When my husband and I adopted a friend for our guinea pig Venice, we didn't find out until later that evening that she was at least partially blind. She was the smallest baby guinea pig I'd ever had (My eighth; his first). We got her at petland and we've both agreed we will never buy from there again. She was probably born with her eye condition, and she was so young she couldn't properly digest solid food. She also didn't have a significant immune system, as evidence when she developed both a severe ear infection and resperatory infection.
I'd never had a guineapig that sick, she was emaciated, her nose crusted over, and she was so congested she was gasping for air and unable to make any noise.
We took her to the vet as soon as we could and she was put on antibiotics, by then her head was tilted from the ear infection (she could only turn left) and she was having eye spasms from brain damage (the infection had reached her brain).
This all sounds really horrible except that she survived. She's a few months old now, no resperatory infection, no ear infection, and she's grown.
The only thing she holds with her is her tilted head ( still turning left, and we suspect deaf in that ear), and we suspect brain damage, it seems she has to re-learn our scent all the time, also she gets overwhelmed easily, if she does get overwhelmed she'll start spasming until she's back in the cage, there's no calming her down. She's now fully blind, you can obviously see it, her eyes are completely white. We named her Lilly because of Monet's water lilly painting that he painted when he was blind.
My question now is does anyone have any tips for caring for a blind and partially deaf guinea pig? She runs from our hands when she's in the cage, but once you catch her she stretches, yawns and purrs. She's really sweet and we love her to death. Her cage mate Venice is very protective of her.
My concern is that she sits in one place all day unless she needs food or water, or unless she and Venice start running around. I worry that she's unhappy, and that she's excreting where she sits all day. Any advice? I want to give her the best life possible.