Possible Eye Injury, Advice Needed

[KatieM]

Was going to bed and noticed my Spence was looking a little odd (see video) eye watering holding it shut, tilting his head. So I got him out and began examining and comparing his eye to see if he had something in it and then bam a piece of hay came out from behind his eye…umm ouch!


It could have been anywhere from a couple minutes to an hour. He gave a big wheek when the hay piece came out but wasn’t otherwise vocalizing.


Since he’s eating hay and laying with me but his eye is still very red and watery and he’s winking it. Do we think this warrants a vet visit? I’m worried he could have damaged his eye cause that piece of hay does not look friendly!

https://youtube.com/shorts/RMHbnMiduk8?si=7To4pV7fo6azE1BN

 

[KatieM]

Post hay removal

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Poor boy!
Yes, possible eye injuries should always be seen by a vet as soon as possible because they can get really bad very quickly.
I hope there wasn't much damage done. Good luck at the vet!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Yes, he does need to see a vet.
Any haypoke (or other injury to the eye) is considered urgent and always needs to be seen within 24 hours.
The usual treatment for haypoke is antibiotic eye drops and painkillers. We also recommend a repair gel (to be given at an different time to the prescribed antibiotic drops)

 

[KatieM]

Poor boy!
Yes, possible eye injuries should always be seen by a vet as soon as possible because they can get really bad very quickly.
I hope there wasn't much damage done. Good luck at the vet!

Thank you!

 

[KatieM]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Yes, he does need to see a vet.
Any haypoke (or other injury to the eye) is considered urgent and always needs to be seen within 24 hours.
The usual treatment for haypoke is antibiotic eye drops and painkillers. We also recommend a repair gel (to be given at an different time to the prescribed antibiotic drops)

Thank you! I will be calling the vet in the morning to get him in!

Boy am I glad the pig who likes me the most got poked…eyedrops would be hard on any other pig!

 

[weepweeps]

Ouch. Poor Spence. Good luck at the vets.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you! I will be calling the vet in the morning to get him in!

Boy am I glad the pig who likes me the most got poked…eyedrops would be hard on any other pig!

Hi

I am very sorry. Hay pokes are a unfortunately common hazard with giving your piggies an enriched life with romps and naps in the hay.

You may find these links here very helpful and may want to bookmark them; especially if you live in a different time zone to the UK and don't necessarily have quick vet access or live in a country without out-of-hours vet cover:

This is our one stop emergency and crisis care collection with links to all the necessary information for how soon you need to see a vet, seeing vets not experienced with guinea pigs (safe and unsafe medications links) and our crisis care guides, including how to improvise potentially life-saving feeding support:

Thread 'Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment'

Mar 14, 2019

1 Statement
2 Emergency assessment and accessing vets
- How urgent is my guinea pig's problem?
- Finding an emergency vet
- Seeing a vet not familiar with guinea pigs (including lists of safe and dangerous medications)
3 First Aid care and easily available products
- General 'always have at home' stuff and comfort measures for very ill guinea pigs
- Improvising support feed; recovery formulas...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Emergency Information and Care

• 

This is our First Aid Guide which covers a range of the most common scenarios with practical advice until you can see a vet/how quickly to should ideally see a vet:

Thread 'First Aid: Immediate Care Measures and Non-medication Products'

Mar 14, 2019

1 Important Proviso
2 First Aid Kit
- General Items
- Comfort
- Useful to have in stock
3 Illness and Recovery First Aid Tips
- Accessing vet care and when it is too late for help
- Loss of appetite and weight (Feeding support, Recovery foods, digestive aids and rehydration)
- Accident, bites and injury (Wound disinfection and bleeding)
- Eyes and ears
- Breathing
- Acute heart and circulation failure
-...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Emergency Information and Care

• 

All the best for a quick recovery.

 

[KatieM]

Hi

I am very sorry. Hay pokes are a unfortunately common hazard with giving your piggies an enriched life with romps and naps in the hay.

