Injury Bacon's Eye: Swelling, cut!

[BaconAndEggs]

Bacon and Eggs have been squabbling quite a bit recently, but today I went to the cage to find Bacon's eye swollen and cut. I believe that Eggs scratched it in one of their tiffs sometime today. I showed my mother, and we put antibiotic cream(that I read was safe for guinea pigs on the Guinea Lynx website)on the cut at the top of the eye. But on his eye there is the mark of claws.


We are going to take him to the vet tomorrow, as they are closed now.

I have some questions, however.
Is what I did okay for Bacon until tomorrow? Is there something more I need to do?
I didn't want Eggs to bother Bacon or his eye tonight, so I put a coroplast barrier in, because I don't have any extra grids. Was this wrong?
Is there anything, anything at all, that I should know concerning my piggy?

Thank you in advance, and I will post a picture of Bacon's eye shortly.

 

[BaconAndEggs]

Here is the picture of Bacon's eye:

 

[BaconAndEggs]

We will probably be taking Bacon to the vets this morning.

 

[wombats]

Oh dear, poor Bacon...did you take him to the vet yet? Do you know if you can save his eye?

 

[foggycreekcavy]

Oh, good! Let us know how it goes! It's good to get medical attention whenever there's an eye injury.

 

[BaconAndEggs]

We're back from the vet! Turns out it was a scratch, of course, and we got some eye drops to put in his eye. He should be better in a day or two, but he will be completely healed(if all goes well)in about a week. The vet didn't even mention taking it out, so I assume that it wasn't bad enough for that. My old dog, Chunky(now passed)had problems with his eye before he died, and I was the one to put in the five types of eye drops three to four times a day, so I now consider myself an eye-dropper expert.

Unfortunately, the vet advised us to keep Bacon and Eggs separated, at least until Bacon is done with treatment. We assume that it was Eggs who scratched his eye in the first place, because there is not much else that could've done it so bad-I've been seeing scratches near Bacon's eye lately, that I am almost positive came from Eggs. So we are running to Home Depot or Lowes sometime soon to get closet shelving, as I have no extra grids and they have a coroplast barrier between them. I think I'll keep these two separated for a few months, at least until Eggs is out of puberty, and try re-introducing them. Maybe a buddy bath. What is everyone else's opinion on this?

Here is an updated picture of Bacon's eye(the vet informed me that it would take about 24 hours to take affect):

 

[foggycreekcavy]

If it were me I wouldn't separate them. Although even the short time they've been apart might cause problems trying to re-introduce them. If you separate them they'll need at least 2x3 C&C each. How large is your cage right now?

Basic eye lacerations or abrasions usually heal up quickly with antibiotic eye drops.

 

[BaconAndEggs]

At the moment, they have a 2x5 cage. One 2x2.5 each-I will work on being able to expand a grid if this becomes a long-term setup. I do think it might cause problems if I were to re-introduce them in a week or two, because honestly, they seem to enjoy being without each other. They both popcorn and do happy wheeks, and when I first separated them Eggs rejoiced. The thing is, Eggs has really been beating up on Bacon lately-I am seeing scratches on Bacon more recently, and most nights-and during the day-I hear them battling it out.

I am thinking that I could leave them separated for two or three months, able to see and hear each other but not make much physical contact, and then once Eggs has been out of puberty for a few weeks and seems calm, I'll re-introduce them(correctly this time-when I first introduced them I was a naive piggy owner and made just about every rookie mistake in the book)and if they seem to be a little bit on edge, I'll give them a bonding bath and see how that works.

If they end up not liking each other during the re-introductions, I can't let them live alone, so I have a decision to make. But we won't get to that until the time comes. @foggycreekcavy

 

[Morning_shadow]

Thank you for taking your piggie to your vet in a timely manner. It is important for us cavy parents to always be on the lookout with these piggies.