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tips on administering eyedrops?

jennag446

jennag446

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yesterday, i took my piggie to the emergency vet because her eye had completely turned a bluish grey color overnight. it was caused by some hay getting stuck behind her eye, which unfortunately caused a fairly large corneal ulcer. luckily, the vet said that the ulcer is pretty superficial which gives her a better chance at recovering, and sent us home with some eye drops and pain meds. my piggie will be following up with her primary vet next week. my piggie is VERY stubborn and skittish. i’ve been doing my best to administer the eye drops, but i feel like i’m wasting so many drops before actually getting one into her eye. does anybody have any advice on how to do this as quickly as possible? i’m scared that i’ll be out of drops before my follow up appointment because of how many it’s taking to finally get one into her eye. she is receiving them every 4-6 hours, so pretty frequently.
 
Do you have someone that can help you?
It’s easier is you have someone to hold piggy and then you have two hands free - one to hold the eyelid open and then the other to administer the drops

If you have to do it yourself (which I do - my husband is no good with my animals!), then I position piggy on the floor between my legs with their head pointing away from me. I use one hand around the front of piggy to stop them from
Being able to move forward. I use the same hand to hold eyelid open. My dominant hand is then free to administer the drops.
That does make it sound easier than it is but it’s a method I’ve found that works with all types of medicating.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Do you have someone that can help you?
It’s easier is you have someone to hold piggy and then you have two hands free - one to hold the eyelid open and then the other to administer the drops

If you have to do it yourself (which I do - my husband is no good with my animals!), then I position piggy on the floor between my legs with their head pointing away from me. I use one hand around the front of piggy to stop them from
Being able to move forward. I use the same hand to hold eyelid open. My dominant hand is then free to administer the drops.
That does make it sound easier than it is but it’s a method I’ve found that works with all types of medicating.
Click to expand...
thank you, i’ll definitely try this! i’ve been kinda of burrito-ing her, she still finds ways to be difficult though! my sister is available, but not a great option since she gets very squeamish when she has to hold any of the guinea pigs.
 
I recently had to give a (very wriggly) pig eyedrops, I ended up finding that if I sat in a chair that could tilt slightly backwards, he'd sit still on my chest and I could hold his left eye open with the first two fingers of my left hand. After a bit of practice on my part I could get the drop immediately into the centre of his eye.

I got lucky because I expected him to wriggle more - and maybe chasing the eyedrops with the metacam helped - but as I live alone it was easier on us both if I did it with him on my chest.

Any way you do it, it's okay if it doesn't work at first. It's hard work even for just one drop, please don't be discouraged if it takes a while to work the routine.
 
I've found the easiest way for me is to sit piggy across my lap facing my right hand, put my left arm against piggys side holding piggy against my body, open eye with my left hand and administer drops with my right. You will find the way that suit you it's just a bit fiddly and difficult at first, and takes some practise.
 
I've found bribing them with lots of fresh grass/veggie treats works well too. For me the hardest past was keeping them still whilst the drops absorbed enough not to roll straight off their eye.

When I've had to do it by myself I sit down and bring my knees up to my chest, then put them inbetween some towels on my stomach, so they're at the right angle for eye drops. I've found they wriggle less because they're less exposed this way. Bizarre technique, but it worked every time for me :)
 
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