Eye irritation:

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C

Courtney

... and the Dynamic Duo!
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
642
Location
Edmonton, AB
Hey all, long time no talk. This morning, I noticed that Chance (one of my rescues) had a slightly irritated eye. His pupil looks fine, but the area around is a little bit red and swollen. His eye is still open and he seems to focus and follow objects of interest on that side. He allows me to touch the area and I don't feel any swelling on that side of the face. When I look in his mouth, I don't see anything out of the ordinary that would account for the irritated eye.

Is there a safe way to rinse his eye out just to ensure there's no foreign object/irritant in there before I take him to the vet? It just got cold here and I don't want to take him out if it's a speck of dust or something.

Thanks!
 
Red and swollen is a potential sign of infection. Since eye issues can be somewhat painful (and can progress into all sorts of nasty stuff), I suggest leaving it alone and taking Chance to Dr. Doug.

A
 
I'll second the veterinary visit. If it is red and swollen he most likely will need medication to clear it up. Let us know what happens.
 
Yep, vet visit sooner rather than later. When my Peaches eye proptosed, it was red and swollen around it before hand. Vet prescribed drops did not help and she lost her eye. Not saying that's what Chance has, but it needs to be checked.
 
Thanks, all! I checked him this morning and things looked less red and irritated, but I'll make him an appointment with the vet for tomorrow just in case.

When I get home, I'll see if I can get a picture of his eye too, just to show you all what we're dealing with. It looks better than it did a few days ago, but still not completely normal.
 
Oops. I meant to update this sooner.

The verdict: Chance has what appears to be a minor abscess in his mouth, directly beneath the eye that is irritated. At first glance, the vet thought he had punctured his eye with a quill, but after a… fluorosteen (or similar, the name escapes me – it basically turned his eyes bright green under black light), the vet could not find any evidence of a puncture wound or scratch.

Fun fact: During this test, Chance’s nose and saliva also turned bright green. That tells us that all the ducts around his eyes and nose work well. Heh.

After this text, the vet checked Chance’s mouth and that’s when we found the abscess. We also noticed that Chance has two funny overgrowths of bone in his upper jaw, both perfectly symmetrical and even. The vet was rather surprised, but concluded that they looked normal. No redness, swelling, oozing or pain when touched. However, around one tooth, Chance had a bit of redness and blood. This was on the same side as his swollen eye.

Since the vet could not find a scratch on his eye, he concluded that the swelling is due to the minor abscess in his mouth. The game plan as of now is a round of medicine until this coming Friday – an oral antibiotic to get rid of the abscess and any infection within, and eye drops to lessen any irritation and reduce swelling. If the swelling doesn’t appear to get better or go away completely, Chance will go back to the vet for x-rays on Friday morning at 9am. If x-rays prove inconclusive, the vet recommended that we pull his tooth. He is missing a few other teeth in his mouth, so the vet suspects some form of minor dental issue. This will be discussed at his appointment on Friday.

Overall, this vet appointment was very positive. We saw a brand new vet since we moved clear across the city and this was the only vet with an opening. Luckily, the vet we saw was wonderful. He knows his stuff and he was very gentle with Chance. Given Chance’s history, I expected more resistance from him, but he was a very good boy. He didn’t hiss, bite or curl up at all… instead, he motored all around the examination table and checked everything out. The vet was very impressed at how calm and active Chance was… apparently most hedgehogs he sees would rather not see him.

If any Edmontonians are looking for a good vet, check out Whitemud Creek Veterinarian Clinic. They’re a bit expensive ($80 for an exotic exam for a new client), but so far, I have no complaints.
 
For anyone still watching this thread, Chance's antibiotics did help and all swelling went away during the course of the treatment and for a week afterward.

On Monday night, his entire right side of his face puffed out and his eye began to bulge again. I made him an appointment at 4pm Tuesday (yesterday) at the same vet who helped Kismet when she was having this same issue. Due to the fact that antibiotics had worked to reduce the swelling, the vet was 99% certain that we were dealing with an aggressive infection. He didn't have time to do xrays that day, so I left Chance with him and he would do a complete work up today.

I just got the call that Chance is in recovery and the news is very, very good. After being sedated, the vet took a few xrays and found that Chance has extensive dental issues. His bone mass is a little dodgy on the side with the infection, and a handful of teeth had to be pulled. The abscess site was drained and scraped of all infection, packed with medicine and some areas stitched up. The vet also took some tissue for a biopsy to definitively rule out cancer. He then checked every tooth for decay and extreme 'looseness' and pulled any that he felt could pose a significant risk. He prescribed Novo-Trimel (I think that's what he said) to clear out any remaining infection and prevent against new infections.

So now, I can go pick up Chance and bring him home. The vet is very positive that infection was the culprit behind the swelling, because he did not see any masses or growths that resembled cancer. The biopsy will give us a definite answer, but at this point in time, he thinks we should be out of the woods and Chance will improve drastically. Apparently, he was wobbling around, checking out his dishes as soon as he went back into his kennel.
 
gosh... what a medical adventure you and Chance have been on. I sure hope that he's finally on the mend.
 
