eye crusted shut

[Kendra n Charlie]

I dont know that this is a true emergency but I'd like some advice until I can get him to the vet. If you think I should take him to an emergency vet there are a few exotic emergency vets in the area. I scheduled an appointment for Monday as my usual vet is closed Sunday.

I usually talk to the chins every day but yesterday was an exception, I worked all day and was tired when I got home. I got home from work today and went over to pet charlie. His eye is gummed shut. It was fine 2 days ago so it had to have happened over the evening, and he wasn't having discharge issues prior. He has a cage mate Remy. Remy has had discharge every now and again but has been cleared up for the past few weeks. I check almost every day since sometimes it's white. (He's been to the vet and they just told me to put drops in it). I've separated the 2 in case it was due to a scuffle, they kakk at each other alot during grooming, but I haven't seen any actual fighting.

I tried to wipe his eye down with a warm wet towel but I dont want to apply to much pressure or wipe to hard and damage his eye. The crust is really hard and the small amount of the eye that isn't closed I can see discharge underneath.

I read about using a hot compress but I want to make sure I know everything before I do it.

How hot should it be? Just hot water or should I microwave for a few seconds? do I wipe or just apply steady pressure? how do I dry him once his fur is wet, low heat blowdryer?

 

[AZChins]

I like to use saline solution just at room temperature to get the eye open and cleaned out. It sounds like your chinchilla has an eye infection. It isn't going to cause a huge problem to wait until monday to see the vet, but make sure to get the eye cleaned up and open before then.

Eyes get infected so easily. A little bit of dust in the eye or even just a slight scratch can get it going.

You can use the warm compresses on the eye...just be gentle. I can't imagine that you would need to get the water very warm at all. I'd wipe around the eye until the eye can be easily opened, be prepared for a lot of gooey discharge to come out. I don't know about using the blowdryer, you could just let the fur dry naturally.

The vet can probably set you up with some good antibiotic eye drops that will take care of it in no time. I use Gentamycin drops...

 

[starleomach]

sometimes an epsum salt compress can do wonders in relieving the discomfort in an infected eye. I have however seen eyes crusted shut in chinchillas with sinus infections. I would just let the fur dry naturally. Try the compress a few times a day until you see the vet monday.

 

[Laurie]

I agree with both Kristy and Susan, definitely let the fur dry naturally, as around the eyes the fur is not as dense and should dry just fine on it's own.

Make sure you do check though for signs of infection before the vet visit. Listen for wheezing, check a runny nose as well. My girl Abby had a URI and couple of years ago and these are the signs I noticed in her that led to a vet visit.

 

[Easterpiggy]

I agree with starleomach. we do that with humans too. hope your chin gets better soon

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

a wet compress should do the trick. This happened with Lena shorty after I took her in. Eye was completely closed. I held a wet paper towel to her eye until I could get it opened a bit then used saline to wash out her eye and just dried her as much as I could with a towel. Wash out his eye if you see it getting worse again before you can bring him in. I'd also suggest putting him on paper towels to monitor his droppings and put a marker on his water bottle to make sure he is drinking properly. This info will also help the vet to make sure it's just an eye infection.

With Lena, I got eye ointment (sp?!) and it was gone in a week. Just be really good about giving him the meds on a consistant basis and he'll be fine! :thumbsup:

 

[Kendra n Charlie]

I followed the advice to get the eye open, once I had it 3/4 of the way open i could see it was really bad, there's a white spot on the eye and its really really swollen. I put him back in his cage and he started rubbing his eye on the floor and scratching at it so I decided I better take him to the vet now or its going to be much worse by monday.

He has an ulceration in his eye. His poop is fine and he's trying to eat, I haven't seen him drink anything yet but I'll keep an eye on it. They gave me an eye wash to irrigate his eye every 2 hours, then I have a drop of Ofloxacin to put in his eye every 4 hours and Terramycin ointment to put in every 8 hours. It looks terrible and I feel horrible for him. They made him an E collar and he just looks so pathetic and it hinders his already impaired vision. I dont know how the ulceration came about I just know that it had to have happened yesterday.

They took a pic of him to put on their website they called it the chinchillean collar. Sometimes its hard to do the right thing for your baby especially when it seems like its so hard on them. But I will try to be strong, I can't have him scratching his eye or rubbing it around getting dust/hay/food/poop in it.

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

just keep in mind that it's for the better...he'll be fine soon and these things happen...don't beat yourself up about it :kiss:

 

[Kendra n Charlie]

I just did the second irrigation and put in the ofloxacin and his eye just looks so bad. It was swollen but now it's kind of cone shaped and there is a red line in it. I'm afraid its going to rupture. What do I do if it does rupture?

I feel terrible.

 

[AZChins]

Don't worry, it always looks so much worse that it really is. In a week or so you will be amazed at how much it has healed. An injured or infected eye can look just so awful but still heal up to where it looks like nothing ever happened.

One time I had a baby chin that looked like his eye was damaged beyond repair. I took him into the vet and the vet said that the cloudy BAD looking eye was just repairing itself and it would look like that for a bit but not to worry. He was right, it healed up and the little baby never had a problem with his eye ever again.

You've done most of the hard work already. The antibiotic ointment and time will fix the rest.

 

[Stackie]

I've had my fair share of eye problems with my chins and they are definitely no fun. I hope your chinnie's eye feels better soon.

Make sure he is able to feed himself with that cone. I know some people have had chins with cones and they had to hand feed them because they were unable to reach their mouths.

 

[Sasha]

I had to deal with almost the exac same thing with Loki. Eye crusted shut, red, inflammed, nasty. The white on the eye was an ulcer. If that is what it is in your case make sure you are NOT using steroids as it can make it worse. We had a strict regimen of every 6 hour gentamycin drops and every 4 sterile saline. He was also on baytril for both the eye infection and a wound that was on his neck. He couldn't eat with the cone, we actually used a bird sized cone on him since he was small enough. I handfed him for a few weeks while he got better. It is a long road with eye infections. Once it cleared up, it came back again a couple times. It's been 6+ months now since his last flare up and he's doing great. Best of luck