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hay poke. no vet for 3 days

Hi,

I have a piggy who is partially blind now due to an injury...if he has a flare up of irritation we use terramycin we also have lubrathal which keeps his eye lubricated and any dust tends to come out with it...however a vet visit is advised...personally I'd keep ringing each morning to see if they have any spare appointments or cancellations that they can give you...if not maybe paying extra for an emergency vet...if they don't just keeping the area clean and trying to keep him cosy is best...and making sure that there isn't too much dust in his hay...I tend to put it into a bag first...shake it so all the smaller bits and dust fall to the bottom then give it like that...hopefully he won't have suffered too great of an injury and you will get an appointment sooner...
 
Thank you 💕 I'm sorry your piggie had an injury too. Id pay anything to get her in sooner. None of our emergency vets see piggies.

I'm scared of how it'll look in the morning 😭 and plan to call Monday hoping for a cancellation or emergency appointment.

I have something along the lines of the lubrathal on the way for tomorrow.
 
Well my husband and I jumped out of bed at 6am to see how Buttercup was doing. She was already chewing the bars for her breakfast like a mad woman so that was a good sign...😂😂😂

The eye looks ok! I have to look again when I'm more awake and the sun comes up. Looked with my watch flashlight and it’s definitely not worse this morning, might actually look better. She’s not squinting, no discharge.

Just a definite cloudy spot off center of her pupil area. She just had her morning antibiotics and metacam.

I will be back later once the eye gel is delivered to agonize over if I should try it or not.....

THANK YOU all for being here with me!
 
Thank you 💕 I'm sorry your piggie had an injury too. Id pay anything to get her in sooner. None of our emergency vets see piggies.

I'm scared of how it'll look in the morning 😭 and plan to call Monday hoping for a cancellation or emergency appointment.

I have something along the lines of the lubrathal on the way for tomorrow.

Sometimes they look quite bad...thankfully guinea pigs with the right care and treatment plan bounce back...but sometimes it is the sooner the better...as long as it is kept clean and minimising dust he should be oki until Monday...ours took a week to get in...we belive if we had managed to get an appointment sooner he may not be blind now...as well as ths treatment he first received wasn't good...now he is on treatment for the rest of his life...if your piggy gets gunk sticking to him from his eye (similar looking to sleep) please remove it as well as it can be uncomfy for them...using some cooled down boiled water should be oki with cotton pads...
 
A week! Your poor little guy 😭 I’ll be watching her closely and will keep her home extra clean. I took out her fleece tunnels because I thought pushing through fabric would be a risk, so wooden bridge and corner tents only right now.

At this point she’s in for Tuesday night, and I don’t think they “have an exotic vet” there on Mondays.

I just wish ANY vet would see her. I need to understand why they can’t treat an eye emergency without being an exotic vet. Sure, they can’t do a full physical. She doesn’t need that right now.
 
Hello, I reccomend buying terramycin from the la guineapig rescue website. It’s for guinea pigs with hay poke :)

they also have a YouTube account with a video on hay poke which should help too.
 
Hello, I reccomend buying terramycin from the la guineapig rescue website. It’s for guinea pigs with hay poke :)

they also have a YouTube account with a video on hay poke which should help too.
Thank you, I love those guys! Scotty's Animals?

I'm going to need to take matters into my own hands since hay poke is so common. One of my pigs had it really bad, but the exotic vet was there and I rushed her over for an emergency. Still, it was about 3 weeks of treatment!
 
Thank you, I love those guys! Scotty's Animals?

I'm going to need to take matters into my own hands since hay poke is so common. One of my pigs had it really bad, but the exotic vet was there and I rushed her over for an emergency. Still, it was about 3 weeks of treatment!
Yeah :) I’m a huge fan of their work, both him and Saskia.
gl with your little piggy :wub:
 
Yeah :) I’m a huge fan of their work, both him and Saskia.
gl with your little piggy :wub:
I just watched one of her videos, removing a piece of hay and the eye was already grey/white all over. 😱

And I was able to order terramycin and another eye gel lubricant, delivery tomorrow.
 
Eye ointments usially go off and need disposing of within 4 weeks and also.could transfer infection if used on different piggies- they dont temain sterile and suitable for reuse.
If you can get a lubricant eye gel suitable for humans, from a pharmacy or even online, that will ease discomfort and may stop the eye injury getting worse until you can see the vet and they can check using that fluorescent dye for any foreign objects and properly diagnose and prescribe for what is going on.
Tallulah uses Siccasan eye lubricant gel from Amazon as she has an ongoing dry sticky eye, something like that would be suitable for a short term soothing harmless treatment until you see the vet- but eye issues do count as emergencies and ideally should be seen withing 24 hours so best of luck getting to the vet as soon as you can!
Ive got the siccasan gel now. Tried a tiny tiny drop in the corner of her eye/lid, just to make sure it wouldn't give her a bad reaction.

This is so hard to get NO help from doctors, but to be made to feel I can't seek my own advice in a desperate situation. It sure looks like the stuff is going to help her! I'm glad you suggested it :)
 
A week! Your poor little guy 😭 I’ll be watching her closely and will keep her home extra clean. I took out her fleece tunnels because I thought pushing through fabric would be a risk, so wooden bridge and corner tents only right now.

At this point she’s in for Tuesday night, and I don’t think they “have an exotic vet” there on Mondays.

I just wish ANY vet would see her. I need to understand why they can’t treat an eye emergency without being an exotic vet. Sure, they can’t do a full physical. She doesn’t need that right now.

Honestly an exotic vet is probably best as much as it is frustrating to wait as they sometimes can only prescribe so much and don't always get dosage right...the first vet we took ours too I'm not 100% he was an exotic vet like he claimed as after his treatment he only got worse...the second vet was horrified when the treatment was explained and has done his best to help us correct it...but he believes now because of the mess up he might have a tumour behind his eye...he is 4-6 year old rescue so surgery is very risky...just keeping her clean and tidy will be good for now...if you have a way to keep the fleece tunnels open a little bit they should be oki...we cut sections of boxes off and stick them in the opening...bathmats are good as well...the bobbly ones (not furry) theyre very easy to brush down on a day to day and absorb pee very well...and making sure she is eating and drinking is the main thing...critical care is a god send...so having some in just incase and probiotics is good...weve been using fibreplex and Emeraid sustain herbivore...one of the piggies we thought would hate syringe feeding and the critical care as she doesn't like mint keeps nipping because I'm not quick enough with it...but she won't take it out the bowl...
 
Update! Buttercup's eye has healed on it's own. Whew. They did a fluorescein stain and it was negative. She says eyes heal a about a milimeter a day, which makes sense as the damaged spot looked to me to be around 3mm. So after 3 days, it was gone.

I showed her the OTC eye gels Id picked up and she said it can't hurt. Trying to get info if I need to treat at home again.

Anyway, it was neat to go there because I worked there over 20 years ago when I was just a young mid 20s girl. With looking back, that was pre-9/11 and now today, bringing my 16 year old along and leaving her in the car because they only let one person in due to the pandemic...just wow.
 
I'm so glad Buttercup is oki...the eye gels will always come in useful to keep in...terramycin and lubrathal are the ones we use for Butterball...the only other suggestions for the hay is to before you put it in to the cage put it in a bag first as shake it...the majority of the dust and small bits should got to the bottom...meaning there should hopefully be less chance of hay poke with small bits...
 
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