blind chin?!

Hi all. I was concerned about my 1 and a half year old female chinchilla. I've had her since she was 4 months. Lately i've noticed one of her eyes are gray? Not FULLY but a good portion is gray.. I don't know why. It's her left eye. The other seems perfectly fine.
Her eyes are usually red/brown. I'll attach some pictures. My mom and brother both pointed it out. Then I knew it wasn't just me being paranoid. She acts fine. Eating, drinking, etc. Once when she was eating her hay with her grayish eye on the side where I was. I walked towards her not really making any noise. At the time I didn't think anything was wrong even though it was gray. So I didn't make sure she knew I was there or anything. So I went right up to her cage and tried to give her a scratch as usual. When I did that she kinda freaked out for a second and ran to the other side of the cage. That is quite odd for her. She doesn't do that often. After a second she calmed down when she saw it was me, and let me scratch her.. Just wondering if I should be worried? Even if she WAS blind would I have to do anything differently? I've been taking care of her the same way for over a year. Someone help :help:

To see the pic you have to copy between the

The image won't work because you are linking it directly to your computer. You have to upload it to an image hosting site such as photobucket and post the link that way.

The description sounds like she may be developing a cataract.

is that right? i uploaded it to photobucket.

Is a cataract bad for chins? will she be okay? did i do something wrong?

I would take her to the vet and have it checked. It may be a cataract or it could be an infection. The infection can be treated, the cataract no. A chin will do fine with the loss of vision as long as you are aware of it and work around it.

The grayness has spread to the other eye. Is that normal for cataract? Or should I book a trip to the vet? D:

Is there anything I can do for it? Like eye drops I can buy or something?

The only way to get rid of cataracts is surgery. Blind chins get along fine. However I would take her to the vet just in case as they can be side effects of other diseases such as diabetes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok. I'll take her to the vet. I hope she doesn't have diabetes I only feed her oxbow and hay. And some forever feisty chinchilla treat forage stuff.

Scheduled a vet appointment for today. Hopefully all goes well! Let you know what happens.

Ok.. well. I went to the vet and it was really really bad.. The vet took one look at her eye and was like... Thats..bad. Apparently she has a severe infection from scratching her eye. The damage is in her cornea. He gave her a couple shots, and gave me three antibiotics. He said to give her these eye drops and this liquid drink thingy for 20-30 days twice a day. He also gave me this thing for her digestive system cuz he said the antibiotics kills the good germs in the stomach or something like that. He said if this doesn't work he has to refer me to a specialist, but he said it is NOT cheap. $500 just to GET IT. I can't afford that.. The antibiotics took hundreds of dollars. I'm really sad. I almost fainted when he went on and on about how bad her eye is. I have to go back in a week for a follow up. Please pray for my lil chinny. I want her to be healthy again.

I'm wondering. If nothing works and she doesn't get better? What will happen?! Will she be in pain and be blind forever????

I'm so sorry about the bad news.
I hope the drops work for her. Praying for a speedy recovery. :heart5:

Thank you. <3

Good news! I just got back from the vet. They said her one eye is getting MUCH better! Although her other eye is long gone. They said it's probably going to be a blind eye for the other side. I'm not too worried because I've heard chins are fine with a blind eye. So, one eye close to recovery and one eye gone forever. I love her with or without her eyes <3

That's great that the other eye should have a full recovery!
I hope it continues to improve quickly :heart5: thanks for the update!