Raani's eye, a follow up post on eye injuries...

As you know, I posted about eyes a little while ago. It feels like I jinxed it, because just as I posted that, I picked up Raani and her eye was white blueish... Looked like she had something in her eye that damaged it, but as far as I know the blue white color meant it was healing. Of course that meant we had to see our vet and I had to make this follow up post... Since (unfortunately) Raani had so obligingly agreed to demonstrate eye injuries for us ...

Raani eye damage at the vet 

 So, we went to the vet with Raani. I found out about it Wednesday, but it did not look like anything was left in her eye and the vet was really busy. So we had an early morning appointment on Thursday, because we had a wedding in the afternoon where Erwin was best man and I was the person who makes everything go well that day (sort of like a wedding planner). Turned out there was still a bit of hay in her eye (poor girl!)! Our vet tried to get it out, but (of course) it was painful so she tried to sedate the eye with an eye drop. That didn't work and Raani would try to jump up (even though Erwin was pinning her to the table), so the vet obviously did not want to put a pincer near her eye to get the culprit out. So the vet suggested she would give her a bit of gas narcosis to get the thing out safely. So Raani had to stay there. We also took Binky along so he could get used to a trip to the vet, so Binky stayed with her as well. Poor Cookie hates being alone but 3 piggies in a cat carrier seemed a bit much, even if it was for only half an hour. We were optimistic when we went to the vet... 
The vet was also really busy and had a cat that was not doing well at all who needed her attention, so we were getting a bit anxious, because we could not say to the bride and groom that we would be there later... our roles were pretty essential.

Luckily all went well and we could pick up Raani and Binky in time for the wedding. 

 

This was stuck on top of Raani's eye. It was about 7,5 millimeter or 3/4 of a centimetre long.

This is how her eye looked after just a few days of applying the eye salve pictured below. Looks good, huh? I am always amazed at how well piggy eyes heal!

On the package it says it is an antibiotic eye salve with added vitamin A. We had to put a drop of it on her eye 2 to 3 times a day for at least 5 days.

I am glad Raani's eye is looking good again, and hope she or any of my other piggies will not be so willing to demonstrate an injury or ailment again when we write about another in our piggy A-Z.
Mikey, slave to the guinygirlz Raani and Cookie and boar Binky.

Piggy A-Z: E for Eyes

 I don't know about other guinea pig owners, but we had multiple piggies injuring their eyes, by for example running into a pile of hay with their eyes wide open... emerging with a bit of hay sticking out of the eye

Our Roos was one of the best at getting eye injuries, especially on days when the vets are closed, like new year's day. In the picture below she had scraped the surface of her eye. The vet was a bit afraid it might not heal, but after a week (or two) her eye was completely back to normal.

The vet had not seen eye damages like this before so he took this picture:

Luckily, most of the times it is not too hard for piggy eyes to heal. What our vets have always done is apply this coloured fluid onto the eye. They would then flush the eye clean with a bit of water, the yellow colour that remains on the eye shows where the eye is damaged. As you can see in the pigture Roos pretty much scraped the whole surface of her eye...
Depending on how deep/severe the damage is an eye cream containing vitamin A and with or without antibiotic properties is given. We then needed to apply drops of the cream on the eye, and it seems really miraculous, but so far the eyes have always healed real quickly.

Have your piggies ever damaged their eyes? Do your vets treat it the same way?
Slave Mikey

abscesses v. sebaceous cysts

Hello everyone, Otto Piggyfriend here.

First of all a warning. Mieke has added a photo of her late piggy, Toby, to this post. Poor little piggy had a nasty abscess and you can see him after it had been lanced. It looks nasty but it might be useful to see how it looks.

You'll remember recently reading the post about Agent F1 aka Jim's sebaceous cyst. It was on August 3rd. Well, at the very same time I had one too. Mine was on my back and Slave might not have noticed it under all my long hair ( in this pigture I have had a haircut but I usually look like a mop ) but the cyst appeared right in the middle of my parting. Like Jim, I had it attended to by an expert - in my case our Rodentologist.

