Celeste has a slightly irritated eye.

HollyHamster · 01-31-2016, 06:23 PM

Greetings.

I've recently been stricken with a rather nasty bought of Bronchitis, and laxed a bit on cleaning my Celeste's cage. Today I noticed she had some gunk around one of her eyes. Not a whole lot, but enough to warrant me being concerned. She is alert, and eating and drinking normally. She just has the tiniest crustiness around her eye, and maybe a bit of pink puffiness.

I tried to gently clean the eye with a swab dipped in clean boiled water, but felt she was being too stressed by the ordeal. I was waiting to clean her cage again when my bronchitis cleared completely up, so I wouldn't risk passing it on to her, but felt that maybe a cleaning now was top priority. That and the worst of my bronchitis seems to have passed. I just have a sinus infection to deal with now.

So, is there anything I can do at home, or does this warrant a trip to the vet? Here is a picture in case it helps.

cypher · 01-31-2016, 11:04 PM

Her eye looks ok in the photo, maybe a little red but it doesn't look like too much to worry about, she may just have got a little bit of something in her eye that irritated it a bit, if she's cleaned it up herself, it doesn't get any worse or happen again I don't think you need worry but if it does reoccur or gets more inflamed you may need to take her to the vet.

racinghamster · 02-01-2016, 06:46 AM

It`s the eyelid itself that looks a little inflamed, the eye ball looks fine. She may have irritated it as cypher suggested, or she may have the beginning of a blepharitis (bacterial or viral infection of the eyelids) that can respond to antibiotic drops, but even in human patients, can be hit or miss to treat. Hopefully it won`t swell up and settle itself. x

HollyHamster · 02-05-2016, 11:27 PM

Well, her eyes haven't gotten worse, but she seems to feel a bit poorly as her ears aren't being held perfectly erect. She also seems to make a sort of hiccupping motion when she eats. I went ahead and made her some warm plain oatmeal, and am letting it cool for a few minutes before giving it to her so she won't burn her mouth on it.

It's the most I feel I can do for her as of now. She has been slightly poorly before and pulled through, but for now, seeing as I'm still very much sick (but hopefully over the worst of it now), I want to focus on getting better myself. I already spent quite a bit of my money on medicines for myself and dipped farther into my bank account than anticipated. I might be able to scrape enough together for a vet visit if it comes to that, but will most likely have to wait until the next paycheck comes in. Never had I anticipated we'd both be sick at the same time!

Pebbles82 · 02-06-2016, 04:23 AM

Oh dear. Hope you feel better soon and Celeste does ok. I let the porridge/oatmeal go almost cold before I give it (he likes it cold too lol) - just kind of tepid. I'm sure I saw some advice on here somewhere about bathing sticky eyes? Or maybe that is just part of vet treatment. If it is infected then she will be feeling unwell. It might improve though, but if it hasn't in a couple of days a vet visit could be the thing to do x

Sinusitis is horrible and painful. Did you have antibiotics for your bronchitis (it does knock it on the head if it goes on for a while)? There aren't really any treatments that help much for sinusitis I think, but if you have infected sinuses then antibiotics would be needed for that too and that would help.

There are homeopathy remedies that might help with sinus pain, and can't do any harm. I looked up on Ainsworth's remedy finder and these remedies fit different symptoms of sinusitis (Ainsworths is a homeopathic pharmacy in London). The remedies can be made by Nelsons or others as well and probably available on Amazon. All three are fairly commonly used ones.

Ainsworths

HollyHamster · 02-06-2016, 06:12 AM

Thanks, Serendipity, but my sinusitis has cleared up. It's just my throat that's the problem. I had a strep test done but it came back negative, so I think it's just a very aggressive virus that hits the throat hard at some point. I'm slowly getting better. I have some mouthwash that numbs my throat that I got via a prescription from the Dr. that did the strep test, and am taking Ibuprofen to help also. Someday I'll be healthy again. Hopefully soon.

Pebbles82 · 02-06-2016, 06:35 AM

That's good. Hope you feel better soon

Just keep an 'eye' on Celeste (sorry pun there) then and see how she does over the next couple of days.

HollyHamster · 02-07-2016, 03:35 PM

I am happy to report that Celeste is looking better. Her eyelid is still a bit pink, but she out and about now and looks good with ears all perky. I gave her a couple of peanuts in the shell which she happily cracked open and pouched. Being that she is nearly 2 years in age, she is doing well.

As for myself, after having another strep test done (which also came back negative), and bloodwork done, the doctors think I might have a bit of oral thrush going on. So they gave me a mouthwash to clear it up. It tastes sort of like bananas.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions!