Hay poke causing damaged eye

[Chantelle14]

Hello all, one of my guinea pigs who is 2 had a sunken eye which didn’t quite look right - took him to the vets turns out a sharp piece of hay has damaged his eye he recommended we use paper bedding like what they sell for hamsters. However in the stores around by me I have only ever seen this sold in the tiny bags and I would worry that they would eat the paper as they try to eat anything. I have 3 more guinea pigs so I would want to avoid anymore getting hay poke but I’m not sure what material to put down in their sleeping and hidey areas instead of hay?

 

[Guineapigfeet]

My three have all had one in the first half of this year. Before that only one in three and a half years and before that, none in 10 years. I’m not changing my bedding- hay is essential to their health and they love burrowing and foraging around in it (one of the vets I saw also said I should consider changing their bedding) but what can you do? Unless you feed hay only from hay-bags and don’t have any in the ground, which would be a shame if they’re used to it

 

[Helen82]

Stanley also managed to scratch his eye with hay in February (which thankfully recovered with treatment) but I still put a big pile of hay down for them both as they love to run around in it, and I wouldn't want to deny them that. I use Carefresh (paper bedding) as their bedding throughout the cage including in hideys etc for sleeping and they don't eat it. (If guinea pigs aren't used to it they might have an exploratory nibble at first, but if there's enough of it about I'm sure they'll soon realise it's not food.) I don't know where you are based but here in the UK I buy bigger bags (60l) of Carefresh online and get them delivered.

(Edit: Are your guinea pigs kept indoors or outdoors as this will dictate which bedding options are practical?)

 

[Lorcan]

Plus the likelihood of hay staying online in hay racks or hay bags is slim. Guinea pigs love to drag it around everywhere lol.

If you're using hay as bedding, what sort of hay is it you're using? If it's timothy hay, you could try seeing if using meadow hay helps. It's generally softer (and cheaper) than timothy and as a bedding that can be useful. You can also buy paper bedding in larger bags - different types of Carefresh can be in 50l or 60l bags and I've used one 60l bag to cover a 4x4 cage space. Back2Nature comes in large bags but that stuff is heavy. Megazorb comes in huge bags but it has a smell to it some people find offputting. Aubiose comes in large packs too, many users here use it.

Unfortunately unless you take hay away from your guinea pigs completely you're always going to have hay poke risks, and removing hay entirely isn't an option, they absolutely need it.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello all, one of my guinea pigs who is 2 had a sunken eye which didn’t quite look right - took him to the vets turns out a sharp piece of hay has damaged his eye ☹ he recommended we use paper bedding like what they sell for hamsters. However in the stores around by me I have only ever seen this sold in the tiny bags and I would worry that they would eat the paper as they try to eat anything. I have 3 more guinea pigs so I would want to avoid anymore getting hay poke but I’m not sure what material to put down in their sleeping and hidey areas instead of hay?

Hi and welcome!

I am very sorry; please always see a piggy with a potential eye injury asap as they can deteriorate very quickly. Make sure that you automatically take a quick look at the eyes for signs of squinting, watering, bits sticking out from under a lid, blueish dots or a film over the eye surface (ulceration), drawn in or bulging eyes twice a day during feeding time.

Hay pokes do not depend so much on your bedding but on your choice of hay. Serve any hay with stiff, hard stalks that can penetrate into an eye in a hay rack and have only soft hay on the ground or in hay trays that your piggies can burrow in. This minimises the risk of hay pokes.
Since hay makes over 80% of the daily food intake for long term health and a longer life and since most piggies love to burrow in hay, you can never completely exlcude the risk of eye injuries, but you can minimise it.

Here are our bedding and hay overviews. Many of our members have their indoors piggies on fleece with a hay corner or hay loft.
A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)
Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview