Watery eye

[StevieP]

Clarice has had a watery eye for most of this month. I took her to the vet 2 weeks ago and he did a stain test with the dye & uv light which revealed no scratches. Also, no dye came out of her nose so he concluded that it is probably clogged tear ducts. Note that only one eye is watery but both ducts are "clogged...."

He sent Clarice & I home with Neo-Poly-Gram drops; I drop in each eye 3x daily for 14 days. Tomorrow is day 14 and her eye is no better.

Yesterday she had some white discharge in her eye. The day before I took her to the vet she also had some discharge. Other than that and the wet fur around her eye, she has no other symptoms.

Tomorrow I am going to make another appointment, possibly with a different vet who is supposedly better with chins.

Any suggestions? Is there a treatment that is usually successful for a watery eye?

 

[Pleiades]

You might want to get her teeth checked & x-rayed by the vet. Unfortunately, malocclusion is often the culprit responsible for watery eyes. Has she been eating normally and producing good poops?

I think taking her to a different vet is a good idea.

 

[Stackie]

You might want to get her teeth checked & x-rayed by the vet. Unfortunately, malocclusion is often the culprit responsible for watery eyes. Has she been eating normally and producing good poops?

I wouldn't say it's normally the culprit for watery eyes. It can be, but isn't always. More often than not it's a stubborn eye infection that won't go away. If she is eating normally, I wouldn't jump straight to the teeth problems just yet. The discharge to me sounds like there is an infection going on. In my experience, some eye infections don't respond to some antibiotics. I have had the best luck with terramycin when treating eye infections. Some may also need oral antibiotics.

I have dealt with an eye infection that took 1st tobramycin, 2nd gentamycin, and then finally terramycin before I got it to clear up.

 

[Pleiades]

I wouldn't say it's normally the culprit for watery eyes. It can be, but isn't always. More often than not it's a stubborn eye infection that won't go away. If she is eating normally, I wouldn't jump straight to the teeth problems just yet. The discharge to me sounds like there is an infection going on. In my experience, some eye infections don't respond to some antibiotics. I have had the best luck with terramycin when treating eye infections. Some may also need oral antibiotics.

I have dealt with an eye infection that took 1st tobramycin, 2nd gentamycin, and then finally terramycin before I got it to clear up.

Okay- thanks for straightening me out! I was just suggesting that it might be something he might want to get checked just to be on the safe side. I certainly hope it is not mal though, and rather a stubborn eye infection!

 

[ticklechin]

The last eye infection I dealt with took 14 days of neo-poly-dex and oral tri-meth-sulfate to get rid of it.

 

[StevieP]

The vet called my GF and said he wants us to bring Clarice to an opthamologist.... In the meantime he wants us to give her an NSAID that he is calling in to the pharmacy.

Then he just called again and said that we should have a UV-B light on during playtime, which would help chins see better and promote eye muscle health. He also said to supplement her with Beta carotene which would increase her vitamin A.

All I was expecting was for him to give us some different eye drops and maybe an oral anti-biotic!

Thoughts?

 

[Amy555]

Huh, UVB so they can get a suntan? Some internet searching does show it's suggested sometimes for chins that dont get sunlight. And I learned that dandelion leaves contain more beta carotene than carrots!

 

[ticklechin]

I used UV light therapy for Gino the malo chin, he was in a experimental therapy which included the light therapy to increase Vit D production during calcium supplementation. I personally don't think normal chins need it. Full spectrum lighting yes, UV light no.

 

[StevieP]

Went to the opthamologist today. First a vet resident came into the room and looked at her eyes with a little scope thing and she said that Clarice has little hairs that are touching her eye and may be 'wicking' tears from her eye onto her fur (medial caruncular trichiasis is what they called it). Then the actual vet came in and also looked at her with the scope and said that it is more than likely a bacterial infection. The tear duct is blocked due to inflamation (dacryorhinocystitis or Dacryocystitis).

I am to give her a new drop, Ofloxacin, and the Diclofenac (NASID). Hopefully it does the trick!

 

[Chinmama]

Eye infections can be persistent and nasty to treat. It may take some time, but with the right meds you should be able to get it cleared up.

 

[StevieP]

Clarice's eye seemed to get a little better with the new drops but still looked watery throughout and following the treatment. Then last night when I got home it looked more watery than ever.

