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Fatty Eye

piggl

piggl

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My 4 and a half year old boar has started to show signs of fatty eye, in one of his eyes.

He has always had bulgy eyes but this is only on one side, I have only just found out about “fatty eye” so want to see if this is what it looks like.
I am aware of things like abscesses behind the eye so I am worried this could be the case.
Is there any specific differences between the two?

I apologise all my posts include so many questions but I am interested in learning more, especially in issues affecting my boys.
 

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It looks worse this morning, I am worried there is an issue behind the eye but surely that would pop it out instead of take it in?

His top eyelid seems to have grown overnight aswell, which doesn’t seem consistent with fatty eye.
 

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Sorry to reply to myself but I have got him a vet appointment for 5:30pm.

Can eyes go like this because of a bit of hay or is it likely something more serious. I have never had a hay poke before!

He cant fully close his eye and it looks really sore, I have some cat Loxicom in the 6 month limit but I am worried about giving it without asking first and do not have time to phone them back.

There is like a lump under and ontop of the eye.
He also sounds a bit bunged up and I heard him croaking this morning.
I understand you probably can’t tell much from a description but I am just wondering if his symptoms are consistent with anything.
 
His eye does look sore so it could be a hay poke or the beginnings or a URI if he also sounds croaky. But it could also be a number of other things so it’s good you have him booked in for the vet to take a look. I wouldn’t be giving him the loxicom without consulting with a vet first as they will know the correct dosage to give x
 
Sorry your post was missed last night.

I'm glad you are getting him seen by a vet. You don’t want to take chances with eyes. This does not look like fatty eye to me. Fatty eye affects more towards the back edge.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Sorry your post was missed last night.

I'm glad you are getting him seen by a vet. You don’t want to take chances with eyes. This does not look like fatty eye to me. Fatty eye affects more towards the back edge.
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That's good to know about fatty eye!

Nothing could have been done last night (from my end) anyway and I posted kind of late so was to be expected
 
piggl said:
It looks worse this morning, I am worried there is an issue behind the eye but surely that would pop it out instead of take it in?

His top eyelid seems to have grown overnight aswell, which doesn’t seem consistent with fatty eye.
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Hi

Please have him vet checked promptly. It looks like the eye is a bit indrawn, which is a sign of pain. This could be the result of an-ulcerating eye injury.

Potential eye injuries are classed as urgent in the UK and will be usually squeezed in as quickly as possible by a vet clinic. It doesn't matter whether you see a general vet or an exotics one because guinea pig eyes and treatment/medication is the same as with other common pets like cats or dogs.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Please have him vet checked promptly. It looks like the eye is a bit indrawn, which is a sign of pain. This could be the result of an-ulcerating eye injury.

Potential eye injuries are classed as urgent in the UK and will be usually squeezed in as quickly as possible by a vet clinic. It doesn't matter whether you see a general vet or an exotics one because guinea pig eyes and treatment/medication is the same as with other common pets like cats or dogs.
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Unfortunately 5 is the earliest I can do, and is the earliest time they offered me, will this length of time make it worse?

He is still eating and acting himself but it does look painful.
 
His eye looks worse, but there really is nothing I can do until the appointment.

Can a wet towel help? I really wish I could help him.
 
piggl said:
Unfortunately 5 is the earliest I can do, and is the earliest time they offered me, will this length of time make it worse?

He is still eating and acting himself but it does look painful.
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Hi

A non-bloody eye injury should be ideally seen within 24 hours of you noticing that something is wrong or by any vet you can get to as soon as possible if you can't.
Being seen on the same day is great because that means that you can start treatment tonight and ideally get 1-2 lots of meds into the eye before you go to sleep; that gives you a head start in terms of stopping any further deterioration straight away and having a quicker recovery. :)

Only bloody eye injuries are real emergencies.
 
Claire W said:
Don’t do anything. You’re best to leave his eye alone until his vet appointment. Good luck and let us know how you get on x
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Will do! Thanks

Wiebke said:
Hi

A non-bloody eye injury should be ideally seen within 24 hours of you noticing that something is wrong or by any vet you can get to as soon as possible if you can't.
Being seen on the same day is great because that means that you can start treatment tonight and ideally get 1-2 lots of meds into the eye before you go to sleep; that gives you a head start in terms of stopping any further deterioration straight away and having a quicker recovery. :)

Only bloody eye injuries are real emergencies.
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I only saw a tiny bit of red and more of a “swollen inside of eye” red rather than a bleeding red.
If that makes any sense at all, basically I do not believe he was/is bleeding.
Thanks
 
piggl said:
Will do! Thanks


I only saw a tiny bit of red and more of a “swollen inside of eye” red rather than a bleeding red.
If that makes any sense at all, basically I do not believe he was/is bleeding.
Thanks
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Only a vet can diagnose what is really wrong and what needs doing; we can only guess without direct access - and playing hit and miss games by blind throwing possible issues in the ring on spec won't help you or your piggy.
If an eye or something else is clearly not right, please book in your piggy at the vets before you come on here. Any vet will rather see you sooner for a minor issue than deal with things that have been left for too long.

