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First Hay Poke Of The Year

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VickiA

VickiA

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Little Holly greeted me this morning with a winking eye and a huge hay dart poking out from under her lid. Removed it instantly and got her seen at the vets this afternoon. She has a nasty eye ulcer (only visible under the fluorescent drops) so is on Metacam, antibiotic drops and corneal repair gel.

So endeth our run of 3 clear weeks when none of my piggies has been to the vets. Hopefully that will be the first and only hay poke I have to deal with this year (I'm not very brave with eyes)
 
I've never had to deal with hay pokes but I have had a piggy at the vets the day after I brought him home because his eye had basically glued itself together. I remember being paranoid that this brand new tiny wriggly piggy needed me to clean his eye and give him eyedrops daily...still not sure how we actually managed that. You have my sympathy with the hay poke, I hope Holly is feeling better soon :(
 
Poor you!

I am currently thinking of renting a space at the out-of-hours vets. :(
Not had much in the way of eye problems for years, yet had three nasty eye injuries within half a year. Nosgan's was touch and go for quite a while, but we have managed to save his eye and even get a degree of visibility back for him.
The third was a hay poke in Briallen, who is a severely traumatised ex-toddler's pet when it comes to picking up and handling, so things have been rather fraught at first until she realised that I was actually helping to make her eye better...

As you have been able to have it seen promptly, it is hopefully going to heal quickly and straight forward.
 
Tell me about it! I've got something similar with George right now- they do like to worry us! Hopefully Holly's eye heals up x
 
Healing vibes to little Holly, hopeshe gets better very quickly.
I hate the idea of damaged eyes, piggys have such beautiful big ones.
 
Oh dear Vicki, if anything it does remind us to check our piggies rather than just walking out to work or whatever else people do...I think it also goes to show no matter how good a piggy owner you are, you just can't tell what a piggy may do by itself.

Get well soon Holly.x
 
Aww poor Holly :(

Speedy recovery &hopefully the first &only hay poke :nod:
X
 
Poor Holly and poor you Vicki - having a special reserved chair in the vets waiting room is overrated in my humble opinion.
I hope Miss Holly is doing better this morning and is being agreeable about the eye drops.
 
I have not yet had to deal with a hay poke. Can you just pull the hay out yourself or is it better for the vet to do it? Poor Holly, sounds painful. I hope she will be feeling better soon..
 
Little Miss Holly thanks you all for her good wishes. She hates having the eye drops but she is very fond of her Metacam. She is also enjoying being mothered by old lady Violet when she is put back in the cage after having her rosettes ever so slightly ruffled my those manhandling humans.
The eye looks ever so slightly less sore this morning. It was very red yesterday under the lid (yuck) but I can see some slight improvement already.
 
Kylie80 said:
I have not yet had to deal with a hay poke. Can you just pull the hay out yourself or is it better for the vet to do it? Poor Holly, sounds painful. I hope she will be feeling better soon..
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Unless you can take them straight away to the vet then yes, it's best to remove the hay or grass seed or whatever yourself. The longer it is in there the longer it can be rubbing on the cornea and causing an ulceration and the infection can be worse. The quicker they are seen by the vet and can start treatment the better. In Holly's case the hay was not in her eye at bedtime at 11pm but was in her eye at 6.45am. I don't know when it happened, but there was already a large ulcer and inflammation and start of infection when she saw the vet at lunchtime yesterday. My vets are always good about seeing eye injuries the same day.
 
Poor Holly! Hope her eye heals quickly. :love:

How do hay pokes even happen? My 2 burrow all the time and don't get hay pokes...are they maybe closing their eyes? :P
 
Beans&Toast said:
Poor Holly! Hope her eye heals quickly. :love:

How do hay pokes even happen? My 2 burrow all the time and don't get hay pokes...are they maybe closing their eyes? :P
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It's a design fault I'm afraid! And I've no idea as to the mechanics as to how they actually occur.

This one was a sharp grass dart from the hay that was caught underneath her upper eyelid. She was so good letting me remove it as it must have been very painful.

I wish we could get them to wear eye protective goggles!
 
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Mother Hubbard said:
How's Holly now? @VickiA
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Thanks for asking @Mother Hubbard. Her left eye is now back open again (it was half closed yesterday) and is less "sunken" and more protruding (like normal). In the light it is still a bit cloudy. It's still a bit pink round the top of the eyeball when I go to put the dops in but much less red since yesterday. The antibiotics and corneal repair gel seem to be working.

Here she is trying to get away from me and the next round of drops!
 
awww bless her, when she's completely healed you will be blessed with piggy kisses...you know it's coming. All of a sudden she'll feel much better and thinks okay, maybe the hoomin knows what she's doing. Lovely to see her.
 
It's getting harder to catch her but easier to get the drops in - I think that's because the eye hurts less (well least ways I hope so). She's adorable but I don't think she's going to forgive me any time soon!
 
I'm glad her eye is improving Vicki, hopefully its a speedy recovery for little Holly. She is just gorge!
 
VickiA said:
It's getting harder to catch her but easier to get the drops in - I think that's because the eye hurts less (well least ways I hope so). She's adorable but I don't think she's going to forgive me any time soon!
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It's tricky isn't it, sending lots of healing vibes x
 
Update on my beautiful Holly.

We went back to see the vet again today. The dye showed the eye has healed nicely. Just to continue with drops today and tomorrow. It was quite a big ulcer on the cornea. Had a nice discussion with the vet about how it shows if you can get them prompt treatment they stand a good chance of healing very quickly.
 
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