# Horrible Eye Infection?



## doopx (Aug 3, 2009)

Okay, so I'm REALLY concerned and pretty confused as to what is going on right now.

So about 2 and a half weeks ago, I adopted two female hairless rats from a woman whom could not take care of them anymore. They are about 10 months old, and are sisters.

Their names are Pinky and Violet. The last couple of days, Pinky has been scratching at her eyes a lot. Yesterday, my boyfriend and I woke up and her eyes were horribly swollen, had puss (white & red) was coming out of here eyes and they were completely swollen shut. She was rubbing them a lot, but besides that was acting completely normal, as if nothing was wrong with her.

Violet is perfectly fine, and her eyes are looking completely normal. They are both acting normal and everything, Just one of them looks as though she may have an eye infection or something.

At first, I thought it could be allergies, so I bought a bottle of 'Cage Clean' and completely cleaned out everything in their cage, including the cage. 

I've also been using Carefresh, and thought she may be allergic to something in it, so I ripped up a whole bunch of paper towel and put it down as temporary bedding.

Any suggestions? Anything I'm doing wrong? 

I've scheduled an appointment at the vet, but they couldn't get me in until Tuesday because it doesn't seem 'life threatening'.

Any at home remedies? I've put her in a luke-warm bath (using only water), and gently rubbed her eyes (got some of the 'gunk' off and she seemed to stop rubbing her eyes as much for about half an hour).

I'm really scared right now. Should I be separating them? I really don't want her to been deathly ill, but I also don't want to spread it to the other rat.

When I first got them, they seemed perfectly healthy. I haven't let them go near my rats other rats since I got them because I wanted to quarantine them for atleast a month.

ANYTHING would help. Sorry that this may be a bit long, I just really don't know what to do right now.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Vet as you know is first and foremost BUT go use or pickup some human grade eye ointment (NO steroids!). This can help a lot and will make her feel a ton better. Eye infections are common with nakies...poor little buggers.


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## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

Had these in kittens. All they will do is give you a medicated ointment for it. The white pus is the infection, the red is poryphin. Until you get to the vets, use a warm washcloth and compress it. It really helps. If you wipe away the white it will help, too.

THIS IS HUGE: REMOVE THE OTHER RAT. This type of infection is HIGHLY contagious. Even though the other rat has already been exposed, she needs to be put in a different cage with new bedding and sterile toys etc. Washing them in warm water with mild soap will do the trick. The cages need to be far enough away from each other that they cannot touch, or the infection will spread quickly. EVEN WHEN SYMPTOMS dissapear, continue the meds for as long as the vet says, I reccomend 4 days, twice a day of putting oitnment into her eye. Make sure that the other rat stays separated for the maximum incubation period after the currently afflicted rat is cleared up. I am not sure what it is in a rat. Once pinky is clear, sanitize her cage. I would just give it a wipe out every day with mild soap, to prevent buildup of the virus that causes this.


If this is what it suonds like, it is not severe, it looks much worse than it actually is.


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## ration1802 (Sep 25, 2007)

It doesn't have to be a virus that is the cause of eye problems. Rats, especially hairless, are highly succeptable to eye problems (abscesses, infections and other ocular ailments) so separating them when the other is showing no symptoms could be a little drastic.

I see this post is a month old; doopx, how did Pinky get on?


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