Persistent Eye Infection - Information

[PooperPiggies]

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this post because I couldn't find anything about it when I needed this information, so I'm hoping it will help someone in the future. I'm not a vet and this is not intended to replace any medical advice.

My guinea pig, Crumble, loves to shove his entire face in hay - not an uncommon behavior for guinea pigs, I know. But one day, I noticed the corner of his eye was a little red and swollen.



I took him to the vet, they made sure his eye wasn't scratched and they suspected an infection, he got antibiotics and was sent home. He got better, (picture below)
but then worse again as soon as the course of antibiotics was over.



So I returned, and got anti-inflamatory drops to try instead of the antibiotics. Again, he got better, but worse again when the medication stopped. Rinse and repeat with different antibiotics and combinations of antibiotics and anti-inflamatories.

This went on for several months. At times the swelling was bad, at times it was practically nonexistent, but it never seemed to bother him at all. Eventually I and his vets decided that if he wasn't bothered by it, wasn't losing weight, was still eating, and no medication was helping, he could just coexist with this condition, since it seemed that no harm was being done. We settled for thinking it was a very mild allergy to hay or something.



Some six months after the first occurrence, I changed my mind when I found my piggy's eye slightly bleeding.



After months of researching every other day, the closest thing I could ever find to what he had was "cherry eye", which apparently dogs have, but I couldn't find anything about it for guinea pigs. Since I had been to the vet often enough to know they would just want to give him antibiotics or something, I called a non-exotic vet I knew to get their opinion. Again, I was told that it would subside, and if it didn't seem to bother him, it should be fine... but this vet recommended that since a hay allergy was suspected and he stuck his face in hay constantly, that I could try rinsing his eye with eye wash every day to see if that would help.

So, I bought some pet-safe eye wash, and sprayed his eye (which he hated). On day 1, it was fine. On day 2, his eyelid seemed red, and I sprayed it again... On day 3, I sprayed eye wash into his (seemingly clean) eye, and suddenly a small piece of hay appeared. It was stuck to his eye, not poking it or anything, and it seemed like a softer piece. I sprayed his eye again a couple of times to get the piece of hay out. I kept spraying once a day for another week, then once every other day, for good measure, but the swelling was gone and it hasn't come back since. I'm sure it was probably bothering him, and I hate that it took so long for me to figure it out, but I just wanted to share Crumble's story in case anyone else ever finds themselves in this situation and can't figure out what is bothering their piggy's eye - it could be a piece of hay under their eyelid.


(This is Crumble months later - and six months after it all went down, his eye is still perfectly fine).

 

[fluffysal]

Welcome to the forum, you are correct that shared experiences broaden the knowledge base. I think I remember @Betsy experienced something similar

 

[piggieminder]

Both Duck and Freddie have had problems with hay stuck in the eye. Duck had a large seed head stuck behind the eye ball and Freddie had a very fine hair like piece of hay under the upper lid. As well as the usual combination of Anti Biotic drops and eye gel the vet advised me to rinse with saline solution 2 times daily. In both cases the hay was washed out in about a week. Freddie now has cherry/fatty eye in the eye that had the hay, it is common in guinea pigs, it is not known whether Freddie's is as a result of the hay or just a coincidence as it has appeared a year later.

 

[Wiebke]

Both Duck and Freddie have had problems with hay stuck in the eye. Duck had a large seed head stuck behind the eye ball and Freddie had a very fine hair like piece of hay under the upper lid. As well as the usual combination of Anti Biotic drops and eye gel the vet advised me to rinse with saline solution 2 times daily. In both cases the hay was washed out in about a week. Freddie now has cherry/fatty eye in the eye that had the hay, it is common in guinea pigs, it is not known whether Freddie's is as a result of the hay or just a coincidence as it has appeared a year later.

Fatty eye is not a result of an infection. It is simply the lower lid tissue losing a little of its tension, sagging away from the eye surface and exposing healthy pale conjunctiva underneath the eye when gravity is taking over. It can affect one or both eyes. There may or may not be a genetic determination behind it but it is more often connected with the normal ageing process and is nothing to worry about.

Currently my Begw is the one who has it rather strongly on both eyes but she is turning 6 years this month and has had it for about 3 years now. As you can see, there is no sign of swelling or ciliary blood vessels visible in the conjunctiva. The healthy colour of the conjunctiva tissue can vary a little with the skin colout in that area but it should be the same as in unexposed parts.

 

[Rinoa]

My guinea pig got this in october 2018 and i made a video about it. Just posted it. Its called conjuctuvitis/fatty eye/pink eye. A piece of thier eyelid skin kinda hangs down. I google eye medicine and tried some simple eye drops i got that might have made it worse, then went to doc and got proper eye medicine (neo poly dex opthalmic suspension). These were eye drops easy to use. It went away in 7 days.

In dec 2023 she got this fatty eye again. Right away i went to vet and told them the same medicine i used before 5 years ago so they prescribed the same thing but this time it was a paste instead of eye drops (maybe they ran out) and sure enough it went away a 2nd time around in 10 days or less. she never got it again.

I believe some guinea pigs are predisposed to this because i had 4 guinea pigs over 6 years and callysto was the only one who got this. It wasnt a hay poke or not enough vitamin c none of that. they all ate the same hay, pellets, veggies, had same amount of floor time, nothing she could have hit her eye on...just randomely out of nowhere i see this pink skin appear.

 

[Rinoa]

Meant to put conjuctuvitis/pink eye.....fatty eye is something else guinea pigs get at an old age and apparently its normal. you can see clear difference between pink skin hanging down and whitish fatty circular part by the eyes which is fatty eye.