The "its 4am and I need reassurance about my hamster's gungy eye" thread

[Sammybingo]

Hi chaps

I was just on my way to bed and noticed Fur-nando was up meercatting at me (typical Fur-nando behaviour, this precludes him asking to come out, which he is usually doing about 8 hours a night).
His eye facing me looked like he had just woke up, which i thought was odd, as he hasn't had a snooze yet tonight. I took him out, and he has a gunged up eye. There is nothing coming out of it, it's just a bit gummed shut. There is no redness or inflammation. I noticed he had been at his gnawing block, so I think he has got a bit of dust from that in there? I took it out his house for now.

I tried to clean it up a bit with some damp cotton wool which he HATED. I ended up wrapping him in my scarf, with him making all kinds of angry noises. I basically couldn't really get at it. I did test his fondness for being cleaned on his normal eye, and he hated that too hah, so I don't *think* it's painful or anything, I think he is just angry at me trying to touch his face.

After an hour of watching him, I figured I should go to bed. He is acting his normal over-the-top-tantrumming-self, and it doesn't seem to be bothering him.

But you know. I'm a crazy hamster lady. My first response is "omg you've got something in it we have to go to the emergency vet". Which I know is preposterous .

Am I ok to just wait and see how he is in the morning?

/ends paranoid rambling. Sorry >.<

[FluffNoodle]

jabs eye gets like this too my first thought was he had a bit of wood chip in it

i hold him the best i can without hurting him and gently wipe his eye with a wet paper towel and room temp water then i give him a treat i did it whenever it was sticking for about 2 weeks it seems to be fine for the last week or so

[Pompompoms]

Oh he's just winking at you

George always had one sticky eye, it got worse as he got older, but i just looked at it as one of his eyes took longer to wake up. I always went with the quick damp cotton bud followed swiftly by treat, you soon get really fast at it. he probably does have a little something in there, but hopefully he'll have managed to dislodge it by tomorrow xx

[Sammybingo]

Thanks guys . I think part of the problem was potentially the temperature of the damp cotton wool - er, I probably just used the cold tap. I'm not all there! He did make some quite urgent angry cheeps, it made me sad, and he really faught me.
I best let myself get to sleep. I shall cruelly wake him in the morning to see how he looks, to be sure there is no redness, goo or inflammation.

[FluffNoodle]

be careful cuz jabba get really cranky when i wake him and his eye is sticky cuz he cant see me hes never bit just watch your fingers lol

[vanilla-yazoo]

My rex boy gets this time to time, his curles make his eyes fuse, but about 2 mins he is ok.
You done the right thing, a damp cotton wood bud to moisten it, sometimes using the smallest ammount of pressure stroke it to see if it will open then. If it dosnt then let him relax for 30 mins and see if he will cope with it again.

My terry also gets annoyed in health checks recently, he won't let me clean his bottom.
-_- guess who has been woken by bar chewwing, I've tried everything now I may have to see if fred copes in her cage or get her in the Zz

[Faerydae]

not sure how old fur-nando is but Crysta always got a gammy eye occasionally when he got to around 18 months old

[Amethyst_ice]

hey hun, remember indys eye? Nando is coming up to a year soon by my remembering so may have been just a bit of bedding got stuck, if its ok today id pass it off as that, as always keep and "eye" on it xxxx

[Sammybingo]

Hehe I just woke up my little grump, as I wanted to be sure it was just a gunky eye and not something stuck in it, or any infection. He's such a sweetie, he's so nice about being woken up. And I got to see him do two wees haha. He is totally fine But just wanted to be sure, or I'd get him in the vets.

He is.. let me see, 9 months old now, so i wouldn't be expecting this to be a regular thing, I think he just got some dust from chewing his gnaw in it. I've been habituating him to me touching the top of his head and although he doesn't like it a great deal, he will let me, I think I need to persevere with getting him used to other things that will help health checks too

Thanks for the reassurance chaps! Yazoo, I did think about getting a Rex chap, but I was worried about having to help with his eyes if he has issues. Has he got used to it?

x

[fluffymunchkins]

I think its just one of those things some suffer from more than others. Porridge never had gunky eyes, but Batman has (though he was underneath the floorboard for 24 hours beforehand ).

Most of the time they sort it out themselves x