Poorly Poorly Eye

[LizGuineaGurl]

We have a baby called Biddy who has a funny eye. It looks like a white opaque ulcer or cataract, but with red, almost bloodshot. She is screwing it up and it can get a bit crusty.
We are trying out best to get her to a vet but in the meantime any help is much appreciated.
I have a photo of it but I cant get it to load onto the post so any help here as well?! Sorry!

 

[Wiebke]

We have a baby called Biddy who has a funny eye. It looks like a white opaque ulcer or cataract, but with red, almost bloodshot. She is screwing it up and it can get a bit crusty.
We are trying out best to get her to a vet but in the meantime any help is much appreciated.

Please have her seen as soon as possible. it very much sounds like an ulceration after an eye poke; there is obviously still an irritant (perhaps a bit of hay?) left in the eye.
How quickly it heals and what kind of eye drops she needs, depends on the nature of the injury, which needs a careful inspection and diagnosis with equipment that only a vet can provide. I hope that the injury is light enough that it will go down as quickly as minor eye injuries usually do. However, it is important to get her seen tomorrow or as quickly as you can. Eye injuries should not be taken lightly.

I would be careful with doing anything to the eye yourself, even just bathing it with sterile saline solution for the pharmacy.

 

[LizGuineaGurl]

We have had poled eyes before and we are hoping this will be the same, perhaps the hay is still in there! Thank you and we will get her seen soon

 

[Wiebke]

Winshing you all the best!

 

[LizGuineaGurl]

Thank you for the help! We got it checked out and its very complicated, but she had an ulcer on the eye however the vet noticed a cataract underneath in the corner of her eye and this means she has no sight in that eye anyway?!?! She is on eyedrops to clear the ulcer up so she is a lot happier

 

[Flutterby]

Poor girl Sending healing vibes!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for the help! We got it checked out and its very complicated, but she had an ulcer on the eye however the vet noticed a cataract underneath in the corner of her eye and this means she has no sight in that eye anyway?!?! She is on eyedrops to clear the ulcer up so she is a lot happier

I hope that the ulcer clears well!

With cataracts, she is somewhat more susceptible to eye pokes. If possible, please switch to using soft (meadow/orchard) hay only instead of stalky timothy hay.

There are two types of cataracts, congenital ones where a guinea pig inherits the disposition to develop cataracs at a young age and old age cataracts. The second variety is - like in humans - much more common. Most cataracts come on gradually, growing from dots in the eye, so a piggy is not going totally blind straight away, but more often that not, the second eye will follow the first. The bad news is that in guinea pigs, cataracts are so far not operable.

The good news is that a guinea pig will compensate with its other senses and will be able to live a perfectly normal, full life. I have had several piggies with both congenital and old age cataracts. Mine have still been able to use shallow ramps or jump on huts, have had no problems with changes to the layout of the cage (they can smell where things are), roam the living room during floor time, go out in the garden etc. If you didn't know, you'd not noticed any difference!
Here is the story of my Mischief, whose first eye went very quickly through nucleosclerosis (i.e. the whole lens going opaque at once, which is much rarer than a cataract), so she had a more difficult transition period.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...nd-eye-on-mischief-another-piggy-story.33420/