Eyes/Non-crusty Larger, Bluish Eye

[Lady_Magoo]

The past few weeks I thought Red's eye was having issue. I have been monitoring it, but every time I suspected something and held her closer to the light to look at the coloring it always appeared black. She's been acting completely normal, just I have officially confirmed her eye has something wrong with it.

She's eating, playing, and enjoying her life like nothing is wrong. She hasn't beend digging at it, nor has she been trying to blink it, and I have watched Mocha, she's left it alone.

Her eye is slightly larger than the other, and it is bluish, not bitty and black like the other. She has an appointment made at the vets, but I was curious to know what may be wrong with it. My cousin is going to vet school and I sent her a link off my phone (I will try to put it on this forum). She said it may be a hemotoma (spelling?) but she cannot diagnose it exactly, partly due to she does not have her liscense and another factor is she can only go by the picture and make guesses.

She's been drinking water and eating perfectly fine, and is greeting me at the side of her cage like usual for food, and comes running when I give her fresh water...she's a nosey little girl!

What could this possibly be?

 

[Paula]

Hematoma is a realistic possibility, but my first guess would be some sort of glaucoma. Either way, it's a good idea to have a vet check it out.

 

[SFailed186]

Here's her eye:

 

[Paula]

It really looks like glaucoma to me. Glaucoma is usually due to increased pressure within the structure of the eye - I'd think this might be caused by some kind of infection or possibly a congenital defect, since she's young.

I don't want to alarm you, but unless glaucoma is caught early and treated immediately, it can result in permanent loss of vision in the eye. It is also usually a painful condition, though, so it is definitely a good sign that she is still eating and acting normally.

Keep us posted on how the vet visit goes, and good luck to you both!

 

[SFailed186]

We will definitely keep you posted. Thank you for your information!

Do you happen to know what the treatment for glaucoma is like? We'd just like to be as prepared as possible when we get to the vet.

 

[TwilightStar]

Excuse my lack of grammar, I am posting from my phone. Anyways, we took her to the vet today. The vet said is was glacouma and that the pressure in the was very high and she is blind. There is a cosmetic procedure and then there is a option to remove the eye, which we will do if the eye drops she prescribed us do not help. [We wanted to try and avoid the risks of surgery if we can.]We have another appointment sceduled friday morning and we wl measure the progress and do the surgery if it does not help.We have another vet appoint

 

[Paula]

The drops can definitely help to reduce pressure in some cases. It's good that you've got follow up appointments so your vet can measure the pressure in the eye.

Did your vet indicate whether or not the other eye is affected or what might have caused the glaucoma?

 

[TwilightStar]

The drops can definitely help to reduce pressure in some cases. It's good that you've got follow up appointments so your vet can measure the pressure in the eye.

Did your vet indicate whether or not the other eye is affected or what might have caused the glaucoma?

They said the other eye is fine, and they didn't really mention what caused it but did say it could be a birth defect. Our vet appointment Friday will determine when we need to schedule the surgery because she said the eye drops will only be a short term solution.
Lyla is very healthy otherwise, and is eating and drinking and moving normal.

 

[kathlaaron]

They said the other eye is fine, and they didn't really mention what caused it but did say it could be a birth defect. Our vet appointment Friday will determine when we need to schedule the surgery because she said the eye drops will only be a short term solution.
Lyla is very healthy otherwise, and is eating and drinking and moving normal.

I just wanted to wish you luck on your Friday appointment ! So sorry about your piggies eye....but I am so glad to hear she is healthy otherwise ! My daughter ( who is 10 is asking for computer time....I have been hogging it lately...so must go...and let her have some time now...) Wish you and your piggie well ! Have a good evening !

 

[SFailed186]

I would like to add that the eye drops that Lyla was prescribed are called Timolol. She was prescribed one of the lowest strengths of it, which is apparently rare to be prescribed, even for people. Out pharmacist called at least five other pharmacies and no one had the drops, so we had to have them ordered. She gets them and her first dose tomorrow. She will have a total of three doses before she gets her eye pressure checked on Friday morning, and I truly hope that it is enough to make a difference.

 

[TwilightStar]

Her eye looks smaller to me, and the vet said that results would be immediate.
Perhaps it is only wishful thinking, though. The surgery worries me as I am aware of the risks to small animals. The Vet who will be performing the surgery has done successful surgeries on guinea pigs before, so that is a little more reassuring.

 

[SFailed186]

We just got back from Lyla's second vet appointment a little while ago and I have wonderful news! At this point in time, Lyla no longer needs her eye removed! On Wednesday, the amount of pressure in her left eye was 36 and the normal amount is around 10-15. Today, her eye pressure was at 10! So, the eye drops have helped tremendously.

Her eye will never shrink down to normal size, nor regain the vision, but unless the eye drops begin to fail for some reason, she is healthy. She will need to remain on the eye drops for the rest of her life, providing that they continue to help. Since she cannot blink her eye all of the way, she will need human tear replacement drops once a day if we notice her eye getting dry.

 

[Paula]

Good! I hope the drops continue to work for her. She's definitely in good hands.

 

[Sirene]

That is GREAT news!

 

[SFailed186]

Thank you so much, Paula, I really appreciate that!

And I am so very proud of Lyla! She did wonderful.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words!

 

[TwilightStar]

Any specific tear replacers you reccomend? The vet told us that we need to buy some so her eye lid doesn't dry out, since her eye lid can't cover her eye. He said no visine but didn't say a specific brand.

 

[SFailed186]

I am sorry we have not updated recently, but here is a little updated.

Lyla's eye drops have been going very well. She gets them at 3AM and 3PM on weekdays and 8AM and 8PM on weekends due to my sisters and my work schedules. Our vet advised us that this would not be a problem. The pressure would slightly go up in her eye until she got the next drop, but it would quickly drop again. She does not show any signs of pain or discomfort at all and is acting very normally. Her next appointment is on the 21st where they will check the pressure in her eye once more to make sure they are still helping. She will have periodic check-ups (probably monthly) to monitor the pressure. If the drops stop working, she will be put on another medication (maybe) until they stop working too. If we cannot control the pressure with medication, we will have to have her eye surgically removed.

We will have more information next Monday.

 

[Deb's4Pigs]

Two of my boss' cocker spaniels had glaucoma from having a new lens put in. Anyway when the glaucoma got to bad and they lost their sight in that eye they had it ablated(sp). Took everything out that was in the eye so it was just a shell.

Jenny had the lens in both eyes so she had it in both eyes and in her second eye she had to have pressure tests every couple hours. She was the longest seeing dog with the disease.

For the life of me I can't remember what drops she was given.I was hoping I could help but I just can't remember what the drops were.

 

[SFailed186]

They told us about a cosmetic procedure that would removed the lens and what-not so we could keep the eye, but they said it wouldn't actually cure anything... The pressure would still be there unless they removed everything. The pressure in her eye was so great that her lens is actually displaced. Our vet told us the most common anti-pressure medication is some derivative of what we have, which is Timolol Maleate. It goes by other names such as TimOptix and several others. Other names usually have added medications.

 

[Deb's4Pigs]

Maybe with guinea pigs it's different but there was nothing left in the eye to worry about pressure. Maybe they can't do exactly the same procedure.

Is it only the one eye? I hope.

Malacev(sp)? I don't think that's right. Jenny's other eye actually went into remission.