• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Sore skin

W

WobblyPiggy

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
205
Reaction score
124
Points
305
Location
County Durham
Hi,

I have a guinea pig called Butter Ball who has on going eye issues after he had an injury to it. He is blind in one of his eyes now even after treatment, however he doesn't seem in pain and we are reluctant to have it removed due to him being around 5-7 years old. Recently he got conjunctivitis (were unsure but that's what the vet told us) we have been treating it with a combination of warm water on top of his normal eye drops of lubrathal and then some terramycin per the vets advice. He had a lot of white gunk coming out of it at the beginning which meant I had to clean him down between eye drops, but it also lead to him getting crust in his fur, which I tried to keep on top of as best as I could. But now his skin looks sore where I have had to constantly remove crust and gunk. Is there anything I can use to sooth his skin so it is a bit more comfortable for him? And an easier way to remove the crust rather than just warm water?

Thank you in advance for any advice
 
Is your vet an exotics or general one? I’m asking because many general vets don’t have sufficient knowledge about piggies to treat them for something that’s not a run of the mill kind of thing. It sounds like it’s been going on a while, so my thoughts would be to get a second opinion from a different vet, as if it was conjunctivitis, it should have cleared up by now.
 
He is registered as an exotic vet, we're thinking about getting a second opinion anyway as we weren't happy with the treatment previously as it seemed like he was just after as much money as possible. His eye has just about cleared up, there is very little gunk coming out now and I have been able to drop how many times a day he needs his face cleaned. The previous issue was off his cage mate attacking him unfortunately, he managed to bite his eye. I'm just worried from all the washing of his face and having to detangle his fur I'm making his skin sore...he is eating ans drinking and running around and we have metacam in for him just incase.
 
In case you haven’t already found a different vet, there’s a list of them at the top of he page.
 
Thank you, I have just had a look and the vets that we have taken him to is actually on the recommended list, we will have a look into the others, as the vet we saw didn't seem very interested in explaining in any risks of surgery or inform us of anything we would need to change or pick up while he was being treated previously.
 
Sorry to hear that. Always feel free to ask questions when you go - my lovely vet would probably think I was ill if I didn’t bombard her with questions! Hopefully someone else will come along and be able to offer advice about cleaning the gunk from him. I would only use cooled, boiled water to clean with.
 
Thats what I have been doing, just part of his skin looks a bit sore. He thankfully is a very good piggy, unfortunately all the questions we asked just got the same response "it is very risky" while I understand that it is, I was hoping for more elaboration into them and anything that could help reduce them after surgery.
 
I’d want more elaboration too. Let’s hope for a better result with a different vet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top