i think my guinea pig is going blind

[inactive.2]

heya all, Jennifer is still going well but I've noticed that she doesn't immediately see food and sometimes walks over the top of it. she only realises that she's on food once she smells and and is like "oh my gosh food under me!". her eyes also look a little whitish which I've noticed as she got older. she's 5 years old and will be 6 early next year. I don't have any pictures because she's quite skittish and I don't wanna frighten her

 

[sport_billy]

hello, sorry to hear this. We had a blond piggy and she managed just fine.

She will use her other senses to navigate, I would always try and keep cage layout the same, so she is used to where things are situated. Sending lots of love to your golden oldie

 

[inactive.2]

hello, sorry to hear this. We had a blond piggy and she managed just fine.

She will use her other senses to navigate, I would always try and keep cage layout the same, so she is used to where things are situated. Sending lots of love to your golden oldie

alright, thank you! we don't change the cage layout and she seems to get around alright.

 

[Claire W]

Aw bless her. My late Emma had cataracts in both eyes causing blindness. You wouldn’t even have known without see the cataracts. She just went about her daily life as normal and even managed to navigate the ramp. I just kept the cage layout the same for her

 

[sport_billy]

alright, thank you! we don't change the cage layout and she seems to get around alright.

They adapt very well. One of our elderly girls went a bit blind also. But could get around fine. They have other senses and rely on sight less than humans do

 

[Wiebke]

heya all, Jennifer is still going well but I've noticed that she doesn't immediately see food and sometimes walks over the top of it. she only realises that she's on food once she smells and and is like "oh my gosh food under me!". her eyes also look a little whitish which I've noticed as she got older. she's 5 years old and will be 6 early next year. I don't have any pictures because she's quite skittish and I don't wanna frighten her

Hi

Please have her vet checked for cataracts, which are not at all uncommon in older piggies. From my own experiences with a fair number of pretty blind elderlies, I do however suspect that more is going on and that the sense of smell could be affected as well in your case because mine - even those with the really bad cataracts always made a beeline for any food and very much compensated with their other senses (smell, hearing and touch (whiskers and paws)). In guinea pigs, sight is the weakest sense but smell and hearing are much stronger and more important than ours because we rely firstly on sight.

Please weigh your girl daily at the same time on your kitchen scales. Hay is making up to 80% of the daily food intake and you cannot control that by eye. This will help you to know whether you need to step in with feeding top up support. Loss of smell is comparatively rare but it can result in loss of appetite.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

 

[Merab]

My Merab was completely blind for the last years of her life.
It didn’t stop her at all.

 

[Freela]

A lot of guinea pigs do get cataracts as they age... one of my past pigs, Sundae, went completely blind with cataracts in her later years. The good news is that guinea pigs have poor vision anyhow, so losing eyesight tends not to bother them that much and they will adjust really well.

 

[inactive.2]

Hi

Please have her vet checked for cataracts, which are not at all uncommon in older piggies. From my own experiences with a fair number of pretty blind elderlies, I do however suspect that more is going on and that the sense of smell could be affected as well in your case because mine - even those with the really bad cataracts always made a beeline for any food and very much compensated with their other senses (smell, hearing and touch (whiskers and paws)). In guinea pigs, sight is the weakest sense but smell and hearing are much stronger and more important than ours because we rely firstly on sight.

Please weigh your girl daily at the same time on your kitchen scales. Hay is making up to 80% of the daily food intake and you cannot control that by eye. This will help you to know whether you need to step in with feeding top up support. Loss of smell is comparatively rare but it can result in loss of appetite.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

her weight is definitely not going down, her weight has been the same or gone up. the blueberries were frozen but I'm not sure if that'd effect the smell. her hearing is good because she hears me from a while away. is loss of smell really really bad? I'll definitely get the vet to check her over when we can, the vet is very old and has been shut a lot during covid. we always feed her plenty of hay, but I didnt know there was a specific amount to feed her (we usually have a large bag or a bale of hay and just grab big chunks from it lol). thank you for the advice :-)

 

[inactive.2]

They adapt very well. One of our elderly girls went a bit blind also. But could get around fine. They have other senses and rely on sight less than humans do

yeah she seems fine, she's a little less active than she used to be but that might also be because she's old and a bit lonely since Sugar died.

 

[inactive.2]

A lot of guinea pigs do get cataracts as they age... one of my past pigs, Sundae, went completely blind with cataracts in her later years. The good news is that guinea pigs have poor vision anyhow, so losing eyesight tends not to bother them that much and they will adjust really well.

yeah I heard that their eyesight isnt super good :o do you think she'd still be okay outside? the indoor cage we have is smallish and I wouldn't really want to limit the rest of her life to a small amount of space without a constant source of grass to eat

 

[Tigermoth]

Timmy went blind for his last few months. I used to have to plop him right in his dinner as he didn’t seem to know it was there. Otherwise he got on beautifully!

 

[inactive.2]

Timmy went blind for his last few months. I used to have to plop him right in his dinner as he didn’t seem to know it was there. Otherwise he got on beautifully!

aww Timmy usually Jennifer just drags all her food into her hut once she knows its there

 

[Piggies&buns]

her weight is definitely not going down, her weight has been the same or gone up. the blueberries were frozen but I'm not sure if that'd effect the smell. her hearing is good because she hears me from a while away. is loss of smell really really bad? I'll definitely get the vet to check her over when we can, the vet is very old and has been shut a lot during covid. we always feed her plenty of hay, but I didnt know there was a specific amount to feed her (we usually have a large bag or a bale of hay and just grab big chunks from it lol). thank you for the advice :-)

Please don’t feed frozen foods to guinea pigs - this can cause tummy upsets. All food should be fresh, not frozen and defrosted and not cooked.

The only way to know a piggy is getting enough hay is via weighing them. The daily food intake is mostly made up of hay ( 80% ) but there isn’t a specific amount, such as a specific weight of hay to give each day.

yeah I heard that their eyesight isnt super good :o do you think she'd still be okay outside? the indoor cage we have is smallish and I wouldn't really want to limit the rest of her life to a small amount of space without a constant source of grass to eat

it’s recommended that when a piggy is single that they are moved indoors so you can keep closer eye on how they are coping being alone and so that you can interact with then more.
As long as the cage is a minimum of 120x60cm that it would be best, if at all possible, to move her indoors.

 

[Freela]

yeah I heard that their eyesight isnt super good :o do you think she'd still be okay outside? the indoor cage we have is smallish and I wouldn't really want to limit the rest of her life to a small amount of space without a constant source of grass to eat

My blind pigs did fine outside (we had a caged enclosure that we used when it was warm enough!) She really did anything that the other pigs did, we didn't restrict her in any way. She might have been freaked out had we put her in an all-new space, but in her cage, in the hallway that we let them have the run of, and in an outdoor enclosure with a companion she was just fine!