Eyes/Non-crusty Little Bear's ouchie eye

[4boipigs]

I feel like his eye is a lot worse and decided to book an emergency vet appt. I can see blood vessels in his pupil, and I'm guessing it's a large ulcer I'm seeing. Depending on cost, I think I'm ready to have it removed...this will be the 4th visit for his eye.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

My boys send their wheeks and grumbles of support for Little Bear. It's pretty obvious that he gets the love and care from you that he's never gotten elsewhere in his life.

The nasal discharge could also be from his eye as well. Has he had skull xrays done, just out of curiosity? I can't remember.

The reason I ask is that you may recently remember Smokey, the little guy who had his eye removed and never fully recovered. His issue was a deep inner ear infection, which in turn affected his eye and he also developed nasal discharge after the eye removal. A lot of this information just never made it into Smokeys thread as a lot of it was during private conversations between myself and Smokeys dad.

 

[4boipigs]

My boys send their wheeks and grumbles of support for Little Bear. It's pretty obvious that he gets the love and care from you that he's never gotten elsewhere in his life.

The nasal discharge could also be from his eye as well. Has he had skull xrays done, just out of curiosity? I can't remember.

The reason I ask is that you may recently remember Smokey, the little guy who had his eye removed and never fully recovered. His issue was a deep inner ear infection, which in turn affected his eye and he also developed nasal discharge after the eye removal. A lot of this information just never made it into Smokeys thread as a lot of it was during private conversations between myself and Smokeys dad.

They suggested a CT scan during the May visit. I'm going to ask for pricing on everything and decide what to do. I want to make things right, but also at his suspected age, I don't want to do a whole bunch of stuff either.

I guess the pic didn't attach so here it is again. In the upper right of the eye, you can see how red it is.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Yes, it does look pretty nasty. Other than his eye he sounds pretty darn healthy to me. I know you will do what's right for him. Fingers are crossed on my end for everything to work out.

 

[4boipigs]

We are home now and the vet thinks we should just remove his eye. It is recessed and has a lot of gunk. (I suspected it was recessed but not sure.) This time we saw the doctor who helped Bruin. Haven't seen her since he was pts. I opted to do the culture that our other doctor suggested, which can take a couple weeks to get back. We'll be able to see what bacteria is causing this, and get the right meds since the 'usual' eye meds aren't helping. Otherwise, if/when we remove the eye, the eye can be sent off for testing. The CT scan would cost as much as removing L Bear's eye, so...idk. I'm totally okay with removing his eye. He can't see anyway. It's the surgery that worries me. The vet said he is most likely in pain, so he needs to stay on meloxicam. Waiting on a quote for eye removal right now.

I can't afford both the CT scan and the eye removal, so now that two vets have told me to remove the eye, may just do that.

I do have carecredit and would LIKE to do the CT scan because I'd like to see what there is, but with my senior dog having his own issues, I don't want to stretch myself too thin. Aside from his eye, Little Bear is happy as can be.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Sounds to me also, that the most prudent course of action would be to remove the eye that's causing a problem. From what I've seen recovery from that surgery is usually a couple of weeks.

He can't see out of it anyway and it's causing him pain so removing it is the sensible thing to do.

 

[4boipigs]

Gimbly doesn't seem to feel well now. To clarify, he always comes with Little Bear to the vet. Gimbly stayed in the carrier the whole time. We were at the vet for maybe 1.5 hours. I didn't give them food in the carrier this time, since the last two times the doctor wanted to look at L Bear's teeth and had a hard time since he'd been snacking. Once we were on the way home, I gave them hay I'd brought in a baggie. Gimbly came out of the carrier for his treat, but once in the cage he ignored the treat and went to sleep. I tried to give him some celery and he's only eaten a little bit. Little Bear is acting fine. Normally Gimbly would finish eating first, and then start trying to steal L Bear's food. My AC is not working well in my car, but maybe it got too hot for them anyway? I do have Critical Care if I need to force feed...of course I hope he just gets over this. The house is at like 76 which is normal for us, and no one else is having issues.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Oh, I do hope it's just the heat, and he'll come around later. Ignoring treats isn't great, but I've had pigs do it before and come around later.

 

[4boipigs]

Gimbly was puffed up in a tunnel before we went to the vet, but I didn't think anything of it. Maybe he was feeling unwell before we left. He did eat pellets this morning with Little Bear. Gimbly ate a blueberry and a little bit of celery, but otherwise he doesn't want anything and he's nesting in the hay. He did nibble a bit at it.

So I have Critical Care. I can force feed him. There's 2 ERs near me if I have to go, along w/ our regular vet. I also work at a vet, but I highly doubt my vet will know what to do for him. I'm not sure if I should watch him tonight and decide in the morning or stress him out with another trip. I work tomorrow, but I'll call out if I have to.

