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Hay Poke In Blossom's Eye - Just Spotted

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PiggySmitten

PiggySmitten

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image.webp Was doing a nail cutting session for our piggies a couple of hours ago and noticed Blossom's eye was weeping a bit. I then spotted a bit of hay in the corner of her eye. You can see it in the pic above because I wasn't quite sure what it was at first.

I pulled it out (hope that was the right thing to do). She didn't flinch particularly.

Our vets is open tomorrow morning so I will be able to take her in to have it looked at properly but is there anything I should do in the meantime or anything good to know for the vet visit in terms of what I should be asking them for? They are pretty good in listening to me.

Thanks for any help.
 
Well done for finding it. Hay pokes are very painful. You aren't doing the right thing getting to the vets tomorrow.

In the meantime some homemade saline (cooled boiled water with salt - cooled to room temp) will ease it and keep it clean. If you have any Metacam then you may wish to give a little bit.

Your vet should add fluorescent dye to see what damage there is to the cornea.

Most vets will give antibiotic drops - also there is a corneal repair gel called Remend which heals them very quickly - it is used in addition to the antibiotic drops.

Hope Blossom gets better very soon.
 
That's great thanks Vicki. Think there might be a typo - presume you meant I am doing the right thing taking her to the vets :D.

Very stupid question but I'm presuming I boil the water with the salt in, rather than add it to the water after it has boiled. That's what I would normally do but just thought I'd check:stu:.
 
PiggySmitten said:
That's great thanks Vicki. Think there might be a typo - presume you meant I [you]am[/you] doing the right thing taking her to the vets :D.

Very stupid question but I'm presuming I boil the water with the salt in, rather than add it to the water after it has boiled. That's what I would normally do but just thought I'd check:stu:.
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So sorry - my IPad knows better than me and auto corrects everything!
 
I'm so having a lightbulb moment right now. Why on earth have I been boiling the water in a pan?!?! It's not even like I would do that for other things - if I'm cooking pasta I boil the water in the kettle and then put it in the pan. :xd:
 
Well, you are probably doing it the proper way. But tbh for cleaning wounds etc I just do it my cheats way. No one has come to any harm (so far as I know)......
 
VickiA said:
So sorry - my IPad knows better than me and auto corrects everything!
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You should try the Samsung mobiles we've been given by work because they are apparently better than a blackberry. The auto correct on them is a total nightmare. It goes back and randomly changes words once you've finished paragraphs too. Have had to apologise on more than on occasion to people I've sent completely incomprehensible emails to.....

I've used other Samsung phones before and they don't seem to have the same problem - just these work ones, everyone in our team has the same issue.
 
Had something similar this week with the Apple iMac at work doing an autocorrect in email on a recipient's name. I must have changed it back at least 3 times, clicked send and then went to forward a copy and saw the error in the sent email. Sent a grovelling email explaining the auto correct, to my horror it did it again! She was at least gracious in accepting my telephone apology!
 
VickiA said:
Had something similar this week with the Apple iMac at work doing an autocorrect in email on a recipient's name. I must have changed it back at least 3 times, clicked send and then went to forward a copy and saw the error in the sent email. Sent a grovelling email explaining the auto correct, to my horror it did it again! She was at least gracious in accepting my telephone apology!
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Ha ha!
 
Back from the vets. Got exocin eye drops plus remend corneal repair gel. Both to use 3 x a day with 30 minutes between application of one then the other. Back to vets for a review in a weeks time.

Pic shows her eye with the iodine in - the huge yellow bit is where the damage is.

image.webp

Vets initially suggested I didn't come to them but went to Holly House Vets in Leeds because they (the receptionist) were worried they might not be specialist enough to deal with an eye issue. I rang Holly House and they were fully booked but the lady who answered the phone was really good (I was impressed). She said that she felt in all the circumstances (they were fully booked, it's the weekend, we live a long way from them etc) I should go to my usual vets and that they would happily help them on the phone and receive email pics if needed from the vets.

I've always been happy with my usual vets for fairly "normal" problems with the piggies and today saw the vet I am most happy with too which was really good and he did exactly what I'd expected (thanks VickiA!) without needing to ring Holly House but it was nice to know they would have been happy to help if needed.
 
Poor girl - that's a big patch of damage. It's amazing what a little bit of hay can do. She's so lucky you found it quickly. It sounds like the vet was on his game and he's properly advised you about interval spacing of the drops.

With antibiotic drops and Remend they usually heal very quickly. If she gets worse or doesn't seem much better please get her seen before the week is up. I have had no end of problems with piggies' eyes so I'm probably over cautious.

Hugs to Blossom. She's a brave girl
 
Yay we went back to the vets yesterday and got the all clear on Blossom's eye. Not even a tiny bit of damage showing with the iodine now. I'm so pleased it has recovered so well.

However.....vet had also prescribed itrafungol for her as her fur was thinning and I thought she'd been scratching more than normal. I'd also bathed with enilconzole but no improvement since last vet visit and none of the other three she lived with had any signs of anything. Whenever we've had fungal before at least 2 of the 4 have come down with it (we seem to have about one episode every 12 months) so I was a bit unsure that the diagnosis was right.

Vet (who treats a lot of piggies from p@h) said that it only tended to be single piggies when they brought them for fungal so he thought it was possible that it was fungal (I didn't disagree it was just I thought it odd for our piggies based on previous experience) but I persuaded him to do a test for mites/lice.

He was gone for ages and when he came back he said that he hadn't expected to but he had found one but it was one he hadn't seen before so he had to look it up. I didn't catch the name of it. It began with a T and ended with something that sounded like "cavia" or "cavies" - I just remember thinking it was like a word for Guinea pigs.

So she's had an injection of invermectin and he's said to also do the second planned week of intrafungol (he's done one week on, one week off, one week on again for that which I don't remember him doing before).

Here's hoping that it is either fungal or mites/lice and we've cracked it now.
 
So glad her eye has healed. And hopefully the invermectin will sort out the mites. Sounds very positive.

Can we have some pics of the pretty lady please?
 
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