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terramycin eye ointment? safe for guinea pigs?

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lesleydunn

i have one guinea pig who i thought had got a draught in her eye because of windy conditions in the run, her eye then turned a cloudy colour and what i thought was yellow discharge turned out to be a bit hay stuck in her lower eyelid:0
i removed the bit of hay, and her eye seems to be improving, cloudiness is slowly going away, her eye does look kind of dry though.

I have another little guinea pig about 16 wks old, and one of her eyes looks slightly smaller than the other one:{ no obvious discharge coming from it, and they are in no draughts, and they are eating fine, she does sneeze a little bit, and sometimes a bit of a runny nose.

could this be dust from hay? i use newspaper and hay. other 3 guineas are fine, no runny nose, no eye problems. all are running about and eating/drinking well.

have been advised to rinse eyes out with optrex, and then use terramycin antibiotic ointment on their eyes?

will this be ok? or will affect gut flora etc?

was also recommended to use some vicks in hot water in a bowl to help runny nose? would this help?:{

any advice would be great, dont want to give anything harmful,
 
Also: if she has a runny nose, goopey eyes and is sneezing you might want to get her to the vet ASAP to make sure she doesn't have a URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) they can get pretty serious and even deadly pretty quickly so the sooner you have her treated the better.

http://www.guinealynx.info/emergency.html#uri
 
she doesnt have goopey eyes, runny nose & constant sneezing

one of her eyes is slightly smaller than the other, and she occasionally has the odd sneeze which results in a bit of a runny nose. shes not chesty or wheezy

it was a friend who has kept guinea pigs suggested the vicks and the terramycin ointment
 
An occasional sneeze is normal, piggies are quite prone to hayfever-type sensitivities when they burrow around in their hay and get a bit of dust or hay up their nose!

My initial thought about Terramycin eye ointment was it is ok given topically, but not orally. I would have to double check this though.
However I can recommend an alternative, one I know is on the safe list - Optrex Infected Eyes. It contains chloramphenicol, which is what the vets would usually prescribe, and is available over-the- counter (sold for humans, obviously!). I used this on my young sow earlier this year when she was bitten on the eye by her cagemate; it was not a serious wound, but there was a visible scuff mark and the eye was cloudy. Two days of the Optrex and it was back to normal, although I continued to treatment for the full 5 days to be sure.

Could you perhaps post a photo of the young guinea with one eye smaller than the other?
 
I have owned a number of pigs over the years that have had either one or both small eyes.
For want of a better description the normal eye would be like a saucer and the smaller eye giving a rather "piggy" appearance ie like a real pig!
I can only assume that this is a normal, genetic variation.
 
i will take a pic of the baby, and post here to see.

i have bought the optrex drops and will use them, read other reports on the internet, that terramycin may not be suitable, so will not be using them.

I'm also changing the bedding as the hay is soo dusty its actually giving me asthma like symptoms because of the dust. I'm changing to a horse type bedding thats been recommended that nearly dust free, and alot more economical.

thanks for replies!^)
 
Terramycin is a form of Tetracyline which is suitable to use on guinea pigs.
A look on Google shows that Terramycin eye ointment is safe.
The usual OTC drug of choice is chloramphenicol, just do not tell the sales assistant that is for animal use, otherwise they will not sell it to you.
 
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