Eyesight

[Hops_in_Heaven]

Thank you to all who stop by to read this thread. I have a quick question for all of you more experienced guinea pig owners. I don't believe this is urgent or anything; it's more of a curiosity thing. How can one tell when a guinea pig's having trouble with their vision?

Here's my relevant situation. I have a lovely herd of four females. I believe they're all approximately four years old now. The piggy in particular is Bliss, who has a very confident and brave disposition, as far as guinea pigs go. When I was at the pet store to pick out my pigs. the worker asked if I wanted to see some baby guinea pigs. At my eager response, she came out with a pigloo containing four guinea pigs. Cuddles and her two sisters tried desperately to hide under Bliss who just sat there, completely at ease. She's the leader of my herd, too.

More potentially important details. She's a mostly white pig with a large chocolate splotch over one ear. Her irises appear to be blue and her entire eye can appear red in the light. Her eyeballs also appear to point ever so slightly backwards. Her eyes have always been like that. She's so confident and outgoing that sometimes it's like she's a dog in a guinea pig's body. She runs to the side of the cage when I enter the room and waits for me to stroke her. When I walk around the room, she follows me in her cage. When I stroke her, she lays down and stretches as far as she can and sometimes yawns. When something startles the other pigs, sending them stampeding for shelter, most of the time, she just placidly chews on her hay, not even bothering to look around.

In the last year or so, I noticed a new behaviour. She swings her head around a lot. Whether she's looking up at a veggie I'm holding above her head or inspecting an object I've placed before her, she's always swinging her head in every which direction. The other pigs don't swing their heads around nearly as much. To socialize my pigs, I don't bother putting their veggies in a bowl, I just hand them out. Sometimes, Bliss won't notice I'm trying to hand her a veggie until it's millimeters from her lips. Sometimes I wonder if she wasn't frightened by this or that thing because she didn't see the way I reached out to pet Tickles too fast, or something, the way every other pig did.

Yesterday, I saw Frolic's adorable brown nose near the edge of the cage so I slipped her a pellet. Every pig heard the chewing and came running over for a treat. Cuddles and Tickles crowded around Frolic. Bliss came over at half the speed, swinging her head around as she walked and stopped at the edge of the cage, way far off from the other three pigs. My boyfriend said it looked as though she was relying primarily on her whiskers rather than her eyes just then.

I mentioned this to the vet when the pigs had their annual checkup back in April. She checked her eyes and said there was no damage to the retina and they weren't cloudy. She said maybe Bliss swings her head around a lot because she's being alert since she's the leader. I find this behaviour odd. Could she be near sighted or something? Or she's acting normal?

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you to all who stop by to read this thread. I have a quick question for all of you more experienced guinea pig owners. I don't believe this is urgent or anything; it's more of a curiosity thing. How can one tell when a guinea pig's having trouble with their vision?

Here's my relevant situation. I have a lovely herd of four females. I believe they're all approximately four years old now. The piggy in particular is Bliss, who has a very confident and brave disposition, as far as guinea pigs go. When I was at the pet store to pick out my pigs. the worker asked if I wanted to see some baby guinea pigs. At my eager response, she came out with a pigloo containing four guinea pigs. Cuddles and her two sisters tried desperately to hide under Bliss who just sat there, completely at ease. She's the leader of my herd, too.

More potentially important details. She's a mostly white pig with a large chocolate splotch over one ear. Her irises appear to be blue and her entire eye can appear red in the light. Her eyeballs also appear to point ever so slightly backwards. Her eyes have always been like that. She's so confident and outgoing that sometimes it's like she's a dog in a guinea pig's body. She runs to the side of the cage when I enter the room and waits for me to stroke her. When I walk around the room, she follows me in her cage. When I stroke her, she lays down and stretches as far as she can and sometimes yawns. When something startles the other pigs, sending them stampeding for shelter, most of the time, she just placidly chews on her hay, not even bothering to look around.

