Male Guinea Pig with watery eye/discharge - not behaving himself.. :(

[Gordon&Jemima]

Hi,

My 3 and a half year-old male Guinea Pig, Gordon, has recently had some discharge come out of his eye and it is quite watery. It looks as if it is slightly closed more than the other eye. He isn't as lively/chirpy as usual, and although he's still eating his food, he's not as enthusiastic as he normally is.

We've been monitoring him and my mum has cleaned his eye with some warm water.

We gave him a bath the other day and although we tried our best to make sure him & our other guinea pig were fully dry before putting them outside in the run, I'm a little concerned this might be the cause?

Also, when he goes to lie down (in the C shape he normally does) it looks uncomfortable for him, so he just decides to sit all huddled up with his eyes almost shut.

I'm a little worried as he's not normally like this.

I also have a cold virus myself at the moment and have made sure I handle him as little as possible.

I am considering taking him to the Vet but it wont be for a couple days due to work commitments. If anyone could let me know what it might be, that would be great. If it's something serious I will have to sort something out an take him sooner.

Thank you

 

[sport_billy]

First of all welcome to the forum.

You saying that the eye is closed more than usual. Is it cloudy at all? Watery eyes and discharge may indicate a number of issues including hay poke which will need seeing to ASAP. As you said it appears to be causing him discomfort then you do need to get him checked over as soon as you can.

More information on Guinea Pigs eyes can be found at http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html#discharge

Here is a link to the recomended vets make in case you haven't got a piggie vet http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?105769-Guinea-Pig-Recomend-Vets-Map

 

[Katherine]

Hi, I wouldn't like to say whether your piggie may have injured his eye on a piece of hay or something (this is quite common with piggies), and the pain may be causing him to feel miserable, or whether he might have an illness, but either way, I would urge you to take him to a good vet as soon as you possibly can. They take eye injuries seriously, and I hope would see him straight away. I can't stress how important it is to act quickly when you spot signs of illness with a piggie, as they can go downhill frighteningly quickly. If you can't get to the vet yourself, is there someone else you could ask? I'm not sure how to do it myself, but there is a link to a list of good cavy vets, and I'm sure someone else will post this soon. I do hope I haven't frightened you unnecessarily or anything, but I know from my own experience in the past that the sooner you act, the better. Good luck, let us know how you get on, and don't be afraid to ask any more questions you may have.

 

[Katherine]

Oh good, Sport Billy posted the link while I was dithering over my reply!

 

[Gordon&Jemima]

Thanks for your replies Sport Billy & Katherine.

I called up the Vet this afternoon and managed to make an appointment for tomorrow. Unfortunately I wont be able to take Gordon as I'll still be at work, so my Dad is leaving work early and is going to take him instead.

In the meanwhile, my Vet advised me to bathe his eye using tea (apparently it contains natural ingredients which may help?)

In response to your question Sport Billy - no, his eye's don't look exactly 'cloudy' to me, but not as 'bright' as before.

I put both of the pigs' out in the run today and he wasn't as active as normal - not as interested in eating the grass as he normally is and mostly just sat in their wooden house. I know when an animal starts loosing their appetite it's not a good sign so I'm relieved that he's going to the Vet tomorrow!

I'll give you guys an update as soon as he's been to the Vet.

 

[Katherine]

I'm glad that your dad can take Gordon to the vet, and I really hope it all goes well.
See if you can tempt Gordon's appetite with any little tidbits of his favourite foods, a bit of cucumber say, or whatever he prefers.

 

[Wiebke]

I am glad that you have got an appointment. Eye injuries need to be seen by a vet.

It is probably rather painful by now, which means that he is losing some of his appetite. Please mention it to the vet; he may give your boy some painkiller tomorrow. Try to tempt him with some fresh grass or his favourite foods.

Please weigh any ill piggy daily; that will tell you the true food intake. Any healthy piggy should be weighed weekly. Kitchen scales will do.

 

[Mr. Bailee Boy]

I am glad that you have got an appointment. Eye injuries need to be seen by a vet.

It is probably rather painful by now, which means that he is losing some of his appetite. Please mention it to the vet; he may give your boy some painkiller tomorrow. Try to tempt him with some fresh grass or his favourite foods.

Please weigh any ill piggy daily; that will tell you the true food intake. Any healthy piggy should be weighed weekly. Kitchen scales will do.

A good scale to weigh your piggie is a postage scale.

 

[Gordon&Jemima]

So Gordon went to the Vets today with my mum & dad. It turns out that there wasn't anything actually wrong with his eyes, but the Vet believes his teeth are causing him discomfort and are causing his eyes to water (he has been grinding his teeth rather a lot recently and we didn't even realise Guinea Pig's have teeth at the back until now!)

So he is booked in to have his teeth cut/clipped on Friday morning - we couldn't take him tomorrow because of our work commitments (we would have made arrangements if it was really serious) but the Vet felt he would be fine to wait until Friday.

However, he will more than likely have to go under local anesthetic in order to get to the back teeth - which I believe Guinea Pigs dont always take very well. So that's always a bit of a worry.

In the meanwhile, we are feeding him recovery liquid feed and water through a syringe. I can tell he wants to eat and he keeps sniffing food & going to eat it, but it's obviously too uncomfortable for him.

I appreciate all your advice & concern! I will let you know how it goes on Friday.

 

[piggyfan]

Good luck little one.

 

[Katherine]

Thanks for the update! I hope Gordon gets on alright at the vets on Friday. It sounds as though you're managing alright with the syringe feeding - have you ever had to do it before? It's okay if they want to take the food, but very frustrating and tricky if they don't! Lots of people on here can give you advice regarding syringe feeding, if you need it.

