Vision Is his eye okay?

[Lauren0625]

I just got this little one month old guinea pig named Oscar today, and while I was holding him I noticed his eye looked like this. There's a little crusty bits on the top and bottom of his eye. It looked wet underneath, but couldn't feel any wetness. He seems to want to halfway close it a lot, while his other eye stays open and looks healthy. Should I take him to the vet to have him checked out, or will it pass?

 

[bpatters]

Very gently pull his eyelid up/down and see if there's anything stuck up under them. If so, you might be able to gently get it out by flushing it with an eye dropper.

The fact that he's trying to keep it closed says that it's painful. If you don't find anything in the eye that you can wash out, I'd get to him to a vet. He may have a hay poke, and those can get infected and cause the loss of the eye.

Just FYI, if he weren't trying to close it, it might be a blocked tear duct. In that case, very very gently massaging the lower inside corner of the eye can sometimes open that up. But since he's closing it, that's not the problem.