half closed eye?

[KatiePillow]

My campbells dwarf alfie has always had smaller eyes than my others, (and is suspected to be blind)
but yesterday I noticed one was like...only partly open whereas his other was open as far as his go..
it looks like it's closed from the bottom more
Obviously I don't know whether it's affecting his sight as he can't usually see anyway..
He seems fine in himself, still loves coming out of his cage..I'm wondering if he just needs to have it cleaned by salt water or something?
there's no junk around his eye or anything...
would be my luck to have a sick little hammy over christmas D:

Anybody know what might be wrong? or anything I can do to help it?

[RachK]

Hi Katie,
My Campbells Hamlet has had this problem. I just gently wiped his eye with a cotton wool ball dampened with cool boiled water. It soon went back to normal.

[Fidgetthefirst]

Well; this happened to my syrian, but he had slight gunk around his eye. But you could try wiping it gently like RachK said

[KatiePillow]

Thanks, I did the warm water thing..which helped a bit..and his eye is open more now..but it's blue >.<
He's always been blind [or at least appears to be] (well, as long as we've had him, no idea how old he is etc)
I've read in my hamsterlopedia that it could be cataracts, but with the half closed eye before it could be a corneal ulcer.. >.<
stupid hamsterlopedia and its a-z of hamster ailments.. makes me a hammycondriac.
I realise it's probably nothing..but I worry about him.

Since he's blind, it makes the cataracts more likely... >.< but has anybody else had experience of either and could point me in the right direction?

His eye has like a bluey grey colour to it, no discharge and doesn't seem to be infected or anything, but it's still partly closed. >.<

[Hope]

Cataracts look like a sort of film over the eye Kaite, like its misty. I would keep a close eye on it and possibley book into the vets when you can, even if its nothing its better to be safe than sorry.

[KatiePillow]

Yeah, I am going to take him to the vet, my dog has skin issues so goes all the time anyway.. but He's going to bite the heck out of the vet..he's tame, but only really for me >.<

May get him checked for diabetes just in case too.. he hasn't been drinking extra though..but also, to be safe.
Thanks for the help it doesn't matter how much reading up you do on this stuff..it's still tricky to know what it looks like in real life *sigh*