Eye problem?

[ootchia]

My hamster has developed a slightly prominent lower lid to her right eye, along with some discharge that seems to be colourless. She’s very active and won’t stop moving, even in your hands, so it’s very hard to assess her. I’m worried she has an infection, but she is acting normally and doesn’t seem to be distressed or in pain. Her eyes are red so it’s hard to tell if the actual skin is red thanks to her eyes “glowing” in the light. I think she had a little bit of whitish small discharge but it was gone soon after seeing it (she likes to clean herself a lot). She can still open and shut her eyes properly.

For reference, she’s a dwarf hamster, probably a hybrid since the people I rescued her from bought her from a pet shop; but so far she has had no medical problems. She also has coconut coir (Zoozone) in her cage currently, with Kaytee bedding, I was wondering if maybe the coir had gotten in her eye and maybe irritated it (this has never happened so far). I don’t know if this is worth mentioning but she’s my first hamster that I’ve had for about 8 months.

Noticed she was also cleaning very close to her eye so I wondered if she’d scratched it or something.

It’s quite difficult to tell, but can anyone give a diagnosis, or advice if I should take her to the vet or not?

[Ria P]

I would take photos of your hamster's eye and phone a vet who knows about small animals. You should be able to get a photo while she's eating. You may not have to take her to the vet and get offered a telephone consultation instead but that's down to the vets. I needed a vet's advice for one of my hamsters last week and emailed photos for a vet to have a look at before he phoned me back.

[cypher]

It could be that something has poked her eye but eye infections are quite common in Russian hams too so it could be that, as Ria said the best thing would be to get in touch with your vet, she may need meds, usually eye drops to clear it up which ever it is.