Guinea pig eyes swollen. Please help!

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nightwolf0215

Post   » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:00 pm


Hi everyone, I just adopted a new male guinea pig. After a few days I noticed his left eyes are slightly less open than his right eye, which is seems completely healthy. I took a closer look and felt that his left eyelids are swollen with a bit of hair loss in the front area close to his nose. There seems to be tiny lumps on his eye lids that feels hard to touch (harder than regular skin). Other than the eye, his behavior seems completely healthy. Still plenty of energy to run around playing with other cage mates and a healthy appetite to match.

I live in Vietnam, and have called all the vets around here. None of which seems to be familiar with guinea pigs at all. So I did my research and think it might be conjunctivitis but not 100% sure. I have been administering eye drops with gentamycin since yesterday.

What would be my best course of action here? Just want to be sure my piggie will be ok.

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bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:56 pm


I would think the gentamycin eye drops would be a good thing as long as they're actually ophthalmic drops.

Gently roll his eyelids up/down and make sure there's no hay stuck under there.

nightwolf0215

Post   » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:04 am


Thanks for the advice bpatters. I rolled up his eyelid and there seems to be no hay underneath. The drops are for them so I think it'll be ok.

I do notice he has a tendency to scratch that area of his face with his back claws. Maybe that's what causing the swelling? Im not too sure. I'll keep using the gentamycin on him for now. He's still eating and energetic, although a little scared of his treatment at this point.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat Jun 16, 2018 11:07 am


He could have a concurrent mite infection. Ivermectin is available pretty much worldwide, so you should be able to find it there. I'd treat him for mites.

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CavyDad
Supporter in 2018

Post   » Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:58 pm


When doing eye drops, our vet recommends doing the treatment for 3 weeks as opposed to 2. In her experience, the infection seems to come right back when you stop after 2 weeks. In some instances, I've been told to treat the healthy eye too as a preventative measure, but if you do that, you really need to make sure you don't accidentally touch the eyes with the bottle of drops.

nightwolf0215

Post   » Sun Jun 17, 2018 12:08 am


Thanks for the support. I've been treating him with the drops and notice more carefully that the area around the eye looks like it has some sort of fungal infection. Hard to get a picture of up close, but its like this:

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The dandruff like stuff in present. And everymorning, there seems to be a slight bloody discharge from his eyes. Should I start treating him with miconazole cream as well?

nightwolf0215

Post   » Sun Jun 17, 2018 12:33 am


Sorry for the double post. I managed to snap a few pics of the affected area and figured it might help.

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bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun Jun 17, 2018 12:34 am


Yes, you can use the miconazole. Just be careful not to get it in his eyes.

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Kimera

Post   » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:16 am


It looks like a very typical fungal infection. In guinea pigs it is quite often centered around eyes, then stretches towards the nose and mouth. There may also be isolated patches on ears, abdomen or even the back.
Good food, vitamins, stress free surroundings and clean and dry bedding are the most important factors in treating fungal infections. Medication is only a half of the treatment, the other half is strenghtening the immune system by proper nutrition and lack of stress. Guinea pigs are very nervous and timid animals.

nightwolf0215

Post   » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:47 am


Thanks all for the kind advice.

I just want to quickly update so maybe the next person can find some helpful info.

I got him June 13 and started noticing the swollen area June 15. So I started treating him routinely from June 16 with first padding the infected area with natri clorid 0.9% follow by gentamycin drops 3-4 times a day. I ceased treatment after 10 days because the skin area looks better. July 5th (19 days since first treatment) I started seeing hair growing back in the affected skin area.

As Kimera mentioned about diet, I suspect his diet wasn't good enough before I picked him up. At my home, he's been given fresh lettuces, bell peppers, and other fresh veggies to boost his C intake. Unlimited timothy hay. Clean cage and regular cleaning of course. Even during the infection, he was energetic and always hungry.

Now that his skin is healed, his only problem is being horny. XD

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:16 am


Thanks so much for the update and summary. Glad to hear he is doing well.

Let me know if you'd like your photos added permanently for future readers.

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