baby with sore eye

[arikata]

One of Teacakes babies seems to have a scab where her eye should be. I'm not sure how long it's been there for as it is the first night they've been handled (they're 14 days old). Obviously it's quite worrying, he won't sit still for long enough for me to have a decent look. Is it worth taking to the vets or any other special care? I haven't dared touch it as it is the eye, the last thing I want to do is to make it worse. I'm guessing Teacake may have done it when picking him up funny, we all know how rough they can be at times

[arikata]

I'm a bit nervous about taking him to the vets. Should I take mum and siblings or just him? Should I take him at all or just wait to see how it goes?x

(By the way we've named him Ziggy Stardust... As in David Bowie? As in David Bowie has odd eyes? Well, I though it was good... )

[Teacake]

Hi,
i'm sure someone who knows about babies will be along soon
but i would be inclined to take Ziggy to the vet just in case the eye is causing any discomfort
but you probably know that already !
xxxx

[souffle]

I think you need to take him to the vet Katzilla as it could be an infection in the eye socket. Even if the eye is lost he will be fine a long as the eye does not become infected. If he were mine I would risk taking only this one as moving the whole litter and mum at this stage could be very stressful. When you take him, fill a box with litter and bedding from the cage and pop him in maybe with a hotwaterbottle warmed under the box while you travel. Warn the vet you cannot wait about in the waiting room with such a young pup. Try and keep handing to a minimum and maybe you handle so he only has your scent on him. When you get home take some of the other pups and put them in the box and rub them over him, handling them and him and lastly handle mum to mix the scents again. Hopefully he will fit right back in but watch them carefully. When you put them all back in the cage put a mighty stash of delicious food in then they will all be so busy eating they wont notice his scent.
In my opinion this is better than risking the whole litter for the injured one. Are they eating and able to manage alone now? If he is rejected by mum you would be able to keep him alone or even put a sibling in with him to keep him company if they are independant. It is possible an injury caused by mum or a sibling and if the eye is ruptured it should heal up withing the socket. Some vets will stitch the opening shut to prevent further problems. Some mums may detect there is something wrong and instinctively cull the injured one.
You could take a picture of the injury and ring up the vet and ask if you can e mail him the pic as you don't want to bring in such a yound baby. They may prescribe a med over the phone for you to collect.
I hope he gets well soon. Healing vibes and lots of luck little Ziggy.

[arikata]

Thankyou Souffle for the advice, I've just rang the vets and he's booked in for 11.50 tomorrow (Tues). The mum treats him the same as everyone else (ie grabs him by the leg and carts him back into the nest) and I've seen him eating baby rice pudding, millet spray and the occasional bit of hamster mix so he is fine in that regard. He is smaller than the others however so when handling I now put him back into his cage first so he gets dibs on whatever bits of food he wants.

I have noticed that one of the most adventurous pups of the litter will sometimes go for Ziggy's head. Ziggy isn't being attacked, it just looks like he's being bossed around a bit. I'm wondering if it's worth seperating Ziggy from the rest of the litter yet?x

[arikata]

Went to the vets today and was prescribed baytril. I also have to clean the eye out twice a day. Lets just hope for a speedy recovery!

[souffle]

Glad to hear that all went well Katzilla. Is the eye still there or has it been injured and gone? At least the baytril will keep him infection free and we find that dwarfs tolerate Baytril very well. Was he accepted back well after his day out?

[arikata]

Originally Posted by souffle

Glad to hear that all went well Katzilla. Is the eye still there or has it been injured and gone? At least the baytril will keep him infection free and we find that dwarfs tolerate Baytril very well. Was he accepted back well after his day out?

Both eyes are still intact. The eye that had scabbed over seems to be almost ok now, it's the other eye which seems to be the trouble now. The whole family are on the baytril as it's unavoidable really. Vet told me to put it into his water. My flatmate found it really funny when he read the bit on the bottle which said: for:Ziggy Star Dust. Simple minds, eh?

Everyone accepted him back into the family with no hassle which is good. I was worried about him not being very tame due to all of the rough handling (and the vet dropping him onto the floor) but he seems ok. Cleaning out his eye is another matter. Him being so tiny doesn't help either! He skirms too much and it's difficult to get a firm yet gentle grip on him without squeezing too hard. I supose you can call this part of hamster care a learning curve!

I payed £20.09 for the treatment and consultation. Is this too much? I didn't get my usual vet who I think is better with small animals.

[souffle]

Well if the eye is still there it sounds hopeful he will make a full recovery. I hope so. Dwarfs are very hard to keep still especially babies. We use the swaddling in a hankie technique as illustrated in Pophammys sticky 'how to put eye drops in your hamsters eyes.' We always give the baytril direct by syringe as we are never sure how much they will get in water. Usual dose is 0.1ml per day for a WW. I hope he is fully recovered soon.

[arikata]

Originally Posted by souffle

Well if the eye is still there it sounds hopeful he will make a full recovery. I hope so. Dwarfs are very hard to keep still especially babies. We use the swaddling in a hankie technique as illustrated in Pophammys sticky 'how to put eye drops in your hamsters eyes.' We always give the baytril direct by syringe as we are never sure how much they will get in water. Usual dose is 0.1ml per day for a WW. I hope he is fully recovered soon.

I must say that I would prefer giving him antibiotics directly by syringe. I've done it so many times with the rabbits and it's a walk in the park compared to cleaning out eyes. I didn't think about looking in the Wiki for this, I will have a look now! Good ol' Pophammy He's doing much better tonight. He was even the first to walk on my hand during our little 'getting-used-to-people' excercise (5 smileys as I'm 5 times happy )