 

[Gordon&Jemima]

Hi Everyone,

Apologies for the delayed update.

We managed OK with the syringe feeding as I had previously watched a video of how to do it on Youtube by Miss Cavy Queen, so that helped.

So Gordon went to the Vets on Friday and had his teeth trimmed and he recovered from the anesthetic well. My mum said the Vet had to remove some 'spur(s)' on his teeth or something?

However, he cant seem to eat food very well - is this normal? The day after having his teeth trimmed, we put him in the run and he was trotting around like normal and was sniffing the grass, like he was going to eat it - but it seemed like he couldnt?

Basically, he seems quite interested in food but is finding it difficult to actually eat it! He's eating slowly and is consuming a lot less than he used to. He cant even eat his Excel nuggets properly and they are his favourites! For some reason they just seem to fall out of his mouth when he goes to eat them.

He also isn't lying down normally still - he doesn't look comfortable and I have a gut feeling something's still not right (One of the guinea pig's I had before behaved like this just before she started having seizures and died. I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid or what?)

Thankfully he's going for a check up at the Vet's on Friday.

In the meanwhile, any advice would be great if you think you might know what's wrong!

Thanks!

 

[Gordon&Jemima]

Also, we noticed he had a small bald patch under his chin that was slightly red.

We showed the Vet's, but they didnt seem to think it was a problem? Not sure if this is connected to his teeth, or his health?

 

[Wiebke]

Has your vet given you some metacam (painkiller)? Many piggies have a very sore mouth after dental treatment and struggle to eat for some time. They may also need a second round of dentals until the teeth settle down again. I am sorry that our dental specialist member is currently not available.

Spurs grow when the teeth are not ground down completely. Guinea pig teeth grow constantly, unlike human teeth. That is one of the reasons why they need to eat so much hay and grass. The silicates in it help to abrade the premolars and molars at the back of the mouth (our human tooth paste also contains silicates; did you know that?). Spurs are bits of tooth that keep growing and can either arch over the tongue and trap it, preventing a piggy from chewing, or into the cheek, causing pain and eventually abscesses. If left untreated, a piggy will slowly and rather painfully starve to death.

Please continue to hand feed and to weigh him daily. You can try and see whether he is able to chew grated veg, but he may not yet do so. You can try to also syringe him a bit of mushed up veg if he likes that. The main food should still be fibre, though.

The bald patch may be there from him either dripping due to his teeth problem or naturally. Pink skin can look quite red when a piggy is warm. If you wish, you can gently apply a tiny bit of bepanthen cream to soothe the skin.

 

[Katherine]

One of our piggies had a spur removed from a molar back in March, which was digging right into her cheek. She took a very long time to get back to normal in her eating, and at times we were almost in despair, as we didn't realise that it can take such a long time for them to recover their normal eating habits. It must have been around a month before we felt she had turned the corner, and it took much longer for her to regain the weight she had lost as a result of not being able to eat properly. She is a a very feisty guinea, and didn't give us an easy time with syringe feeding either. But looking at her now, you wouldn't think there had ever been anything wrong with her, and she is eating for Britain!
Anyway, I guess what I am saying is that they may well take quite a while to get back to normal after a dental op. It is likely that Gordon's mouth is feeling rather tender, so I'd echo what Wiebke asked, on whether you have been given any painkiller. Fortunately, guineas seem to like the taste of Metacam. Also, keep up with the syringe feeding, and if you are worried, can you ring up your vet for advice over the phone?

 

[Gordon&Jemima]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your responses.

So Gordon's condition appeared to get worse last night (wasnt eating, still looked uncomfortable, making an noise like he was in pain, etc, etc) and thus we managed to get him to the Vets this morning, instead of tomorrow afternoon (Friday), as originally planned.

The Vet believed, like you guys have said, that he was in discomfort and prescribed us Metacam! He also gave us some more recovery feed to keep his weight steady as he has lost quite a bit. (We're pretty fortunate that Gordon was on the chunky side before this whole business, as he could afford to loose the weight!)

Now, I forgot to mention in my previous posts, that when they did Gordon's teeth before, the female Vet noticed that he had some kind of teeth deformity (where they don't grow like they normally should). And when we went to the Vet today, the male Vet felt Gordon's jaw and believes that his teeth are not aligned properly - and said that his teeth at the back kind of 'meet', which prevents them from seeing what's 'going on' there. And due to Gordon's condition, they felt an X-Ray probably wasn't a good idea and thought that there's a good chance Gordon's jaw will kind of realign itself in due time? (I should probably say, I walked in half way through the consultation as I had to pay the Taxi guy while my mum went into the Vets with Gordon - it was a pretty hectic/stressful morning!)

So my mum fed him the painkiller before she went to work - and he was apparently making quite a heavy breathing noise? So she was super worried about leaving him, but when I arrived home from work he was no longer making the noise.

I have since fed him the recovery feed and water through a syringe. We intend to feed him more painkiller tomorrow morning, along with his recovery feed and hopefully we will see an improvement, but from what you guys have said, it looks like it'll be a long, frustrating process before he fully recovers.


I really appreciate all your advice - it's been really helpful! I'll continue to keep you updated about Gordon's progress!

 

[Katherine]

I'm sorry you have been having so much worry with Gordon - it is indeed so stressful when they're unwell. It sounds as though Gordon is going to need some ongoing care with his teeth - I wonder whether anyone on the forum will have any good advice with this.
I'm glad you got him the metacam. I don't quite know what the heavy breathing noise was - I would guess because of pain and distress, but that he sounded better later because the painkiller had kicked in. How is he doing now?
Some vets will do an x-ray without an anaesthetic, our own does, for example.