You may find these links here very helpful and may want to bookmark them; especially if you live in a different time zone to the UK and don't necessarily have quick vet access or live in a country without out-of-hours vet cover:

This is our one stop emergency and crisis care collection with links to all the necessary information for how soon you need to see a vet, seeing vets not experienced with guinea pigs (safe and unsafe medications links) and our crisis care guides, including how to improvise potentially life-saving feeding support:

Thread 'Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment'

Mar 14, 2019

1 Statement
2 Emergency assessment and accessing vets
- How urgent is my guinea pig's problem?
- Finding an emergency vet
- Seeing a vet not familiar with guinea pigs (including lists of safe and dangerous medications)
3 First Aid care and easily available products
- General 'always have at home' stuff and comfort measures for very ill guinea pigs
- Improvising support feed; recovery formulas...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Emergency Information and Care

• 

This is our First Aid Guide which covers a range of the most common scenarios with practical advice until you can see a vet/how quickly to should ideally see a vet:

Thread 'First Aid: Immediate Care Measures and Non-medication Products'

Mar 14, 2019

1 Important Proviso
2 First Aid Kit
- General Items
- Comfort
- Useful to have in stock
3 Illness and Recovery First Aid Tips
- Accessing vet care and when it is too late for help
- Loss of appetite and weight (Feeding support, Recovery foods, digestive aids and rehydration)
- Accident, bites and injury (Wound disinfection and bleeding)
- Eyes and ears
- Breathing
- Acute heart and circulation failure
-...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Emergency Information and Care

• 

All the best for a quick recovery.

These piggies teach me something new everyday! Had no idea hay pokes were so common but it makes perfect sense!

Thank you for those links! We don’t have an after hours vet and do live in the UK. But we have two nearby vets I can call who will hopefully see him today!

 

[Piggies&buns]

These piggies teach me something new everyday! Had no idea hay pokes were so common but it makes perfect sense!

Thank you for those links! We don’t have an after hours vet and do live in the UK. But we have two nearby vets I can call who will hopefully see him today!

You say you live in the UK?….Your profile shows you are in the US?

All UK vets have a surgery that covers them out of hours - you just your normal surgery and their answer phone will give you the details of which surgery covers them

 

[KatieM]

You say you live in the UK?….Your profile shows you are in the US?

All UK vets have a surgery that covers them out of hours - you just your normal surgery and their answer phone will give you the details of which surgery covers them

Oh whoops that autocorrected. I am US! Sorry about that

 

[KatieM]

Thank you all for informing me on Hay Stab. Spence and I made our way into the vet, who stained and checked his eye. We got the hat completely out last night but he does indeed have a pretty large ulcer, almost his entire eye! The vet was shocked he wasn’t still winking and acting painful. Although as soon as he got close he freaked out.

Antibiotic eye drops and oral pain meds for the next week until our recheck! Trusting in my boy to get himself all healed up

 

[Gem789]

Thank you all for informing me on Hay Stab. Spence and I made our way into the vet, who stained and checked his eye. We got the hat completely out last night but he does indeed have a pretty large ulcer, almost his entire eye! The vet was shocked he wasn’t still winking and acting painful. Although as soon as he got close he freaked out.

Antibiotic eye drops and oral pain meds for the next week until our recheck! Trusting in my boy to get himself all healed up

Hope Spence is feeling better very soon x

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you all for informing me on Hay Stab. Spence and I made our way into the vet, who stained and checked his eye. We got the hat completely out last night but he does indeed have a pretty large ulcer, almost his entire eye! The vet was shocked he wasn’t still winking and acting painful. Although as soon as he got close he freaked out.

Antibiotic eye drops and oral pain meds for the next week until our recheck! Trusting in my boy to get himself all healed up

Eye injuries deteriorate very quickly but they thankfully also heal up pretty straight forward if caught early enough. It can look rather dramatic but is not uncommon because it can come up to that extent in a matter of just a few hours -- guinea pig eyes are a lot smaller than dog, cat or rabbit eyes, after all.

What I would recommend is to have some carbomer based tear gel at home; any brand will do. It can be applied asap and helps to speed up the healing process. You have to however wait for at least half an hour after applying any medicated eye drops to allow them to be fully absorbed before using the tear gel. But it will also take care of any itchiness/dryness in the wake of any antibiotic eye drop and make the eye feel more comfortable.

