# Porphyrin Around Eyes ALWAYS Mean Illness?



## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Got a rat with porphyrin around one eye and no other signs of illness. Does this require a vet visit? I do have some leftover respiratory medicine. Without going to get it right now, it isn't baytril or doxy... it is some pink stuff. I forget the name... that Chai was on for a respiratory infection. 

Should I start worrying or is a day or two with eye porphyrin normal?


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## erikablanchettexo (Nov 25, 2014)

It's normal for them to produce a little bit. I'd worry if it's an excessive amount to the point where it's a glob. 

Get some green tea bags and soak one in lukewarm water. Pat the tea bag so there's minimal water left inside and dab it on the eye that seems to have some porphorin it. Do it 2 times a day for 3-4 days and it should clear up


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## Roddy St. James (Jun 4, 2015)

some times rats just have a little extra and some times it happens if they have allergies and sneeze a lot, like my last rat. We also had a rat who's nose got caught in the cage door when he was little and he produced, (and sneezed out all over the wall next to his cage,) porphyrin for the rest of his life, but with out any other problems. If you see it often, then be worried, but the occasional eye leak or nose leak can happen with no harmful reason. Keep watch on them to see if their eye seems to be bugging them, because sometimes they can cause themselves to leak red if they fuss with it due to irritation


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## amandad (Apr 20, 2015)

I actually had a very similar experience with my girl, Elsa. She had some dry brownish/reddish crust around her eye (that I noticed on 6/5 or 6/6) and a bit of a runny nose (that I noticed only once - this time around - on 6/7). I took her to the vet today (as the runny nose seems to be a constant with her and I'm so afraid of my girls getting an upper respiratory infection) and he looked her over. Her nose was fine today and the eye crust stuff is actually some kind of glandular problem that rats can get around their eyes where they secrete blood (I still have to research what this condition is as my vet didn't remember what it was called). The vet just got the scab off with a wet cotton swab, told me she was fine and to go home. So, it may just be the glandular thing... Though, I am not an expert and I'm just basing this off of a similar experience I actually _just_ had, so if you feel your little rattie needs some vet attention, then you should take them.


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## liesel (Feb 13, 2013)

Sometimes its best just to check with a vet. but if it's just an eye thing you can maybe monitor it for a couple days and see what happens. If it goes away it may just be normal discharge but the problem is sometimes its much more serious. One of my girls had that as the first sign of a URI but another had that and it ended up being absolutely nothing. has anything changed in your rats life recently? my one girl got that once from stress. when we first got our cat there was about a week where kitty was getting all the attention and the rats were unintentionally kind of pushed aside. turns out even tho it was just a week and even tho 3 of my rats didn't care it stressed my one out so much it was causing the eye discharge. i took her to the vet and they determined nothing was wrong she was just stressed. we had to spend a little excess time with her for a bit to show that even though there's kitty smells nothings changed between mommy and rattie and mostly just that she still matters. now she's totally fine.


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## katwoe (Jun 2, 2014)

My hairless rattie often has porphyrin staining around his eyes. I usually keep an eye on it and see if it clears up/how consistent it is, it doesn't always lead to a resp infection.

Also, sounds like the pink stuff you have is amoxicillan which, as far as I know, goes bad after a couple weeks.


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