So far, so good. He's on pain medication thrice daily for 7 days and antibiotics twice daily for 14 days. The pain medication was very difficult to find and resulted in me going from west Edmonton, to south Edmonton, to downtown Edmonton and back to south Edmonton when the medicine was located. The dosage had to be specifically mixed because it was a strong medication, but a low dosage (5mg/ml), and no pharmacy or vet clinic had it in stock. Luckily, an emergency vet clinic had jusssst enough to fill his prescription. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it until the morning following his surgery, so I spent the night holding him and making sure he didn't rub or irritate his face too badly.

On the plus side, he was attempting to eat his kibble the same night. He has no use for crushed kibble, but he will grudgingly eat moistened kibble. His mouth is a tad bit swollen, but that's to be expected given the severity of his surgery. His eye isn't red or swollen anymore, and his second eyelid is slowly retreating back to where it should. It was a little distended due to the abscess and the medicated eye drops that the vet recommended are keeping everything moist and helping the eyelid retract.

As near as I can tell, Chance isn't in extreme pain anymore. He is bright-eyed and curious and he happily lets me rub his face and examine the surgery site. He takes his medicine like a good little boy, and is running on his wheel like normal. He has taken to chattering at me whenever I have him out and will climb all over me after medicine time.

The real test will be in two weeks, once the antibiotics are gone. If the swelling returns, then we'll take more aggressive measures.
 
It looks like Chance's journey with this is just about over. The swelling returned and brought a friend - a growth on his upper gum. Chance cannot close his mouth and he is constantly making that smacking/licking noise. His eye is swollen half-shut. The vet is running some tests on some tissue to be sure, but I have a feeling that I will be letting Chance go tomorrow morning. I would do it tonight, but I want to have some time to say goodbye, and to give the vet some time to receive the test results back.
 
Hello again. We (yes, both of us) just returned from the vet, who asked if I would let him send tissue samples away for testing before I made the decision to euthanize. He told me that, while there IS a chance of cancer here, the patterns don't make sense. When Chance is on antibiotics, the lump goes away completely in days, but returns about a week after he is done with the medicine. Typically, he says, a tumor would not do that. Since he's not 100% sure that it is a tumor, he asked if I would be opposed to putting Chance on the same round of medicine until the results are back and give us a conclusive answer. Good news - the growth is contained to just that one area and does not appear to be blocking his throat in any way AND when tissue was extracted, a bunch of pus came with it. Bad news - Chance picked up a bit of a cold, which could have something to do with the swelling, or vice versa. His immune system is down, and the vet is uncertain if the cold and swelling have anything to do with one another. His thoughts are that we get the cold under control, bump up his immune system and see if that does anything for the swelling.

So, Chances tissue samples are off the Guelph for testing and he's back on Novo-Trimel for the time being. The medicine will take care of the cold and the swelling, as it has in the past, which will serve to make Chance more comfortable while we await test results (worst case - 5 business days from today).

The vet did, however, instruct me to bring Chance in immediately if he begins showing signs of pain, difficulties breathing or severe decrease in activity/appetite. Right now, Chance is acting like Chance, but if that changes, we might have to adjust our game plan.

I will keep you all posted.
 
We very nearly lost Chance last night. I spent all evening with him and noticed he was getting more and more lethargic. He couldn't walk further than a few steps before collapsing and having to take a nap, he didn't have the energy to hiss... it was just sad all around. I sat with him all night, just talking and covering his back with my hand as he slept. Over and over, I asked him to make the choice. If he wanted to go, I would respect and love him for it... but if he wanted to fight, I would respect that too. For the longest time, I thought he was choosing to leave. His breathing became more and more shallow and his eyes just looked so far away.

Then suddenly, he gave himself a shake and threw himself into his food bowl. He ate half of the kibble and went scampering across his cage (okay, a slow scamper, but a scamper nonetheless) to his wheel. He ran on the wheel a bit before stopping for a drink and to inspect his toys. He looked right at me, gave a short little snuffly-snort and retreated into his bag. This morning, he was waiting between his bowls when I came in to check. His eyes were bright and while the swelling was still there, it was slightly less noticeable.

I guess Chance made his choice and we're going to fight for a bit longer, until he decides he's had enough. I'm going to let him dictate the game plan until it becomes apparent that he can't be saved - if he has trouble breathing or can't eat... then I will step in. Until then, he's going to decide what we do. I know a lot of people may not agree with this, but I spent a lot of time soul searching last night and I believe that I'm doing the right thing. I'm very bonded with my animals and I feel that this is what Chance wants. He made the effort to show me he was still enjoying life, and I'm not going to take that from him.
 
The vet called today with the biopsy results -- no cancer cells were found. So, he's thinking a bit of bone or tooth is causing the irritation and he's going to do a closer scan of the area and see if we can find the source of irritation.
 
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