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Guinea Pig Eye Infected/Bulging

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GP1603

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Hi my guinea pig is 4 years old and today I discovered she has excessively pooped all over her cage. And her eye is bulging and sticking out of her head, it’s red and looks very sore and i’m very worried about her. I have booked an appointment with the vet however she had some hair loss issues just over a week ago. I assumed this was to do with vitamin deficiency. What should I do? I read this may be a treatable eye infection but it looks like it’s really bad that I am unable to even recognise her eye and whether she can actually see out of it or not:-( 274A00CE-ED5F-4EC9-9EE6-DF25C86DA285.webp47BB612D-A562-40A4-9CEE-BB479131CFC2.webpC0CB797F-8F35-489E-AA0F-9FD4178FE9AD.webp5E5CD068-51FB-421E-93D0-BFF42C070148.webp
 
Welcome to the forum.
The best thing you can do is get her to a vet as an emergency. When is your appointment?
 
This is now an emergency as eyes can deteriorate very quickly. I would ring your vet if you appointment is not today and tell them what has happened so they can bring them in asap
 
GP1603 said:
Hi my guinea pig is 4 years old and today I discovered she has excessively pooped all over her cage. And her eye is bulging and sticking out of her head, it’s red and looks very sore and i’m very worried about her. I have booked an appointment with the vet however she had some hair loss issues just over a week ago. I assumed this was to do with vitamin deficiency. What should I do? I read this may be a treatable eye infection but it looks like it’s really bad that I am unable to even recognise her eye and whether she can actually see out of it or not:-( View attachment 94140View attachment 94141View attachment 94142View attachment 94143
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Omg this is hard to look at without feeling weird. Vet asap as others are saying
 
GP1603 said:
they said to bring her in at 6.30pm. is that too late? i don’t know what to do :-(
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Thats good. Its the best thing you could have done. Now just wait to see what the vet has in mind to do. If its to have the eye taken out. It isnt much of an issue. Guinea pigs have bad eye sight anyway. They get around with their wiskers and brilliant sense of smell. Members on here keep blind guinea pigs that i have seen in person. And they are happy , lively animals still. Just dont leave the eye like it is
 
they’ve now managed to squeeze her in at 5pm, there is a lot of hair loss around her eye.image.webp
 
Welcome to the forum & i agree with the others to make sure the vet sees you immediately, it could be a nasty hay poke or an abscess behind the eye, whichever it's probably painful for her :(
make sure you get her some pain relief too.

try & get an earlier appt than 6.30 if you can, but if not that will be ok, but if you drip some boiled cooled water on it just to keep it moist & hopefully wash off any bits of hay or debris that are stuck on the protruding eyeball too.

she may need surgery but the vet may try drops first.
hope she gets on ok & please keep us updated. healing vibes for your poor little poppet. xx
oh 5pm - lots better well done for pushing it. this i think will be classed as an emergency. xx
 
GPTV said:
Welcome to the forum & i agree with the others to make sure the vet sees you immediately, it could be a nasty hay poke or an abscess behind the eye, whichever it's probably painful for her :(
make sure you get her some pain relief too.

try & get an earlier appt than 6.30 if you can, but if not that will be ok, but if you drip some boiled cooled water on it just to keep it moist & hopefully wash off any bits of hay or debris that are stuck on the eyeball too.

she may need surgery but the vet may try drops first.
hope she gets on ok & please keep us updated. healing vibes for your poor little poppet. xx
oh 5pm - lots better well done for pushing it. this i think will be classed as an emergency. xx
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Good info
 
I was in similar situation but with one of my hamsters, Ben, and I took him to the Exotic Pet Vet immediately. One of Ben's eye becmae foggy, with white residue covering it and it was bulging out.

The vet gave him medicine by mouth and eye drops and I had to continue with his medicine for 2 weeks. The vet told me to come back if Ben did not improved after 2 weeks. Administering his medicine by mouth was easy but administering eye drop was next to impossible. I managed to put some eye drops in his eye though.

Everything cleared within a week and Ben is fine now as though nothing happened to him. Here is a photo of my Ben as happy as ever. Ben is now 2.5 years old and this happened when he was 2, so about 5 months ago.

Ben, my happy boy.
IMG_0064.webp
 
I’ve now placed her in a cardboard box ready to take her to the vet at 5 and have noticed that she’s scratching her eye a lot. She has this wooden toy in her cage which I think could have been the cause to the wound...image.webpimage.webp
 
I forgot to add that my Ben repeatedly rubbed his infected eye prior to my taking him to the vet. I should also mention that not only was Ben's eye bulging out but it was super red also.

I reacted quickly and took him to the vet as soon as possible. After the vet administered the eye drop and medicine by mouth, Ben seemed to calm down and stopped rubbing his eye.

I followed through with the vet's order and continued with Ben's medicine, and I am glad I did. As you can see from the photo, my Ben is as happy as he has always been.
 
the only thing i am worried about is the fact that she’s a very jittery guinea pig. she always scatters about her cage and hates being touched around her backside. this is what i’m worried about when trying to give her treatment. but i will see what the vet says.
 
does anyone know how much this will roughly cost? our vet is kynoch vets in harmans water, bracknell
 
GP1603 said:
does anyone know how much this will roughly cost? our vet is kynoch vets in harmans water, bracknell
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I live in US. With the medication and the visit, I paid roughly $135 for my last visit.
I do want to point out that my vet is an Exotic Pet Vet, so the vet specializes in specific area, which could translate to charging more to the customers.
 
That does look like a retrobulbar abscess to me but the vet will confirm. I have had 2 pigs with the same thing and the eye looked like that on both of them. Both had their eye removed and were put on Zithromax to clear the infection. The eye socket was also left open for daily flushing. If it helps, once the abscess has come through like that they usually feel better as the pressure has gone. We had Tim for another 3 years after his op and only lost him recently due to old age. The op at the vets I used (The Cat and Rabbit clinic in Northampton) cost about £330. Good luck at the vets.
 
Hi, there is a really good guinea pig savy vet in Bracknell if you have any problems.
Bracken veterinary center. Her name is Jenny.
X
 
helen105281 said:
That does look like a retrobulbar abscess to me but the vet will confirm. I have had 2 pigs with the same thing and the eye looked like that on both of them. Both had their eye removed and were put on Zithromax to clear the infection. The eye socket was also left open for daily flushing. If it helps, once the abscess has come through like that they usually feel better as the pressure has gone. We had Tim for another 3 years after his op and only lost him recently due to old age. The op at the vets I used (The Cat and Rabbit clinic in Northampton) cost about £330. Good luck at the vets.
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I am wondering what caused this. Do you know?
 
The vet said her eye is not salvageable:-( either pay £466.55 to do surgery which is extremely high risk so it’s unlikely she will make it through the surgery or we have to put her to sleep. he has given us antibiotics and painkillers and eye drops but that’s about it. we have to make a decision by monday.
 
I’m so sorry to hear this. :( Did he say what had caused the issue?
I wonder if it might be worth calling another vet to get second opion and price if you are worried about the cost.
 
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