Guinea pig Eye illness (Urgent help is needed)

[Glinvad]

Hello everyone, i really hope someone in here can help me with my guinea pig.

I have a 1.5 year old guinea pig, who is having some sort of eye illness.

We discovered it the 30th of december the eye was swollen but only a little bit (most wouldn't even see it)
But we took her to the vet (as she also had lost 100 grams on 14 days). and the vet's first response was nothing was wrong. But she inspected the eye anyway.
- First she measured the pressure in the eye, which looked fine.
- Then she checked if there were any scratches on the eye ball, by applying some sort of liquid to the eye.
- She also got her teeth checked, which also looked fine.
- Lastly she took an x-ray photo of her, to see if there were anything behind the eye.

Everything looked fine and we just got something to take pain for her to see if it was getting better.

As the days went by, her eye grew and was looking worse. We decided to take her to another vet. He couldn't really address what it could be but came to the conclusion that it would either be:
A: a tumour or
B: an abcess behind her eye

Next he told us his colleague should inspect her (as he is an expert in eyes) and he told us the same. We got handed some antibiotics and was told to keep giving her pain reliving medicine. She has since the first visit gained back approx 20 grams.

I have posted the pictures of her, in the comment below. The first picture is taken the day we discovered it and took her to the vet (30th december 2021) while the last picture is taken today: 7th january 2022.

 

[Glinvad]

Hello everyone, i really hope someone in here can help me with my guinea pig.

I have a 1.5 year old guinea pig, who is having some sort of eye illness.

We discovered it the 30th of january the eye was swollen but only a little bit (most wouldn't even see it)
But we took her to the vet (as she also had lost 100 grams on 14 days). and the vet's first response was nothing was wrong. But she inspected the eye anyway.
- First she measured the pressure in the eye, which looked fine.
- Then she checked if there were any scratches on the eye ball, by applying some sort of liquid to the eye.
- She also got her teeth checked, which also looked fine.
- Lastly she took an x-ray photo of her, to see if there were anything behind the eye.

Everything looked fine and we just got something to take pain for her to see if it was getting better.

As the days went by, her eye grew and was looking worse. We decided to take her to another vet. He couldn't really address what it could be but came to the conclusion that it would either be:
A: a tumour or
B: an abcess behind her eye

Next he told us his colleague should inspect her (as he is an expert in eyes) and he told us the same. We got handed some antibiotics and was told to keep giving her pain reliving medicine. She has since the first visit gained back approx 20 grams.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Has the vet requested to see her again? I would normally expect a follow up to address the issue - she may need surgery for example

Are you syringe feeding her a recovery feed to stabilise her weight?
Ensure you weigh her daily so you can more closely monitor her hay intake and step in appropriately with the amount of syringe feed needed

Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management

 

[Engel]

Can't offer any advice but fingers crossed that you can get to the bottom of it and she recovers quickly.

 

[Glinvad]

Has the vet requested to see her again? I would normally expect a follow up to address the issue - she may need surgery for example

Are you syringe feeding her a recovery feed to stabilise her weight?
Ensure you weigh her daily so you can more closely monitor her hay intake and step in appropriately with the amount of syringe feed needed

Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Yes the vet would like to see her again in 6 days. And yes we do syringe feed her to stabilize her weight but are pretty unsure how much we should do it. So far we do it once per day with only a mix of her pills and water (and sometimes a bit of banana). How much should we do it?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Mixing her medication with water and banana isn’t syringe feeding to stabilise weight - that sounds like that is just the dosage of medication the vet has told you to give.

When piggies lose weight it is because they aren’t eating enough hay. You must replace the hay she isn’t eating with either a proper recovery feed such as Oxbow Critical Care or Emeraid, or mushing up her normal guinea pig pellets with water until it forms a paste.

The only way to know you are syringe feeding enough is by checking her weight at the same time every day and adjustjng the syringe feeds accordingly.
The more hay she eats independently, the less you need to syringe feed and vice versa - the less hay she eats her self, the more you need to syringe feed her.

If her weight is stable at each daily weight check, then she is eating enough in each 24 hour period.
If she loses weight then you need to syringe feed more - it can be anything from a couple of top up syringe feeds a day if piggy is eating a good amount of hay independently to needing to feed every few hours to get 60-90ml of syringe feed into them in each 24 hour period.

The green links in the previous reply and the one below further explain syringe feeding

Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

 

[Glinvad]

Mixing her medication with water and banana isn’t syringe feeding to stabilise weight - that sounds like that is just the dosage of medication the vet has told you to give.

