Hi. Our 5 year old guinea pig had a blue cloudy eye and a bit of hay stuck in it. I rinsed her eye with salt water and gently removed the hay. I have read on here about giving Optrex Infected Eye drops, is that only if it shows signs of infection or as a precaution either way? If the former, what are signs of infection following hay poke please?
Teresa
Hi and welcome
Please see a vet promptly and do not home treat on spec; it could ultimately cost your piggy their eye.
If the eye is bloody, then this counts as an out-of-hours emergency in the UK. Otherwise please see a vet as soon as possible within 24 hours.
How Soon Should My Guinea Pig See A Vet? - A Quick Guide
Eye injuries deteriorate very quickly and the damage can be much greater than visible to the naked eye. If you have a cloudy eye with gunk, then you are already dealing with an ulcerating eye infection; these come up very quickly in a matter of hours. Vets in the UK prioritise eye infections for this reason and will try their best to squeeze them into their busy schedules as soon as possible.
They use a special dye and ultra-violet light to properly assess the damage and will prescribe antibiotic eye drops/gel of the appropriate strength for the damage caused. They may also prescribe a lubricant and some painkiller/anti-inflammatory for both the pain and to help getting in the swelling from the infection down at the start of the treatment.
My Begw on Tuesday with the remnants of the yellow dye after her own vet trip for hay poke. It is healing up very nicely due to having her seen promptly.
If your vet is not giving you any lubricant in addition to the medicated antibiotic drops or gel, then a plain tear gel is more effective than tear drops to help support the healing process in the deeper levels and help with the discomfort and any irritation from antibiotic eye drops/gel on the surface but you always need to wait at least 30 minutes after you have applied the antibiotic eye drops/gel in order to allow them to get fully absorbed. The lubricant is either applied before the medicated eye drops or after a gap but your vet will explain that to you when they discuss the medication and treatment according to the severity of the poke.
You do not need to see an exotics vet; eye treatment and medication is the same as for cats and dogs, so any general vet will do; speed comes before qualifications when it comes to eye injuries. Please contact your closest vets asap first thing in the morning. If you are on universal or other major benefits, then you will qualify for free treatment at a PDSA clinic if one is within your reach.
You can give plain eye drops tonight but they will not reliably heal the infection and your piggy may end up with permanently cloudy eye instead of a fully healed one, like some of my adoptees whose hay pokes had clearly not been attended to properly before they ended up in rescue.
The drops can help with washing the ulcerating gunk out to make tomorrow's diagnosis easier and slow down the infection a little as a bridging measure. When seen promptly and treated correctly, most hay pokes heal up well again with out any major problems.
All the best!
