Guinea Pig Cataracts And Blindness

[Gemmas1987]

Hi, Ive been to the vets today and my piggie George has cataracts with hardly any sight, has anyone had any experiences with this and if eye drops have helped? He has a friend that he follows round his house

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, Ive been to the vets today and my piggie George has cataracts with hardly any sight, has anyone had any experiences with this and if eye drops have helped? He has a friend that he follows round his house

Hi - there is no treatment for cataracts in guinea pigs.

Thankfully, sight is not the strongest sense in guinea pigs. They learn to compensate quickly with their other senses and can still lead a perfectly normal and fulfilled life, which includes free-roaming floor time and shallow ramps. One of my cataract piggies even learned to orient itself by my constant voice feedback and could come to me over the distance of several yards.
There are two varieties of cataracts - congenital ones and old age ones. Aome guinea pigs are born with the genetic disposition to develop cataracts at a young age (typically at 1-2 years old, but it can occasionally happen even before birth) while the majority of cataracts affect - like in humans - the older guinea pigs. Some cataracts come on rather quickly in a matter of days while others do so more slowly and develop over several months.

I have and have had a number of guinea pigs with either variety.
You may find this little story I have written about one of my cataract piggies uplifting. Turning a blind eye on mischief - another piggy story

 

[helen105281]

My Fuzzy has congenital ones that she has had since she arrived when she was 1. They have never fully developed though. She flies about the place. My Rose is I suspect developing old age ones. I also have a pig with one eye who finds his way about really well apart from wheeking in the wrong direction sometimes.

 

[Claire W]

My Emma was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes last August at the age of 4 (although she could be older).

Unless you new that she had them, you wouldn't even know by looking at her behaviour. She just acts like any other full sighted piggy.

The only thing I have noticed is that as I have a two tier cage, she prefers to stay on the bottom level although she does occasionally venture up the ramp.

I just make sure I talk to her before stroking and picking her up so not to startle her.

@Wiebke had a group of cataract piggies who I was lucky enough to meet, some of which had very poor sight. It was just amazing to watch them get on with their everyday life enjoying themselves

There is no treatment or medication to treat cataracts.

 

[Herts Pigslave]

I've had several piggies with cataracts of varying severity - if loss of sight develops over time, they adapt well, and your pig has the advantage of a buddy to follow. If your piggy is prone to scooting around fast, or random popcorning, just make sure there are zero ( ideally none for sighted pigs too!) hard or sharp corners to crash into (e.g. remove any hard-edged wooden-log hidies, and give smooth edged light-weight cardboard boxes; if you have hay racks, don't have ones with sharp corners; make sure water bottle spouts, or hay racks, don't project where they might run). Even more so, don't rearrange where these things are in the cage: pigs seem to have excellent memories for where things are. If you allow them out-of-cage gallops around your own lounge, perhaps don't move your own furniture either! Sammy (one eye only, and that with cataracts) does high-speed popcorning circuits around chair and table legs with no problem - but will crash if furniture has moved just a couple of centimetres.

 

[Wiebke]

I've had several piggies with cataracts of varying severity - if loss of sight develops over time, they adapt well, and your pig has the advantage of a buddy to follow. If your piggy is prone to scooting around fast, or random popcorning, just make sure there are zero ( ideally none for sighted pigs too!) hard or sharp corners to crash into (e.g. remove any hard-edged wooden-log hidies, and give smooth edged light-weight cardboard boxes; if you have hay racks, don't have ones with sharp corners; make sure water bottle spouts, or hay racks, don't project where they might run). Even more so, don't rearrange where these things are in the cage: pigs seem to have excellent memories for where things are. If you allow them out-of-cage gallops around your own lounge, perhaps don't move your own furniture either! Sammy (one eye only, and that with cataracts) does high-speed popcorning circuits around chair and table legs with no problem - but will crash if furniture has moved just a couple of centimetres.

I have had a range of blind/near blind guinea pig over the years.

While it is good to make sure that a lively piggy cannot accidentally injure itself, I have found that they orient themselves by scent and have no problems with changes in furniture and layout. This experience is also echoed by the blind and deaf lethal permanent residents at The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary for guinea pigs with special needs (TEAS).
Ideally you don't clean any changed furniture thoroughly when you move it. Guinea pigs are very good at creating very differentiated and complicated mental maps for a surprisingly large area that can include several acres; a cage is not a big challenge to them. My Mischief managed to completely rebuild her mental map and free roam (under my supervision, of course) the enclosed lawn and flower border just by scent spoors and memory after she lost her eyesight rather quickly; her first eye went in days.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=903956772968515

Here you can see my 7 year old, rather athritic and near fully blind cataract lady Mali doing zoomies, following her own scent spoor in a loop.

 

[Freela]

Sundae (about 6.5 years old) has developed cataracts over the past year or so. She went through an adaptation period where she was obviously hesitant about things (getting in and out of the cage, etc.) That lasted a few months and then she adapted very nicely, you would never actually know that she can't see. She does all the things that she did before, the only real difference I notice is that she spends more time on her tiptoes with her head in the air- I think either listening or smelling to figure out the environment. She lives with a younger, sighted pig and follows her around at times, which I think helps. Even when she could see she followed the dominant pig, Sundae has always been more anxious than outgoing! She is not on any eyedrops or meds for her eyes- the vet said that with cataracts there is really not anything that they can do, but that most pigs do fine without vision.