I just feel overwhelmed and not sure what to do.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I feel your pain. I don't know if this will help you or not, but I always chose to err on the side of caution. It's hard to know what to do in the beginning because sometimes they just seem off but it may be nothing. I have been dealing with something like that with Simon for the last ten days.

Puffed up and not eating, especially favourite treats is usually a giveaway. I would take him in if he were mine.

 

[4boipigs]

Good news! I offered him some carrot pieces and he snatched them away from me. He is now eating hay with Little Bear. Gimbly hasn't yet been to the vet at all since he's been with me, so I'll have to make a check up appt for him as early in the day as I can, so this doesn't occur again. I also watched this Saskia video and it was helpful for in the future - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Ptdx2HfnM

 

[4boipigs]

I emailed the vet to follow up on a quote for eye removal (they take their sweet time which I don't understand, because where I work it doesn't take too long to ring up a surgery quote). I also emailed a lot of questions. When it was eye drop time last night, his eye was sealed shut with gunk and I got scared when I couldn't clear it and get his eye open. It has never been that nasty before. I paid $400 altogether yesterday for the culture on his eye/nose, but honestly now I feel like I should do the eye removal.

Aside from his eye, he is normal and active, so I'm hoping there wouldn't really be surgery complications.

Either way I have to see how much the quote is first.

Other people's eye removal stories are scary, but since we been going here for almost a year, I'd hope I could trust them to do this.

 

[4boipigs]

Is this bad poop? I have to link to reddit since it doesn't want to coorperate...

https://www.reddit.com/r/guineapigs/comments/osck54/is_the_poop_on_the_bottom_bad_diarrhea_or_just/

If I had to guess, I'd say this is from Gimbly. He has pointy poop on and off. Perhaps the possible heat stroke from the other day affected him more than I thought. Both boys are acting totally fine. There is also plenty of normal poop.

Maybe from veggies also, since they got a little bit more than they should have recently.

Or is it just poop that was stepped on?

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Bottom left is definitely diarrhea. It's not quite liquid, but I would monitor him closely if you find more of it.

The green colour also possibly indicates too much veggies.

 

[4boipigs]

Bottom left is definitely diarrhea. It's not quite liquid, but I would monitor him closely if you find more of it.

The green colour also possibly indicates too much veggies.

That may be from my flash

I just gave them some romaine lettuce earlier so that won't help...Chico and Amigo are okay, so I'm guessing I have an isolated event for one of these two.

My AC is not working in my car at all today so I really hope we don't have to go anywhere. It is 100 degrees for at least another week. I'll use uber if I have to.

 

[4boipigs]

Found some more this morning, along with normal pellets. Neither boy looks like he has a dirty rear. I'll withhold veggies for a couple days. Both are acting just fine. It is soft and mushy, but not really wet and it doesn't smell.

I really think it is coming from Gimbly, however I am having to give Little Bear meloxicam again like the doctor wants as she thinks his eye is painful. It didn't cause this with Bruin, and in the past with Little Bear he didn't have issues. I was also given ciprofloaxacin drops for his eye while we wait for his culture (use every 8 hours until the eye is rechecked).

I'll just keep on eye it for now since they're both doing well.

 

[4boipigs]

Well here is Little Bear's estimate. I'd asked them about the CT scan as it was mentioned before, so I don't know if I NEED it before the surgery. If that's the case, I can't do this for him. I have Carecredit, but with student loans in the future, there's just no way I could pay both. IF the CT scan isn't required, then I can do it. I need to call later and ask. I'll worry about that later.

I guess if it was bad enough, I can go to Chico and Amigo's vet to see what they think, but they are probably going to cost more.

I am saving up money, but $2500 would take a while.

But first we will see what the culture that we did last week brings back.

 

[bpatters]

I don't see any need for a CT scan, myself. What could it possibly tell the vet about that eye, which obviously needs to be removed? I'd also skip the radiologist. Your vet probably sees enough x-rays to be able to read it him/herself.

 

[4boipigs]

I don't see any need for a CT scan, myself. What could it possibly tell the vet about that eye, which obviously needs to be removed? I'd also skip the radiologist. Your vet probably sees enough x-rays to be able to read it him/herself.

I imagine they're adding on everything as a 'just in case' sort of thing - like, is the radiologist available that day, or are they going to have to come in. I think they have an outside radiologist come in. I had a similar discussion with them back when they wanted to do a cardiac work up on Bruin, and they needed to have a cardiologist come to read something they wanted done.

 

[bpatters]

Generally, they send x-rays out to a radiologist. It's a matter of transmitting a digital picture to another location. Ditto cardiology consults. The expert doesn't normally come to the vet's office at all.

My vet always gave me a choice on having a radiologist read x-rays. We made a deal. If he looked at them and saw something he thought was significant but couldn't identify, then he could send them on to a radiologist. Otherwise, we went with his reading of them. That saved me a lot of money over the years.