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Removal Of An Eye

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LordBernieBouffant

LordBernieBouffant

Junior Guinea Pig
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Poor Lord Bernie has had to have an operation to remove his eye. It came on suddenly with a swelling and despite AB's the eye ulcerated. Because he seemed fine in himself - running about, sniffing the girls and eating well and generally healthy I went with the option of having the eye removed when there was no improvement. He's a brilliantly calm boy and very easy going and laid back.

He had the op yesterday and the vet found a huge abcess at the back which has been drained, flushed, AB'd. He is still on Metacam and AB's. He's very quiet but eating when I offer him food by hand and is eating hay.

I feel terrible as I think perhaps I should not have put him through it - I know it's only just over 24 hours but he has a stent bandage which is obviously bothering him, his girl won't go near him, he's just so down at the moment.

Am hoping he will pick up tomorrow after the vet visit to remove the stent bandage - I'm sure that's really upsetting him. He seems disorientated, despite no vision in the bad eye for over a week. My vet has been brilliant with him and me.

Anyone gone through this with their piglet?

Jo x
 
I have no experience personally, but there is a few people on here who have been through it with their own pigs. @Claire W is one of them.
Just wanted to wish you the best and hope that Bernie is feeling better soon.
 
hi there
good luck & healing vibes to your little piggy :)
sharonS is another member who had eye problems with ruby i think it was & clairew has eliza.
try looking thro the threads they might be of some use i,ll try & find a link for you,,, my laptopbhas died &i,m not having a lot of luck using my phome! xx
 
Please weigh him daily and hand feed mushed pellets or recovery food if necessary - he should eat at least 120ml in fluids and solids over the course of 24 hours in order to keep up his weight. When you hand feed, also syringe water to keep him hydrated. Extra vitamin C to bolster the immune system should also help. Ask your vet for a probiotic to counter the strong antibiotics he is going to be put on. (What is the antibiotic, by the way?)

It takes a while for a piggy to adjust to sudden loss of vision and to learn to compensate with their other senses. He will probably never quite like being touched or approached from his blind side. He will also be rather painful and tender from the abscess behind the eye, which needs to drain while it is healing off, or it could make a comeback.

At the moment, your girls will keep their distance. Guinea pigs can be very supportive to a disabled member of their group that has proven that they can keep up, but they will keep their distance or even bully a piggy that could potantially endanger the survival of the whole group.

I hope that he will pull through, even though he is rather sorry for himself at the moment. I know that other members' piggies have made a full recovery!
 
I am very sorry that Bernie has had to have his eye removed and after going through this myself recently, I understand how you must be feeling.

Please do not feel terrible. Eye injuries / problems can cause great pain and discomfort if left untreated and I doubt very much that your vet would have removed the eye if it wasn't necessary.

Eliza suffered a bad eye injury that sadly resulted in her needing the eye removed especially as it was very close to rupturing if it was left.

Unfortunately Eliza's eye socket became infected. Here is her story but please do not let it put you off or worry you as her eye becoming infected was just one I'd those things http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/worried-about-eliza-serious-eye-injury.106522/

Wiebke has already given you some great advise.

What bedding are you currently using for Bernie? Please use fleece or something soft if you are not already doing so. I housed Eliza on fleece and provided her hay in a hay rack to prevent anything from irritating the wound.

Please make sure that you keep the position of furniture in the cage familiar.

Eliza was quiet for the first couple of days after her operation but was still eating and drinking well. Although Bernie had already lost his vision, please note that he would have still been able to make out shapes and light where as now, his blind side will be in complete darkness and he needs time to adjust.

When approaching him from now on, make sure you approach him from his sighted side and talk to him so not to startle him.

You will probably find that he will be wary around his friends and them around him especially for the first few days / weeks as it will take every pig in the cage time to adjust.

Is Bernie currently separated from his friend? If so, you may like to give them supervised lap time together positioning the friend on Bernie's sighted side to keep the bond and piggy company going. This was recommended to me and it worked really well.

Because Eliza had to be parted from her friends for quite some time, she was slightly bullied when rejoining her group and went straight to the bottom of the heirachy. She also prefers and still does at times to spend time alone out of the way so please make sure you provide plenty of hides.

It is daunting at first seeing your pig with only one eye but guinea pigs can live a perfectly happy life and cope really well with just one eye.

Now that Eliza's ordeal is over, she is living life to the full and still chases her friends around when she wants to. Without looking at her blind side, you wouldn't know there was anything different about her.

I can't really offer anymore advise than what has already been given but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask x
 
Hi Jo

Great advice above! Just to add, I went through this too recently with little Lacey. She had boney growths in her eye causing severe pressure so in the end we had to have it removed. A little like Lord Bernie, Lacey was very disorientated and depressed for a good couple of days. She was defensive with other guineas (I could not put a companion in her cage as she just attacked them which she had never done before.. and I mean REALLY attack..think Ninja pig!). I think, although they have had no sight in the eye for a good while, it must 'feel' very different to them so they feel very vulnerable, angry and upset.

Anyway, after 5 days or so she perked up and now she is a different piggy. She must have been in considerable pain before, because now she runs around, first to the food and has even gone up the pecking order in her herd so its the best result all round. The guinea she attacked the first week has now become her best friend and they mutual clean which is lovely to watch. You would never know she had had the op apart from small amount of fluid which still leaks from the old socket which will go in time.

As others have said, just be careful not to startle him from his blind side although even that does'nt bother her now. Be careful not to have any objects in the cage he may bump into at first but again he will adjust and you wont need to worry eventually.