In the last year or so, I noticed a new behaviour. She swings her head around a lot. Whether she's looking up at a veggie I'm holding above her head or inspecting an object I've placed before her, she's always swinging her head in every which direction. The other pigs don't swing their heads around nearly as much. To socialize my pigs, I don't bother putting their veggies in a bowl, I just hand them out. Sometimes, Bliss won't notice I'm trying to hand her a veggie until it's millimeters from her lips. Sometimes I wonder if she wasn't frightened by this or that thing because she didn't see the way I reached out to pet Tickles too fast, or something, the way every other pig did.

Yesterday, I saw Frolic's adorable brown nose near the edge of the cage so I slipped her a pellet. Every pig heard the chewing and came running over for a treat. Cuddles and Tickles crowded around Frolic. Bliss came over at half the speed, swinging her head around as she walked and stopped at the edge of the cage, way far off from the other three pigs. My boyfriend said it looked as though she was relying primarily on her whiskers rather than her eyes just then.

I mentioned this to the vet when the pigs had their annual checkup back in April. She checked her eyes and said there was no damage to the retina and they weren't cloudy. She said maybe Bliss swings her head around a lot because she's being alert since she's the leader. I find this behaviour odd. Could she be near sighted or something? Or she's acting normal?

Hi!

Blind guinea pigs usually don't swing their heads a lot (in fact in most cases you do not see a lot of a difference to sighted guinea pigs, except that they are sniffing the air a lot more frequently and that some long term/blind from birth piggies can develop a head tilt), but have you considered that her sense of smell or her hearing may be impacted? Both senses are much stronger than a human's whereas eyesight is the weakest sense. They are also much less easy to diagnose but can have a big impact on the daily life and the appetite.

Has your vet also checked her ears/balance (wax etc.)? There could also be a neurological problem.
A thorough health check by ideally a piggy savvy exotics vet would be recommended.

If the behaviour is marked and she is losing weight and position in her herd, it is definitely time for a vet visit.

 

[Hops_in_Heaven]

Gosh, I never considered her ears, but the vet did have a look in them when she checked her over and made no comment about them, so they're probably fine. Her weight has been fine too, though maybe I'll check a little more frequently just to make sure. I'm not always sure if she's the leader. She used to be so bossy, even going as far as to sit in front of the water bottles so no pig could drink, but she's so much more mellow now. I thought maybe it's because she's an adult now. She doesn't let Cuddles and Tickles push her around, though those two probably couldn't boss anyone around even if they tried. Frolic also acts very confidently and wanted to be the leader when I first got her, but Bliss wouldn't let her. Now I see Frolic claiming her space over Tickles and Cuddles, and every now and then, I wonder if Frolic has made a peaceful takeover. But Bliss was rumblestrutting up a storm yesterday, and I only ever see the others mounting and rumbling when they're in heat.

Bliss can swing her head around a lot if she wants. I just hope it's not a sign of something sinister. I guess I'll continue to monitor it.

 

[Merab]

Hope you can find out what the problem is with Bliss and get her sorted.
She sounds like a lovely girl.

I can echo what @Wiebke said about blind piggies.
One of mine is blind and there is no noticeable difference in her behaviour.
She lifts her head more but that is to listen and smell.

 

[Freela]

I've never noticed the head swinging behavior in my pigs who lost their eyesight... the main symptom I would notice was issues with depth perception (i.e. misjudging the distance to jump in and out of the cage or needing me to tap on the edge of the door to show them it was open. I noticed this with Sundae, who developed thick cataracts, and I'm beginning to notice it now with Hadley, who is almost 4 years old, so I think she is also developing some vision issues. Pigs don't really rely on their eyesight, so losing vision doesn't significantly impact their quality of life (once they adjust, it's actually hard to even tell who can see and who can't.)

As for not being as bossy, some of this could simply be age and maturity. My pigs seemed to mellow out as they got older. Even Linney, who was quite the tyrant in her youth, was a lot more mellow as she got older. Still the boss, but not quite as bossy!