worried. If it's not a piece of hay that is causing her eyes to get bad, what is? Why is this happening again? I clean the cage once a week. I took them all to the vet in June for their yearly check-up and was told that everybody is perfectly healthy. Could this be a sign of a bigger problem?

Has anyone else here had problems with guinea pig eyes before? Does anyone have any advice?

The problem is normally hay related. What hay are you feeding how do you feed it? Timothy hay can be very scratchy and stiff and can cause hay pokes, which can ulcerate quickly. Softer orchard or meadow hay can get wedged between the lid and the eye surface and cause ulceration that way. Guinea pigs can also cause scratches (and rarely punctuations) of the eye surface by misjudged swipes with her hind legs when they have a little tiff.

Please also get some visco tears for lubrication from a pharmacy; that will help ease the discomfort. Apply them half an hour after the antibiotic drops and once in between. Vets in the UK are now increasingly prescribing lubricant eye gel to help the healing process.

What you need to know about eye injuries is that they come on and develop very quickly; they can also deteriorate very quickly. It needs a vet with their special dye to determine the extent of the eye injury.
You have done the right thing in getting in contact with your vet asap. The sooner a piggy sees a vet and gets treatment, the better. If getting hold of antibiotic eye drops/gel is a problem, perhaps your vet may do it for you, so they have got some in stock.

The good news is that minor eye injuries usually heal pretty quickly and without problems again if you can start the correct treatment promptly.

 

[Hops_in_Heaven]

The only timothy hay available is called western timothy hay, and it's very, very stiff. My pigs don't seem to eat very much of it. I switched over to orchard grass because they seem to really like it. Is there a different kind of hey I should be using?

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Wiebke]

The only timothy hay available is called western timothy hay, and it's very, very stiff. My pigs don't seem to eat very much of it. I switched over to orchard grass because they seem to really like it. Is there a different kind of hey I should be using?

Thanks for the tips.

No, these are the two most frequently used and most recommended varieties of hay. Eye injuries are unfortunately a common hazard in guinea pigs, especially those that love to dive into hay or grass (which also can wedge under a lid and cause ulceration).

If it is any consolation to you, I've had 5 eye injuries this year already from either hay pokes or mostly hay/hay seed wedged under a lid as I still think that allowing my piggies to play in a heap of fresh hay is important for their enrichment. I have some piggies that unfortunately love to jump and dive into the hay, one piggy that did this right into the path of the bunch of hay I was placing in a tray (that was the hay poke, and he won't repeat this experience again, as he is now carefully waiting until I have finished!) and a couple of incidents from my most skittish piggies making an ill-judged dive for safety when spooked.

As long as you are vigilant and step in asap, it is not going to be a huge problem. Outright hay pokes with orchard or meadow hay are less common, but the risk of getting hay and seeds wedged under a lid is much higher than with orchard than timothy hay. I would serve timothy only ever in a rack and not a play area or as bedding because of the increased risk of more damaging eye pokes.

Just check an eye as soon as you see signs of watering/in-drawn eyes/ulceration. Eye injuries are often not visible or only visible with special dye before ulceration sets in.

 

[Hops_in_Heaven]

Thanks. I was starting to feel like a failure of a piggy caretaker. Cuddles is the most skittish of my pigs, and also loves to cover herself in hay. I'll just have to keep tending to her as best as I can. I'll also try to find those visco tears today as well.