Each will react in their own way and take as long as they need to adjust but I am certain he will recover just fine, just give him lots of love and reassurance and follow the excellent advice above.

Take care and healing vibes to little lord Bernie. x
 
Sorry to hear that poor Bernie had to lose an eye, sounds as though he had a nasty infection behind it, just in the right place for bugs to hide in a nice warm environment.
Ruby had an eye infection that resulted in her having to have it removed and within just over a week she was well on her way to recovery, I had cultures taken and grown from the back of the eye and nothing untoward was discovered.
If Bernie is eating and you can keep up with his pain relief and meds he shouldn't take long to adjust to only having one eye, and be back to his normal self.
 
Our Butters had one of his eyes removed and he was a bit reserved for a few days. We stepped in with some syringe feeding where necessary but he picked up nicely and was soon eating again.

He had a cataract so had lost the sight in his eye over a period of a few months, but we had the eye removed when it ruptured.

After Anaestetic our piggies have always been a bit woozy for a few days and the anitbiotic (i assume it's Baytril) will be playing with his guts so it would be worth giving him a probiotic if your not already.

As Claire says it is daunting when you first see them without the eye so prepare yourself - once the hair grows back you will never notice!

Please don't feel terrible either - you absolutely did the right thing. He is healthy and our vet said Guinea Pig eye ops aren't rare and the success right is very high - from what I understand Claire's experience above is very rare and I've said it before but Eliza was in the best hands with her.

Sending Lord Bernie healing vibes and best wishes to you too.
 
Thank you all so very much for the replies - it does hearten me to think I have done the right thing.

To replies - he's lost 25g in a week but will keep monitoring him. They are all bedded on fitch paper bedding but do have unlimited hay - I am squashing Bernie's down so it doesn't poke him. He's on 0.15ml baytril twice per day and has been for over a week now and no adverse effects. Have mushed the pellets with VitC but totally not having that.

However :D this morning I sat him on my lap for over half an hour and just fed him by hand his favourite veggies and some apple (they don't get much fruit but anything to cheer him up) Hey presto :yahoo: he came round and seemed happier.

Even better, since the stent bandage has been removed today he's come round even more and was even up climbing the bars when I took the veg in :D:D:D and his girl has gone up to him as a long lost friend :D

I know we still have a long way to go but the vet said he's a very strong boy and keeping fingers and toes crossed the infection is going.

He doesn't seem at all bothered about me putting my hand near him either side (blind or not) but that's because he's such a laid back boy :luv:

Will keep you all updated and am really, really grateful for the replies - I honestly thought I'd done the wrong thing but now hopeful their is some hope he will recover.

Jo x
 
Jo, so pleased to hear things are picking up - I really hope he continues to improve.

I think having his girl by his side again will be a big pick up for him.

Definitely keep up with the weighing. 25g loss over a week is actually pretty good going (I would think). Butters lost more than that over the first week, but soon put it all back on. These types of things will always take it out of them and they are almost certain to lose weight immediately after surgery. As long as the weight loss is kept to a minimum he should be ok.

All the best going forward.
 
I am very glad that things are going well for Barnie and that he is pretty much holding his weight!

Please see a vet immediately if Barnie is suddenly losing his appetite/weight; that is usually a sign that there is an infection. As you are currently on a pretty low dose of baytril there is still way to go with stronger antibiotics even if there is trouble, so I wouldn't worry, just keep it in mind with the festive season looming and vet access not quite as easy as usual. Make sure that you get the out-of-hours phone number and address from your vets, just in case. It is usually on their answering machine.
 
I wouldn't worry too much as 25g is nothing at all but like has been mentioned, carry on weighing daily.

Eliza lost around 200g but that was steadily over a period of weeks, she was up and down with her weight but she did go through an awful lot. She has stabilised around 900g but my vet was never too concerned about her weight as it was up and down and she did have to have daily visits to the vets at one point. Eliza is struggling to gain the weight she lost but she is 6 years old and this does happen in older piggies.

As has already been mentioned, it isn't a regular occurrence with what happened with Eliza, just one of those things. There is a possibility that she had an allergic reaction the stitches used but we will never no.

If you are worried about infection, the signs to look out for is a discharge of pus which can give off a foul odour (I could smell this before it discharged from her socket), reddening and / or swelling around the eye area, hardening of the skin and a hot feel when touching the surrounding skin although I wouldn't recommend keep touching the area. Thankfully for Eliza, the infection was in the eye cavity and didn't really affect her but if Bernie starts to lose weight, act out of character or loses interest in food, please seek veterinary advise right away as infections can easily spread if left untreated.

Everything sounds good so far though and it great that Barnie is seeming better x
 
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Many thanks for the great advice. Bernie is still doing well today and eating better than yesterday.

I, too, thought the dose was pretty low, considering the amounts given with other conditions, but do trust my vet and she's been great. His eye is slightly swollen today but my vet said to expect this after they removed the stent bandage - however he is fine in himself and eating and pooing well.

If it swells anymore tomorrow I will be straight back - my vet said I can ring at any time and go in and best of all it's only 5 mins up the road from me and they have out of hours service (I know from previous experience :eek: )

I still feel a bit awful as at the moment it looks horrid with his shaved head, however the vet has left his whiskers on and some of his beard so he can feel his way around on that side :wub: His girl is loving him again now so he's perked up from that also :luv:

Oh and his weight is 1326g today - he's no lightweight, but not fat - just a really big boy :D

Jo x
 
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