It Never Rains, But It Pours :(

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Liane

Liane

Teenage Guinea Pig
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I had to make an emergency appointment for Rose today, as she has a severe injury to her eye. The vet said it was most likely caused by a piece of sharp hay, and it is highly likely she'll lose the eye. I'm absolutely devastated and terrified about the impending surgery. I don't mind that she'll only have one eye, nothing could ever make me love her less, I just wish she didn't have to go through this. Rose didn't have the best start in life, and she's only been living with me since August. She deserves some better luck.

This horrible news is on top of the worry I have for Elma, who is battling an URI.

I feel so awful and guilty as I don't know precisely when Rose injured her eye, as I was out most of yesterday and so only saw her briefly morning and evening. I've been so preoccupied with Elma, I haven't given the others the level of attention I ought to have. If only I had taken the extra time with them, I might have spotted the injury sooner and perhaps the eye could have been saved, or at the very least, she wouldn't have had to endure what I can only imagine is terrible pain (for which she now has pain relief).
 
I'm really sorry. Please don't blame yourself. My Tim had his eye removed recently and is really happy and popcorning etc so she should adjust perfectly well.
 
Oh poor thing. PleSe don't blame yourself because it's not your fault. I imagine everyone pays less attention to others when they're focused on another ill animal, I know I do! I hope they both get better soon
 
So sorry. Please don't blame yourself. Hay pokes can happen to any of us at any time. As I observed to the vet only recently piggies have a serious design fault not having lovely big eyelids to protect the eyeballs. I do hope that the op if needed goes well. Big hugs.
 
It is natural to feel upset and guilty when you love and care for your piggies and something happens.

I have a wee girl Hayley who absolutely loves her hay and my routine when I put it in is to sing her a song called 'its raining hay' and then I put in a big bundle which she proceeds to run into and hide.

Anyway one day my son noticed that she seemed to be closing one eye like she was sleeping and on closer inspection we could see it appeared to have a film over it.

I took her to the vet and she had a hay poke in her eye although the hay was no longer there. We had to put antibiotics cream into her eye for over 2 weeks cause it was not healing properly and she hated it and started to bite when we picked her up.

Unfortunately it has left her partially blind in that eye but she gets on just fine. However I still feel like a bad Mummy :(

I had said to my vet about stopping our daily song and play to make sure nothing like this happened again. She said why stop something that she loves and makes her happy when there is no guarantee that she had hurt herself at one of those times. She said accidents can and do happen to animals and humans alike but we cannot stop enjoying life to the full because of them.

A good piece of advice that I have taken on board and she still gets and loves her song and hide and seek in the hay.

Sending 'healing hugs' to Rose and Elma too. Sending 'hugs' to you.

We are all here for you and the girls and will be waiting on hearing how everything goes xx
 
Thank you everyone.

I'm hoping to get an appointment with Simon/Kim ASAP, as obviously we took her to our local vet as an emergency but if anyone's going to remove her eye I would much rather it be Simon or Kim.

Rose seems quite unfazed by her eye, which is a little odd as it really doesn't look good, but we're giving her pain relief regardless.
 
Too often vets jump to the conclusion that at eye needs to be removed because of a hay poke injury. These can often be sorted with the use of antibiotic drops, and sometimes oral antibiotics too. Unfortunately Simon and Kim are on holiday this week, but if the eye doesn't seem to be bothering her I would see how she goes with drops. Have any been prescribed yet?
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Too often vets jump to the conclusion that at eye needs to be removed because of a hay poke injury. These can often be sorted with the use of antibiotic drops, and sometimes oral antibiotics too. Unfortunately Simon and Kim are on holiday this week, but if the eye doesn't seem to be bothering her I would see how she goes with drops. Have any been prescribed yet?
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She has been prescribed drops, just the standard ones they prescribe for eyes, can't recall the name off the top of my head and I'm at work. She also has metacam, and we have a single local anaesthetic if she appears in great discomfort.

She has another appointment at the local vet tonight to see how it looks, although I don't think 24hrs is really a long time to observe any difference. I really hope she doesn't need the surgery to remove the eye, but it does look very bad. There is a large swelling on the eye that the vet says is the contents of the eye coming out through the puncture.

I'll try and find out today how long we can 'wait and see', hopefully we can get an appointment booked with Simon or Kim next week.
 
Don't blame yourself, even if you have your eyes on them 24/7 you can't avoid this like this. If its going happen, it will happen...
Hope the drops can make her heal :hug:
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I would ask if you can just carry on with the drops and see Simon when he returns. Simon has done enucleation surgery many times, whereas lots of vets haven't got the same amount of experience with guinea pigs.
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This was my thinking; while my local vet may be bigger and do lots of ops, they deal largely with dogs and cats, they don't have the same kind of experience operating on guinea pigs.

Rose has been started on septrin as a precaution, and I'll be booking an appointment with Simon when he's back. Elma's lungs still sound clear, it's not spread from the upper respiratory tract, so we're just continuing as we are with her.
 
Sending her lots of healing vibes x
 
Having such a nightmare. The earliest appointment I can get with Kim is Tuesday morning (not entirely sure how I'm gonna manage that appointment as I am at work!) and there are no appointments available at my local vet until next week either, so if she has to go back to the vet, which I think is likely, it will be an emergency.

I really think the eye needs to be removed, I had hoped otherwise but it looks awful. I don't know what to do, I don't know if there are any other vets around that are even half decent with guinea pigs, let alone can operate on them!
 
helen105281 said:
Is there anyone who could take her to Kim for you?
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My Dad is looking at his diary to see if he can take her. I would like to be there with her but I doubt I'll get the time off.

I'm really worried as Tuesday is still five days away, and I think the eye might need to come out before then. It's also really hard to judge how she is in herself as I only adopted her in August, with two others, who were all incredibly skittish and needed an experienced home, so I don't know her personality so well. She often hides, and won't eat while I'm watching. At the moment, all I can do is weigh her daily but it doesn't feel like enough. I'm concerned that she's not getting enough pain relief - she's having 0.23ml dog metacam once a day?
 
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