Crusty Eyes

[Piggie_Princess]

I've just noticed that one of my pigs has got what appears to be a big clump of sleep next to her eye. With dogs and cats this can be normalish, however google has brought up some scary results for guinea pigs. What are peoples opinions? How much is too much?

 

[shiny]

Guineas can get crusty eyes when they are not cleaning the discharge from them properly. This can happen when a guinea is ill or in pain for some reason. Is your guinea ok apart from the eye gunk? Eating / drinking / weeing / pooing ok? Maintaining weight ok? Happy & active? Not sitting hunched up or fluffed out? If everything else is ok, she might just have had something in her eye which worked its way out with a bit of gunk. Try wiping it gently away from the eye with some cooled boiled water (lukewarm only!) & see if it just wipes away. If it is stuck, the eye looks injured or red or it comes back again, I would get it checked out by the vet. If your guinea has other symptoms, I would go to the vet anyway.

Hopefully it's just a one off, my hamster had a similar thing a couple of months back, I wiped it away & it was ok after that.

Best wishes, shiny

 

[piggyfan]

My Sophie often has this and she is totally fine. If you are worried you may like to take your little one for a check up.

 

[Piggie_Princess]

She's happy and active and I've been monitoring her food and drink intake and she seems fine and is a healthy weight. I've upped the amount of carrots I give them (even though they aren't their favourite) for a vitamin boost. I cleaned the eye area with some luke warm water and a cotton bud and it did wipe away. Really its only the one eye, the other is fine. I think i'm going to monitor it this week and if there is any sign of irritations i will go to the vets. I think I just panicked lol after the horrible google images. I feel better that this happens to other piggies. Thank you for your really helpful replies =D