Slave didn't take any photos of this as she forgot to take her camera along but if you look back at Jim's post, you'll see what it looked like. Our Rodentologist shaved off my coat around the cyst, made an incision in it and then squeezed out all the nasty looking contents. He says that piggy skin is like leather! Our Slave can do this herself but what she cannot do is remove the gland underneath. Without this, there is a chance that the cyst will come back. She watched very carefully as he cleaned the area up and then picked out the gland with a pair of tweezers. I was busy watching the squirrels racing up and down the tree outside our Rodentologist's home so I missed it all and never squealed once. After he had removed the gland, he packed the hole where the cyst had been with Dermisol cream ( this is antiseptic ) and I was given lots of parsley to eat, after which we came home. Slave kept an eye on it but it healed up very quickly and now there is nothing to be seen.

These cysts can appear in different places. Our Petunia once had one underneath near her leg.

An abscess is a much more serious matter. This contains a lot of nasty pus, which is toxic, smells horrible and needs careful removal. Rather than just a small lump, which gets bigger slowly, an abscess can come up overnight and can be huge. They are often around the neck area and, because of their position can cause a piggy trouble when trying to eat. Our Rodentologist lances them when they are ready, being very careful of the contents and usually keeps the piggy patient in the hospital until they are better as, although the pus has been removed, more keeps being produced and it fills up again. Constant draining is needed. Some vets will remove the encapsulated abscess under anaesthetic but our Rodentologist does not want to subject a piggy to anaesthesia unless absolutely necessary as it is so dangerous for us. Sometimes a drain is inserted to keep the hole open so more pus can come out or else the abscess can be lanced again as often as is necessary. It can take a long time for an abscess to clear up completely and sometimes there can be a second one behind the first and maybe a third in a chain.

We may need a lot of syringe feeding during this time until we can eat by ourselves again.

Sometimes piggies can get tooth root abscesses and these are very dangerous and hard to treat.

Toby (one of Mieke's late piggies) had an abscess in his cheek,
it might have been in this tooth root, it was very close at least.

Our Rodentologist does not give antibiotics as an abscess is separate from the rest of the body. The word comes from the Latin meaning that it is walled off.

If any of our readers have had experiences regarding cysts or abscesses, they might like to post about it. It is useful to share information and various treatments.

How to feed baby guinea pigs

In our last friday video you could see baby guinea pigs being fed. We've copied the comment from the Piggyfriends' caretaker (who is very wise and knowledgeable) because it deserves a wider audience. 

"I've hand reared guinea babes, born to mothers who came here pregnant and in such poor condition that they did not have milk for their little ones. Baby guineas cannot co-ordinate suckling and breathing so using a syringe is potentially fatal as they can inhale the milk into their lungs. An eye dropper gives you a little more control but as babes are capable of picking up food from day one, I have soaked some wholemeal bread with their milk and they have taken it from a flat dish. I used evaporated milk diluted 1 part to 3 with water.

You can also use a tiny spoon, angled towards the piggies' mouth, being prepared to move it up if too much is near the mouth. This is OK for one piggy, maybe a runt, but for a litter, I like the bread and milk approach as they can all get stuck in together. Mum can join in too to help with bonding process."



We also tracked down more information:
- Guinea Lynx: the medical reference site for guinea pigs. Note that they don't recommend milk for baby pigs.
- Peter Gurney (guinea pig lover extraordinaire) provides excellent advise in his online book 'the A to Z of Guinea Pigs' under the R from Runts. He also adresses the milk controversy.

As always, we are not vets and if you are worried please consult with a cavy-savy vet.

P.s. Thank you Penny ;-)

Have you cleaned your boar today?

Reading tip! Very important stuff (albeit slightly uncomfortable)

Tips for Your Male Guinea Pig’s Routine Boar Cleanings

Lots of wheeks,
Sjeuf