I'm taking her to a new vet on Tuesday March 1st who has a lot of exotics experience. I do not feel comfortable letting the opthamologist "experiment" with Clarice just yet. He wants to put her under and prod her tear ducts with a blunt object in attempts to flush any obstructions out of them. I might be more comfortable with this if he has done it in the past but I do not think he has. The red flag that I saw with him is that he said both tear ducts looked blocked from swelling, so why is only one eye watery? I will see what this new vet has to say and go from there.

Clarice's weight is down a bit. A few months ago she topped out at 900g, then at the first vet appointment in January she was 860 and now between 840-850. It could be from having severe giardia which we just treated 2 weeks ago, but I think the giardia outbreak was caused from the stress of the eye ordeal.

 

[ticklechin]

I would not let a vet flush chinchilla tear ducts, my vet told me it was impossible when I asked in the past. Since this is not resolving and there is weight loss, if it was my chin I would have a oral exam under gas and x-rays to be sure you don't have points and you don't have elongation of the incisors blocking the tear duct drain-this will lead to persistant eye infections that never seem to clear up.

 

[SCchin]

Steven,
We used to live in Chesapeake!

If others agree, make sure you take the sand bath out for a few days. Our chin had a watery eye (wasn't an infection), we took the sand bath out of his cage until it stopped, about 3 days. He looked pretty yucky, but he was quite happy when we put it back in, and the eye didn't water again.

 

[StevieP]

I would not let a vet flush chinchilla tear ducts, my vet told me it was impossible when I asked in the past. Since this is not resolving and there is weight loss, if it was my chin I would have a oral exam under gas and x-rays to be sure you don't have points and you don't have elongation of the incisors blocking the tear duct drain-this will lead to persistant eye infections that never seem to clear up.

Glad you said this. I was thinking teeth are the next logical thing to check.

BTW - My girlfriend was looking at Clarice last night after I said her eye is looking bad, and she noticed one incisor was orange, and one was half orange and half white.

Steven,
We used to live in Chesapeake!

If others agree, make sure you take the sand bath out for a few days. Our chin had a watery eye (wasn't an infection), we took the sand bath out of his cage until it stopped, about 3 days. He looked pretty yucky, but he was quite happy when we put it back in, and the eye didn't water again.

Where abouts in Chespeake?

I did hold the baths a for a few weeks when this watery eye first started and unfortunately it did not help. Now she (and all of my chins) gets a bath every 4-6 days in the winter.

 

[SCchin]

Orange is good, white is not. That is all I remember, others will have to elaborate why, I think white is low calcium??

I put the sand bath in for a short time each night, and then take out. (Right now I am leaving it in for a sick chin w/lots of drool.)

We lived in Great Bridge, near the bypass Mt. Pleasant exit, off of Fentress Rd.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Chinchilla teeth are supposed to be orange/yellow. If they turn white or get white streaks in them, their calcium is too low and they will need more calcium in their diet.

 

[StevieP]

Went to the new vet today.

He brought me into the procedure area to show me inside of Clarice's mouth (first time I have seen inside a chins mouth. I am amazed at how small the molars are). I was shocked to walk in there and see some blood in her mouth! My poor baby! Then he said that he did some molar trimming. He did NOT find any obvious points but he smoothed some of the molars down to be sure.

He told me flat out that it is virtually impossible to flush a chinchilla tear duct, but he flushed "where the duct would be" since she was gassed.

Then he showed me the x-rays. He said they look normal and explained that the incisors are not growing into the duct. Are the back molars supposed to be curved beneath the gumline? X-Rays are attached.

He also gave me yet another eye drop, ciprofloxacin. If Clarice's eye clears up I will not know if it was the molar trimming, "tear duct flush," or the eye drop that cured it.



I really liked this vet, it turns out he was involved in formulating Oxbow Simple Rewards treats and he is giving some lectures at the 2011 Exotic Companion Mammal Symposium where he will speak about dental disease & GI disease in exotics. He seems to really know his stuff... more than any other vet I've been to anyways.

 

[CTChin]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with looking at x-rays. My vet has been educating me on the last two chinchillas I brought in for x-rays and the roots of his chin do seem to be growing up. Am I seeing that correctly?

The inside bite seems smooth

 

[StevieP]

Also, are the x-rays of her left side (left eye was watery)? They look like the right to me, I even showed them to a physician's assistant at work and she said they look like the right side.

And the back 2 molars have a curve in them... normal?

 

[ticklechin]

The curved molars are not "normal" but are they symptomatic, that is the question. 30% of pet chinchillas have some degree of elongation yet 30% of pet chinchillas do not show teeth symptoms nor problems eating. Elongation in conjunction with other symptoms is the time to deal with quality of life, elongation without symptoms needs to be watched. JMO.