Hay poke - am I doing everything right?

[ratatellie]

Hello all!

This morning when I woke up I found Gloria looking a bit sorry for herself and found a long, soft piece of hay sticking out of her eye. I removed it and called the vets who were luckily able to see her a few hours later. The vet (not an exotics specialist) examined her eyes with a torch and told me it could be worse but she did have a small scratch on her eye. He prescribed her chloramphenicol eye drops twice a day for 'around a week'. This is fortunately my first time dealing with an eye injury and I'm a bit squeamish about it, which is making me a bit more nervous than I probably should be! I've done a bit more research on here and just want to check a few things to make sure I'm doing everything I can to help her get better.
I've read that usually vets will give a fluorescent dye to check the eye. This wasn't done but he did tell me she had a little scratch anyway, so I assume the dye wasn't necessary since the scratch was visible without it? I've also read about artificial tears. I wasn't offered these by the vet - how important are they? Does anybody have a specific brand/product they can recommend that I'd be able to pick up from a human pharmacy? Same thing for painkillers - she wasn't given these either and I don't know if they're essential. I know piggies are good at hiding pain, but she's acting perfectly normally which I hope is a good sign. Is it worth trying to get in touch with a vet for some painkillers anyway? (Bearing in mind it's the bank holiday weekend so this could be easier said than done.)

Thank you in advance for your help, I really value the advice of this forum every time I have a piggy problem!

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Poor Gloria, I hope her eye gets better soon.
It sounds to me like you are doing the right thing- you got her to the vet as soon as you could, and you have the treatment for hay poke for her. I imagine the fluorescent drops aren't essential, especially if damage is visible to the naked eye. Isathal antibiotic drops is usually prescribed, chloramphenicol is stronger, maybe the vet thought that if he could see the scratch it needed something stronger.
Viscotears is the artificial tears usually suggested, there are others I believe. They aid healing so are a good idea, but probably aren't essential if you can't find them.
I'm not sure about pain relief. I tried to find a forum guide about eyes but couldn't. Best of luck with giving your piggy the drops!

 

[Roselina]

Poor Gloria I also hope her eye gets better quickly
@Qualcast&Flymo has given you great advice
From my experience the drops you were prescribed should enable healing quickly.
If you have trouble putting the drops in Gloria’s eye hold her so she nestles in the crook of your arm facing away from you and you can then apply the drops
If she is eating and doing normal piggy things that’s great - if she was in pain she wouldn’t be eating and would be hunched up and quite still
Try not to worry

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

I am very sorry but good that you have been seen. Guinea pig eyes are just like cat or dog eyes and are treated with the same medication, so not seeing a vet experienced with guinea pigs is not a problem. The sooner the eye can start healing, the easier and quicker this happens.

You are doing all the right things. If your piggy has a visible scratch, then it is not likely to be a poke injury but more likely a surface injury, so your vet didn't deem it necessary to need a uv check. Not all vets prescribe painkillers but the eye should soon get past that stage; especially with prompt medication. A scratch should heal a bit easier and more quickly.

Artificial tear drops and gel are not classed as a medication; this means that they are not stocked or prescribed by vets.
You can usually find carbomer based eye gel online by googling but in your case, artificial tear drops from a supermarket or pharmacy should do - 2-3 times a day but please wait at least half an hour after you have put the chloramphenicol in.

Gently pull the lower lid down and aim any drops into the gap. It helps if you distract your piggy with some food; piggies don't multitask.

All the best. Pet ownership is like parenthood - you learn on the job and you learn by practice and from your mistakes. Brace for spillages; they are normal and don't lose your heart because of them. It is going to work all out.

 

[Merab]

Hope the eye heals quickly.
Good that you were able to get Gloria seen so promptly.

Have fun with the eye drops.

 

[ratatellie]

Thank you all for your replies! Fortunately Gloria isn't too wriggly so I've not had as much bother as I expected getting the drops into her so far. Not sure if this will change as she starts to realise what's coming but she's not the brightest pig, bless her . I'm pleased to say it's looking a lot better already today so I'm very relieved - it's not as cloudy a it was yesterday and the redness/swelling around the eye has gone down completely. I've attached a photo from this afternoon where you can make out the scratch - I'm sure she thinks it makes her look very tough!

 

[ratatellie]

Once again her eye is looking much better again which is great news! However when I did her eye drops this morning, I weighed her at the same time and she's a little on the light side. I posted a thread a few months ago about how she'd lost a lot of weight and the vet thought this might be due to arthritis/a hip deformity causing pain. She never regained all of that weight and since then her weight has fluctuated a bit more than it used to so I'm not instantly worried. Wondering if it could just be the stress of the vet trip and being cornered for eye drops twice a day? She's eating well and is still active and even popcorned a little bit after I cleaned the cage out earlier, which is a rare sight now she's getting on a bit! I've swapped out their regular pellets tonight for some of the Excel DualCare I have left over from last time. She loves those and wolfed them down, so hoping the weight this morning was just a blip and she'll be holding steady when I check again tomorrow.

 

[Roselina]

Ah lovely Gloria
Try to weigh her at the same time every day to get a true picture of her weight loss
I learnt that the weight can vary with a full tum or a full bladder
If it’s more than 40g loss then you need to step in with syringe feeds etc
There is info on this on the guinea pig info

 

[ratatellie]

Happy to report I weighed Gloria this morning before giving them breakfast and she was a whole 35g heavier than at the same time yesterday so I think it might have just been a blip. She’s also doing great with the drops and tolerates having them really well!

 

[CTWC]

Fantastic