Worried about guinea pigs eye

[lucyjoanne]

Hi all,
I am a bit concerned about my little pigs eye, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas?

My pig penelope is about a year and a half old (and Ive had her for a year), since Ive had her, on about 3 random occasions one of her eyes has been watery, sometimes with a white 'goo'. Each time its happened it doesn't seem to be anything specific thats set it off (new bedding, clean cage etc), and each time I have taken her to the vet who always puts a special dye in her eye and says there is nothing wrong (he also checks her breathing etc). After this Ive just used cooled boiled water to wash the eye and the problem has gone away.

Unforutantely the watery/gloopy eye has come back. I have already taken penelope to the vets (again there is no aparent problem), and I have been cleaning her eye but it just doesnt seem to get better for more than a few days. It has now been on and off for the past month and I just do not know what to do. It doesn't seem to be affecting anything else and she is fine in herself, but now her piggie friend keeps licking her bad eye which I don't think is making things any better either (souds yuck but her piggie friend eats ALOT of poop ::red)

Sorry for the long post, but I just don't know what to do apart from keep cleaning her eye, and was wondering if anyone else had some suggestions?

Thanks for reading

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Hi Lucy, sorry to hear you're worried about Penelope.

Just a couple of questions at the moment, I have some ideas but whether they are relevent depends on the answers to these questions.
What bedding is she on? Does she live indoors or outdoors?

It could 'just' be that she has a lot of fatty tissues under her eyelids which are prone to blocking the tear ducts - a few of mine had/have this. Alternatively the bedding could be irritating her eye.

A milky substance in the eye is normal to a point; when piggies groom themselves, their eyes tend to fill with a milky fluid which then drains away within a minute or two. But a constantly gloopy/watery eye may not be normal.

 

[CiaraPatricia]

I think for some animals, it's normal for them to have more watery eyes than others, so maybe that it is.

And one of my rabbits gets watery eyes if he's around wood shavings or hay (he doesn't have to be around hay since he refuses to eat it no matter what). I think being outside with pollen could also affect their eyes. It doesn't seem to bother my rabbit too much, and it goes away if he's not around wood shavings or hay.

Using a better quality, less dusty hay helped, but he still wouldn't eat it. But of course your pig has to have hay, so maybe switching hay could help if you think that could be the problem. My friend had the same problem with her rabbit sneezing and having watery eyes and she switched to tesco hay which she now swears by!

I wouldn't say that her friend cleaning her eye would harm it, it'd probably help and keep it more comfortable and dry for her.

 

[lucyjoanne]

Thanks for your replies

Both of my girls are indoor pigs, they are on auboise (sp?) for bedding and I use a hay that is 'dust extracted'.

It is good to know that I'm not the only one with a watery-eyed pig! But as she has red eyes anyway it does make things look sore-r then they are

I just feel so bad that i have to keep cleaning penelopes eye out as she really doesn't like it.

 

[XbeccaX]

misty had a bad eye once and minnie was licking it for her, the vet said this is normal and fine, and they do it becasue they can tell something is wrong and they want to help!