Eye Problem

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I

Invisible87

Guest
My husband brought his chinchilla Dak in to me this morning, telling me that for some reason he won't open one of his eyes. He is young and wiggly enough that we wrapped him up in a towel, and used a damp washcloth to see if we could kind of clean his eyelid and get his eye open. We got it open, and he had it open for a while, but the lid was kind of red and irritated. I just went in and checked on him again, and he has his eye closed again. All of the vets around here are closed, so I don't know if there are any ideas as of things to try, or what to do until a vet is open on Tuesday. Any ideas of what I can do for the poor little guy?
 
You need to get the eye open and try and clean anything you can see outta there. If crust is building on his lids, hold the cloth on his eye until they either fall off or you can gently remove them with your fingers. You can try using some human eye solution (which I have used several times on a boy of mine with constant eye issues) but you will need to get him to a vet. There must be an emergency vet near you-because waiting till Tuesday may be a very bad idea. It depends on how bad it is as far as how worried you should be about the waiting period. Can you upload a pic?
 
I have used Terramycin opthalmic eye ointment before with success. It can be purchased at most feed stores.

If it doesn't clear up or begin improving with Terramycin by the end of the holiday weekend, I would get the chin in to see the vet on Tuesday.
 
A little improvement...

We have been trying to keep Dak's eye cleaned, and started using the terramycin. Today he had his eye squinty, but a little bit open. This evening his eye was halfway open - the back half had closed shut. We cleaned it, and put more medicine in it - as much as he hates it. It was kind of hard to get a good picture of it, but here is one after we cleaned his eye - before we put the medicine in it.

 
Last edited:
It does look like there is some kind of infection going on. I normally see improvement with Terramycin after one day of treatment. If it does not improve, I would get him in to the vet. He may need a different type of antibiotic ointment or drops to treat the bacteria causing the infection and he may even have gotten a scratch on the cornea which caused the problem.
 
I've had infections that have taken weeks of terramycin use to clear up. It could also be a really good scratch since his eye looks clear and healthy. With eye infections where the lid is closed they often get a hazy looking eye.
 
Overall I think the eye also looks pretty healthy, not severely red as often seen with conjunctivitis. I would keep rinsing. Be sure to use a saline solution ( any human eye drop will be balanced as well ) plain water can cause more irritation to the eye because of the chemical balance of it.

Sumiko, you can get the eye ointment at your feed store? I've never looked there... What section is it in? I would like to keep some on hand. Is it the ointment or drops? I usually keep drops on hand.
 
Hmm, I'll have to ask when I go in. I've rarely had eye problems, but it's good to have on hand, or know where to get it if you need it! The vet will get me pretty much whatever I need, but I usually send the list with the Dr A, in to Dr. Tammy so it takes a couple days to get it back, lol.
 
The feed store I go to has it in a glass case with other medications and livestock antibiotics. It is the opthalmic ointment and comes in a small tube.

I don't think that I would continue using it if I didn't see almost immediate improvement as I have always experienced. An antibiotic treatment whether topical or oral normally begins to kill the bacteria fairly quickly. I would guess three weeks before seeing any visual signs of improvement is more likely the immune response kicking in and the bacteria was either not susceptible to that class of antibiotics or flat out resistant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top