If you have issues with anxiety, one thing you can do is to take good reference pictures of the various body parts of your piggies and keep them in a folder, so you have a clear comparison if you worry about any possible changes. It is usually easier to cancel a booked appointment than trying to get one on short notice. ;)
 
Wiebke said:
Only a vet can diagnose what is really wrong and what needs doing; we can only guess without direct access - and playing hit and miss games by blind throwing possible issues in the ring on spec won't help you or your piggy.
If an eye or something else is clearly not right, please book in your piggy at the vets before you come on here. Any vet will rather see you sooner for a minor issue than deal with things that have been left for too long.

If you have issues with anxiety, one thing you can do is to take good reference pictures of the various body parts of your piggies and keep them in a folder, so you have a clear comparison if you worry about any possible changes. It is usually easier to cancel a booked appointment than trying to get one on short notice. ;)
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I do understand, my original thread stemmed from asking a question about fatty eye, which is much less concerning but I get what you mean.

I do suffer from anxiety and this is definitely a good tip, I would never put this forum over a vet appointment but I do have to admit the wide range of knowledge and understanding on this forum is nice to have confirmation and discussions about certain things.
 
I have just re read what I said, I hope I didn’t make you feel like I was looking for a diagnosis. I was just taking into consideration that his eye was not bleeding so was technically not emergent.
 
piggl said:
I do understand, my original thread stemmed from asking a question about fatty eye, which is much less concerning but I get what you mean.

I do suffer from anxiety and this is definitely a good tip, I would never put this forum over a vet appointment but I do have to admit the wide range of knowledge and understanding on this forum is nice to have confirmation and discussions about certain things.
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Fatty eye is when the lower eyelid towards the back end falls away and exposes healthy pink conjunctiva. ;)

1684937298362.png
5 years old Tesni on the left had a fatty eye in older age. You can see how the lower eyelid has sagged away from the eye surface a little following the laws of gravity as the tissue is becoming less strong and tense. It became even more pronounced over the following two years of her life.
 
Hi, we are back with a funky coloured eye and some Isathal eye drops twice a day.

No scratches on the eye (phew), so put down to conjunctivitis and the eye drops twice a day for a week. There was not any particular discharge or anything but I hope the antibiotic will sort out whatever is going on anyway.
Is there anything I need to put in place to avoid cross contamination? I have read the section about such but it is mainly on what we can give to piggies, not the other way around
 
piggl said:
Hi, we are back with a funky coloured eye and some Isathal eye drops twice a day.

No scratches on the eye (phew), so put down to conjunctivitis and the eye drops twice a day for a week. There was not any particular discharge or anything but I hope the antibiotic will sort out whatever is going on anyway.
Is there anything I need to put in place to avoid cross contamination? I have read the section about such but it is mainly on what we can give to piggies, not the other way around
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Just wash your hands before and after applying any meds and handling any piggy and keep any other species pets out of the room if possible.

Isathal are antibioptic eye drops which are both used for infections in the eye and in the conjunctiva. Since you have seen a vet promptly, it is hopefully still in the earlier stages.
 
His eye is looking much better only after a couple days.
We have to give them a phone in a week to see how things are going but there was no guideline set on how long the course of eye drops was.

Should I just continue with it until next wednesday? I am just wondering if it can go too far the other way and the eye drops begin to cause issue to a “healthy eye”.

I definitely think he could do with another couple of days but until Wednesday is quite a while if his eye continues to heal as it is.
 
I’m glad his eye is looking better already. The course of eye drops is usually for 7 days unless it’s a bad injury and your vet says otherwise but you could always phone them to double check. When my Ella had a scratched eye from a grass seed, we stopped the drops after a few days as her eye had healed and the vet said it would be ok but when she had a corneal ulcer from a grass seed, we used the drops for the full 7 days and then she saw the vet again to see whether the eye had healed
 
I’m glad it’s looking better.
Continue giving the drops until the call with the vet next week
 
Claire W said:
I’m glad his eye is looking better already. The course of eye drops is usually for 7 days unless it’s a bad injury and your vet says otherwise but you could always phone them to double check. When my Ella had a scratched eye from a grass seed, we stopped the drops after a few days as her eye had healed and the vet said it would be ok but when she had a corneal ulcer from a grass seed, we used the drops for the full 7 days and then she saw the vet again to see whether the eye had healed
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Glad to hear Ella was alright.
I’ll continue to use the drops until next week
 
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