[Gpdd] HEALTH Pea eye.

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hello Liz,

I was so sorry to read about the problems that you are having with your rats. Rats are such lovely creatures and I would have some if my husband liked them. As he shares the house with all of my piggies, birds and mice, I cannot really complain.

My vet always reckoned that lice are visible to the naked eye but his eyesight must have been a lot better than mine as I could never see them. As your girls' itching seems to be clearing up, let us hope that the mites were the cause and that you have beaten them with the Ivermectin. I have never found Advantage to be very effective and prefer to use an anti-parasite shampoo.

I visited my rodentologists yesterday to collect some meds and I asked them about Pea Eye and whether it was the same as Fatty Eye. They had not heard the term Pea Eye. So many things have different names in other countries, not least the names of meds, which makes for great confusion. I have encountered Fatty Eye before and Gulliver has this now and I wondered if this is the same thing. If it is, this causes Gulliver no problem whatsoever. Having looked at the GuineaLynx page on eyes it would appear to be the same.

My copy of Richardson's Diseases of GPs calls it a "permanent protrusion of the lower conjunctival sac" and states that it is more common in self whites, blacks, creams and also rexes ( teddies ). My Gulliver is an orange and white Dutch. A Piggyfriend past who had this condition was a cinnamon agouti. No treatment is recommended and piggies with the condition seem totally unaware of it.

I hope that your rats are improving, that your guinea girls have stopped itching and that Phoebe's eye condition is merely fatty eye.

Best wishes from Penny and the Piggyfriends.