All the best. For best application, gently pull down the lower eyelid and aim any drops into the gap - that is what vet nurses do.

 

[KatieM]

Thank you all for informing me on Hay Stab. Spence and I made our way into the vet, who stained and checked his eye. We got the hat completely out last night but he does indeed have a pretty large ulcer, almost his entire eye! The vet was shocked he wasn’t still winking and acting painful. Although as soon as he got close he freaked out.

Antibiotic eye drops and oral pain meds for the next week until our recheck! Trusting in my boy to get himself all healed up

Eye injuries deteriorate very quickly but they thankfully also heal up pretty straight forward if caught early enough. It can look rather dramatic but is not uncommon because it can come up to that extent in a matter of just a few hours -- guinea pig eyes are a lot smaller than dog, cat or rabbit eyes, after all.

What I would recommend is to have some carbomer based tear gel at home; any brand will do. It can be applied asap and helps to speed up the healing process. You have to however wait for at least half an hour after applying any medicated eye drops to allow them to be fully absorbed before using the tear gel. But it will also take care of any itchiness/dryness in the wake of any antibiotic eye drop and make the eye feel more comfortable.

All the best. For best application, gently pull down the lower eyelid and aim any drops into the gap - that is what vet nurses do.

Thank you, I will look into getting those! Yes our vet showed me how exactly to do the drops!

Overall he’s doing great!

 

[Wheekallweek]

Glad he's getting the treatment he needs. He'll soon be feeling better!

 

[KatieM]

1 week later, we went in for Spence’s check up for his eye ulcer from hay poke…and alas, he is not healed yet. Actually you can sort of see the ulcer at the top of his eye with the naked eye

While the ulcer isn’t gone it isn’t covering his entire eye anymore, so the vet felt comfortable keeping him on the same treatment and giving him some time. He has blood vessels appearing in abundance showing that his body is working on it! I had the option to bring him in again in another week or in 2. I felt like he may need more than a week to heal so we will go back in 2! He has eye drops and pain meds to last until then, hopefully he will get cleared then!

Two questions:
1.) Anyone from the US know about the tear gel? I can’t find it but maybe I’m looking for the wrong thing
2.) The vet gave me a bunch of pre-drawn syringes with his meds…I’ve been saving the empty ones thinking these may be good for emergency feeding? Is this a good mL amount or does it need to be bigger?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I'm sorry to hear it hasnt healed yet. Hopefully it will soon.

A 1ml syringe is needed for syringe feeding

 

[Wiebke]

1 week later, we went in for Spence’s check up for his eye ulcer from hay poke…and alas, he is not healed yet. Actually you can sort of see the ulcer at the top of his eye with the naked eye View attachment 265926

While the ulcer isn’t gone it isn’t covering his entire eye anymore, so the vet felt comfortable keeping him on the same treatment and giving him some time. He has blood vessels appearing in abundance showing that his body is working on it! I had the option to bring him in again in another week or in 2. I felt like he may need more than a week to heal so we will go back in 2! He has eye drops and pain meds to last until then, hopefully he will get cleared then!

Two questions:
1.) Anyone from the US know about the tear gel? I can’t find it but maybe I’m looking for the wrong thing
2.) The vet gave me a bunch of pre-drawn syringes with his meds…I’ve been saving the empty ones thinking these may be good for emergency feeding? Is this a good mL amount or does it need to be bigger? View attachment 265927

Try to google for 0.2% carbomer eye gel or look for plain eye drops in a pharamcy or superstore.

 

[KatieM]

I'm sorry to hear it hasnt healed yet. Hopefully it will soon.

A 1ml syringe is needed for syringe feeding

I hope so too!

Thank you…I figured these might be a tad too small!

 

[KatieM]

Try to google for 0.2% carbomer eye gel or look for plain eye drops in a pharamcy or superstore.

Thank you! I’ll do that…I was looking at more of a grocery store type place for them but I’ll go the pharmacy!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I hope so too!

Thank you…I figured these might be a tad too small!

It is a 1ml syringe in your picture so is absolutely fine to use for syringe feeding. Piggies can only take around 0.3ml in their mouths at any one time so you don’t want a syringe bigger than that as it risks pushing too much in in one go