Eye surgery for corneal ulcer?

Post Reply
User avatar
mkkayla
Supporter in '14

Post   » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:10 pm


One of my pigs has done a really good job injuring her eye. We noticed her with a teary R eye Sat. morning. Tried to get her into the vet but they were booked. I had some Tobramycin eye drops left over from the last pig who poked her eye with hay so I started using that (I know I probably shouldn't have, but I have a hard time just doing nothing). She went in today and was stained. Half of her eye stained a solid flourescent yellow. The vet said if she were a dog or a cat surgery would have been done today for this, but since she is a GP and anesthesia is so risky she would prefer to try treating it first. So we are continuing the Tobra eye drops and she is on oral Bactrim and metacam. WE go back Saturday morning to see how she is doing. I am still not over Lemonade's post spay death and so I am not comfortable in sending another pig to surgery especially at that clinic. If I am told she needs surgery I will take her to another city, perhaps Nashville, to find a cavy competent vet. Has anyone had this type surgery done on their pigs and if so what was the outcome? What are my chances on getting this to heal without surgery? Also any ideas on how she could have done this, can hay cause this type of injury?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:45 pm


When you say surgery, what were they going to do? Remove the eye?

User avatar
mkkayla
Supporter in '14

Post   » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:39 pm


No, not an enucleation, a repair of the corneal tear. My dog had this surgery done after a cat scratched her eye, unfortunately we lost the eye anyway due to infection-cats claws are really nasty. I just din't know if anyone else had had this surgery done successfully on a cavy.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:26 pm


Grid keratotomy or what? Pretty easy to do in any species. The only unknown is the anesthesia. If the vet isn't very comfy with using gas anesthesia in a cavy, I'd see if anyone else around is. You really can't do this safely with a local and a guinea pig. They need to be out.

I guess you can see how the topical treatment goes. I've never had a bad corneal ulcer in any of my pigs, so personal experience is out for me.

pinta

Post   » Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:41 am


I've had bad corneal ulcers in my pigs and the trick is to make sure they get the AB drops every 2 hours for the first couple of days (even if you have to get up at night to do it). Offhand I can't remember the AB we used but the ulcers healed. Might have been Chlorlean.

User avatar
mkkayla
Supporter in '14

Post   » Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:12 pm


Well, I'm getting discouraged. Her eye doesn't look any better despite the high frequency eye drops. My usual super friendly girl has started trying to get away from me when I show up at the cage. The vet said it would take a while to heal but I was hoping by now I'd be able to see some improvement in her eye. It is still red and angry looking in the sclera and the eye itself still has that white/blue appearance. I hope the stain on Saturday morning proves me wrong and show significant improvement.

pinta

Post   » Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:01 am


There may be debris stuck behiond the eye. A similar thing happened to one of my pigs. After 3 days the eye was not improving and the vet flushed it out finding a frond stuck in the back of the eye. It took about 3 days for it to work itself forward enough to know there was something back there.

She healed up very quickly once it was removed.

User avatar
mkkayla
Supporter in '14

Post   » Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:53 pm


There WAS something still stuck behind her eye. We got it out today, looked like a seed from a seedhead of timothy hay. Her small corneal ulcer has healed but the big one is still there. You can see blood vessels dilated out towards it, which actually makes the eye looks worse, but the vet said it was good since that blood would help the ulcer heal. I don't understand why she didn't continue to tear with that still stuck in her eye, but she hasn't really had teary eyes since the day we discovered it. We are still doing eye drops, atropine, septra and metacam. The good news is that her weight is stable, she seems to be tolerating it all well considering she gets drops in her eyes every 2-3 hours. I need to cut her nails, but I'll just let that go until we get over this. I hope that now I'll see significant improvement in the next few days.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:14 pm


Having that seedhead out will make a huge difference. You should see rapid healing. Can't heal at all with a constant irritant.

User avatar
mkkayla
Supporter in '14

Post   » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:00 pm


Good news today in that the corneal ulcer has completely healed! Unfortunately, she also needed some molar filing under anesthesia. I noticed yesterday that she was having trouble getting and keeping greens in her mouth so on our visit today to recheck the eye, I asked for a thorough tooth exam and sure enough one side was pretty long interferring with normal tongue mobility. She had this done about six months ago, so either she is one of those pigs that needs careful dental monitoring or this eye thing interrupted her normal eating habits enough to allow the teeth to get out of whack. The interesting thing, though, is that her weight has remained stable. Perhaps we caught it very early. Tonight, she was able to eat her veges much better.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:42 pm


Catching it early surely is a very good thing. By the time pigs are struggling eating, they're in some pain and losing weight. I'm glad your vet caught this and you thought to have her checked.

User avatar
Ketus15
Love is a Guinea Pig

Post   » Sat Apr 30, 2005 12:11 am


I'm so glad that her eye is going to heal without surgery. I'm so excited to hear about pigs getting better!

Post Reply