Ulceration Of Eye

[PiggieFratHouse]

So my guinea pig Cloud whose just over a year old, had an eye ulceration and in the end it was decided to remove the eye which the surgery took place about a month ago.
Now he's lost so much weight after surgery although he looked to be doing well before the wound got reinfected which we've mostly cleared up now and we are feeding him critical care to help keep his weight up along with a food mash but I've now noticed the other eye is starting to ulcerate so I've given him the eye drops we had originally.
I'm curious if anyone else has had this happen and what the outcome was. I don't think he can survive another surgery to remove it due to how underweight he is, although hopefully we can get him to gain some more weight.
So hopefully I've caught the ulceration early enough for the eye drops to work, as with the other eye he had the drops and the vet said it was getting better but we had the choice to remove it so it would have less chance to spread to the other eye so we did, but obviously that hasn't worked :/

 

[4pigs&counting]

Hi @PiggieFratHouse Didn't want to read and run as I also have a piggy with an eye ulcer at the moment. Sorry to hear that yours has now got an ulcer in the other eye too. Don't have much experience myself so can't advise but hopefully someone will be along soon who knows more about this than me! I know @Wiebke has had some experience of eye problems recently

 

[Wiebke]

So my guinea pig Cloud whose just over a year old, had an eye ulceration and in the end it was decided to remove the eye which the surgery took place about a month ago.
Now he's lost so much weight after surgery although he looked to be doing well before the wound got reinfected which we've mostly cleared up now and we are feeding him critical care to help keep his weight up along with a food mash but I've now noticed the other eye is starting to ulcerate so I've given him the eye drops we had originally.
I'm curious if anyone else has had this happen and what the outcome was. I don't think he can survive another surgery to remove it due to how underweight he is, although hopefully we can get him to gain some more weight.
So hopefully I've caught the ulceration early enough for the eye drops to work, as with the other eye he had the drops and the vet said it was getting better but we had the choice to remove it so it would have less chance to spread to the other eye so we did, but obviously that hasn't worked :/

Hi and welcome

What eye drops have you got and how piggy savvy is your vet?
I am very sorry that your boy lost his one eye and that the op was so rough on him.

How much are syringe feed are you giving him and his is weight stable now or not? What hay are you feeding and how stalky is it? Perhaps you want to switch to softer hay in order to minimise the risk of hay pokes to the eye?

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[PiggieFratHouse]

To be honest I'm not sure how piggy savvy he is, although he handles him really well, better than any other vet I've been too.
I've been feeding him out of a 1ml syringe with about 10 syringes every time I feed him which is about 5 -10 times a day ( depending on when I have work but my housemate is supposedly also feeding him too) Although he now has more as he's really enjoying the mash of his food I made, also mixed with critical care.

His weight is slightly picking up I think but he's about 600g which is ridiculously underweight, considering the rest of our pigs are incredibly sleek and fat and over 1kg.

He has meadow hay which is pretty soft at the moment but I'm not sure how much of that he's actually eating, he really likes his syringe food and does attack any veg I give him but doesnt seem to be as efficent at eating it now, but that may be because he's weaker now and has his head tilted so his eye is held up, I guess to see better?

We were seeing a vet at Vets for Pets ( not the best brand I know but this vet was really good with him and we had free re check ups every couple of days for about another 4 visits before the vet thought he was doing okay enough)

 

[PiggieFratHouse]

Oh and he's on Exocin (ofloxacin) eye drops which the vet gave originally and has one drop twice a day

 

[Wiebke]

To be honest I'm not sure how piggy savvy he is, although he handles him really well, better than any other vet I've been too.
I've been feeding him out of a 1ml syringe with about 10 syringes every time I feed him which is about 5 -10 times a day ( depending on when I have work but my housemate is supposedly also feeding him too) Although he now has more as he's really enjoying the mash of his food I made, also mixed with critical care.

His weight is slightly picking up I think but he's about 600g which is ridiculously underweight, considering the rest of our pigs are incredibly sleek and fat and over 1kg.

He has meadow hay which is pretty soft at the moment but I'm not sure how much of that he's actually eating, he really likes his syringe food and does attack any veg I give him but doesnt seem to be as efficent at eating it now, but that may be because he's weaker now and has his head tilted so his eye is held up, I guess to see better?

We were seeing a vet at Vets for Pets ( not the best brand I know but this vet was really good with him and we had free re check ups every couple of days for about another 4 visits before the vet thought he was doing okay enough)

Here are our recommended piggy savvy vets: Guinea Pig Vet Locator

I am glad that the weight is going up slowly again; it must have gone as low as it could post-op.
It can take a while to come after a really bad post-op recovery. It sounds like the teeth may be overgrowing if the eating has slowed down. Normally you wouldn't expect a head tilt after an eye operation.
Tips For Post-operative Care

If you can, please have him checked at the Cat&Rabbit Care Clinic in Northampton after the holidays. They are the most experienced dental vets in the country, and the most experienced guinea pig vets in Midlands. Thanks to them, two of my piggies have kept their badly injured eye.
I am just off now to have my Hafren checked for hers, but I am hoping that she is finally going to get the all clear after over month on chloramphenicol, metacam, visco tears and two rounds of a strong antibiotic (stronger than baytril) because her infection has penetrated deeper into the eye - she is now 6 years old.

Please a decent vet asap with any eye injury. Unfortunately, so shortly before Christmas, most specialist vets are fully booked out.
List Of Life And Death Out-of-hours Emergencies