When piggies lose weight it is because they aren’t eating enough hay. You must replace the hay she isn’t eating with either a proper recovery feed such as Oxbow Critical Care or Emeraid, or mushing up her normal guinea pig pellets with water until it forms a paste.

The only way to know you are syringe feeding enough is by checking her weight at the same time every day and adjustjng the syringe feeds accordingly.
The more hay she eats independently, the less you need to syringe feed and vice versa - the less hay she eats her self, the more you need to syringe feed her.

If her weight is stable at each daily weight check, then she is eating enough in each 24 hour period.
If she loses weight then you need to syringe feed more - it can be anything from a couple of top up syringe feeds a day if piggy is eating a good amount of hay independently but not enough to keep stable or needing to syringe feed 60-90 ml in each 24 hour period and that can mean you needing to syringe feed her every two hours or so throughout the whole day, giving as much per sitting as she can take (it may be a couple of ml, it may be 20ml or so per sitting).

The green links in the previous reply and the one below further explain syringe feeding

Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

Thank you for responding. But what i meant by syringe feeding her is by the method you described: we mix her pellets with water and sometimes banana. Sorry if i wasnt clear but english isn’t my main language.

I highly appreciate your tips.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you for responding. But what i meant by syringe feeding her is by the method you described: we mix her pellets with water and sometimes banana. Sorry if i wasnt clear but english isn’t my main language.

I highly appreciate your tips.

Thats good.
Syringe feeding as much per day as it needed to keep her stable at each daily weight check. It may only be needed once a day if she is eating a good amount of hay for herself, but it can be needed multiple times a day if she loses weight each day.

What antibiotics and painkillers has she been given?

 

[Glinvad]

Thats good.
Syringe feeding as much per day as it needed to keep her stable at each daily weight check. It may only be needed once a day if she is eating a good amount of hay for herself, but it can be needed multiple times a day if she loses weight each day.

What antibiotics and painkillers has she been given?

Okay we will keep syringe feed her. It seems like she eat a fine amount of hay herself but we feel that she has gotten troubles eating her pellets (which is why we thought it would be a tooth problem.) But as the vet says: there isn't far from the teeth to her eyes, which can make it troublesome to eat properly. Vegetables she still eats as normal.

The painkiller medicine is named: Meloxidyl 1,5 mg/ml
The Antibiotics is named: Baytril mixt.25 mg/ml

 

[Merab]

Sorry you’re in this situation.
I’m dealing with a similar issue with my Phoebe.
Like you the vet first suggested it could be an abscess, a mass or an infection so she was booked in for an x-ray.
In the meantime she was prescribed Enrobactin and Loxicom.
I had already started some syringe feeding.
While she was under the anaesthetic she had a dental check to rule out teeth problems.
They also made a small incision on her nose and apparently a load of gunk came out.
They decided to continue with the meds and send the x-rays and notes to a specialist for a second opinion.
Phoebe most likely has an abscess behind her eye and we are continuing the Enrobactin and Loxicom for another 2 weeks.
Then another x-ray to see if it’s clearer what’s going on.

Hopefully the meds will help your piggy feel better so she will eat well for herself and regain weight.. I still put a dish of Critical Care in the cage for her - the others help eat it.
Daily weighing has reassured me that Phoebe is regaining her lost weight and holding her own now.

Holding you in my thoughts

 

[Siikibam]

Hej og velkommen. You’ve been given great advice and I’ve nothing to add. Jeg tilbyder bare støtte. Jeg håber hun snart får det bedre.

 

[Glinvad]

Sorry you’re in this situation.
I’m dealing with a similar issue with my Phoebe.
Like you the vet first suggested it could be an abscess, a mass or an infection so she was booked in for an x-ray.
In the meantime she was prescribed Enrobactin and Loxicom.
I had already started some syringe feeding.
While she was under the anaesthetic she had a dental check to rule out teeth problems.
They also made a small incision on her nose and apparently a load of gunk came out.
They decided to continue with the meds and send the x-rays and notes to a specialist for a second opinion.
Phoebe most likely has an abscess behind her eye and we are continuing the Enrobactin and Loxicom for another 2 weeks.
Then another x-ray to see if it’s clearer what’s going on.

Hopefully the meds will help your piggy feel better so she will eat well for herself and regain weight.. I still put a dish of Critical Care in the cage for her - the others help eat it.
Daily weighing has reassured me that Phoebe is regaining her lost weight and holding her own now.

Holding you in my thoughts

Thank you for taking your time to reply. I’m sorry to hear that you and your piggy face a similar problem.

I will also keep you in my thoughts and hope she does well!