Poppy - Congenital Dry Eye

[Countrylass]

Little Poppy is roughly just over 8 weeks old. She had conjunctivitis when we bought her home and closed her eyes a lot so we took her to the vet last Friday who said her eyes were far too dry to see anything even with the orange drops and gave us lubrithal eye gel to apply 3 - 5 times a day and said to bring her back in a week. The conjunctivitis has pretty much cleared up and we took her back to the vets today. We saw a different vet who said her right eye had some fluid visible but that her left was still too dry to see anything apart from what looks like pitting on the surface of the eye. She said that we would probably have to continue applying the lubrithal for the rest of her life and that we could use it more than 5 times a day if needed.

We have noticed that she doesn't appear to produce any milky fluid when she has a wash and that she closes her right eye to stop us putting the gel in but doesn't even blink when we put the drops in her left eye. Has anyone had any experience of this as the vet said she had never heard of it in pigs?

This is Poppy, she reminds me of a mouse because her ears are sort of pinned back:

 

[DM030819]

I had a pig years ago with dry eyes. It turned out that he had blocked tear ducts.

I was recommended to use sterile solution for my pig, it might be worth asking the vet about that.

 

[Adelle]

She is absolutely gorgeous!

It sounds like she does have a tear production problem. If the eye is allowed to get too dry, it causes friction which will make the eye inflammed and often causes discharge (probably what you saw when you got her as she has hadn't had any treatment for the first 8 weeks of her life).

Has isathal been tried to rule out some secondary inflammation from the dry eye?

Sadly she will need lubricant eye drops for the rest of her life. If you don't keep the eye wet enough she will keep getting problems.. Keeping it lubricated regularly will mean her eye will look and function as normal. A positive money wise though is that you can buy these drops from your local chemist at under £2. Obviously frequent vet check ups will still be necessary.

There is another option of an eye drop called Optimmune .. This is expensive at around £65 but it aims to make the tear ducts produce their own tears rather than simply replacing them like lubricant drops do.. Her tear production should be monitored by the vet using little strips that sit on the edge of the eye ball, with a line that rises to a certain level showing the tear production. This can help long term and reduce the severity of the dry eye but personally I haven't heard of or seen it actually working when Iv used it.. Even for as long as a 12 month stretch.

Hope this helps x

 

[Countrylass]

We have been cleaning her eyes with sensitive contact lens drops as well but the vet said that these would not be moisturising enough and to use the lubrithal gel as well

 

[Countrylass]

@Adelle Thank you for your advise. The vet doesn't think she has an infection as her eyes are a beautiful clear soft pink. She does have a strong set of nostrils which she uses to smell the world and she likes to taste everything too (as the vet discovered when Poppy nipped her hands several times to see if she was edible) which makes us think she is probably blind in her left eye.

Are the lubrithal drops available from the chemist or is there a human equivalent?

 

[Adelle]

@Adelle Thank you for your advise. The vet doesn't think she has an infection as her eyes are a beautiful clear soft pink. She does have a strong set of nostrils which she uses to smell the world and she likes to taste everything too (as the vet discovered when Poppy nipped her hands several times to see if she was edible) which makes us think she is probably blind in her left eye.

Are the lubrithal drops available from the chemist or is there a human equivalent?

I'm sure they are actually human drops. If not you just ask for sterile eye lubricant from the chemist, there will be a % on the lubrithal tube, just ask for the same %. I used to use viscotears (human) but I'm sure they changed the name. It's just a lubricant so if it's the same % you can't go wrong.

Oh and don't say it's for a Guinea pig as they legally can't give you human stuff for animals :-)

 

[Flutterby]

She is beautiful! No experience with dry eye, but I've treated many a case of conjunctivitis. Sending healing vibes.

 

[piggieminder]

Poor Poppy, she is gorgeous.
I have a dry eye due to having Bells Palsy years ago. I have always used Viscotears, last week I mentioned while I was in Boots that they helped but didn't last long and I had to keep reapplying them. They suggested I tried Boots Dry Eyes eye drops. These are so good I wish I'd found them years ago, they contain sodium hyaluronate 0.1% polyhexanide 0.0001%, isotonic, phosphate buffered, purified water. These cost £3.10 have listed the ingrediants so you can check suitability with your vet if you wish, I suspect they will be cheaper than vetinary issue!