Beware of grass seeds (aka foxtails)!

[Fur & Feathers]

Reminder to beware of grass seeds/ foxtails!

Today one of our guineas, Poppy, had a full grass seed/foxtail pulled out from behind her eye!

She had usual hay poke symptoms (blueish eye, swelling round her eyelid & scratching at her eye), but there was nothing obvious in her eye. Was pretty shocking to think that whole seed was right in there! Poor girl must’ve been so uncomfortable!

Thankfully the seed didn’t damage her actual eye, so with eye drops & pain killers she should make a full recovery.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

Glad that you found the hay seed. They are not at all uncommon and can scratch the eye surface under the lid and cause ulceration on the surface.

We are seeing more of them this year due to last year being a difficult hay growing year when more seed bearing grass was harvested than usual.

My Begw had some stuck under a lid (plus a shallow perforation) just the other week. Thankfully, these kind of injuries usually heal off well and rather quickly with the appropriate medication.