[Gpdd] [HEALTH] <eye condition in Laurie's gpig, Curlaina>

[Sandra Park]

I emailed Laurie directly because I wanted to send her an attachment
with notes I had taken from my internet research on the eye conditions
called pea eye/fatty eye and cherry eye.  But I thought it might be
helpful if I included some of the info in an email to the GPDD.

It sounds as if Curlaina has the condition called "cherry eye", a
problem my Taffy has had and which reoccurs on occasion.  It is a
protrusion of the lower conjunctival sac.  Cherry eye is not
neccessarily present at all times,  but rather appears at times of
stress or when the eye is exposed to irritants.   An antibiotic eye
ointment such as erythromycin opthalmic oint. can be used to treat
cherry-eye.  It is more of a cosmetic rather than a medical, or
life-threatening problem.  Because my Taffy never seemed to be in pain
or discomfort, and because the antibiotic eye ointment prevented
infection, my vet and I jointly agreed that the risks of surgery FAR
outweighed the possible benefits.  Both cherry eye and pea eye/fatty eye
are thought to be inherited conditions..

The following links to discussions of these eye conditions were very
helpful to me (I hope I can list them on the GPDD):

http://www.caviesgalore.com/forums/showthread.php?s=c577cfe0dda285e329515dfe7c999472&threadid=4927

http://www.users.wineasy.se/dan.johansson/eva/mars/care/fattyeye.htm

VCG Richardson also discusses these conditions in his book Diseases of
Domestic Guinea Pigs.

Hope this helps,
Sandy and the Tampa Krewe (Taffy, Tiger & Winter; always remembering
Autumn and Crystal)