# cloudy swollen eye



## PaisleyClown

My rat's eye is swollen, leaking, and the eyeball is cloudy. My vet can't see her until Monday morning. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do between now and then to help her, to reduce the swelling or whatnot? Here are some pictures:



















Any help would be amazing.


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## lilspaz68

if you don't have metacam at home, then go pick up infant liquid ibuprofen like Advil or Motrin. This is for pain relief and for anti-inflammatory (swelling). If she is unable to close her eye then you will also need to pick up human eye ointment (no steroid) to keep the eyeball moist. If the 2nd pic is better at representing it, then it could just be an eye infection. If the eye becomes very cloudy and starts to really swell it could be something more worse like a punctured eyeball or scratch.

Post the concentration of the ibu and a guesstimate of your rat's weight and we'll work out a dosage for you.


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## ema-leigh

What lilspaz said. Get some pain meds to keep her comfy and help with swelling. Do you not know of any emergency vets open on weekends? That eye looks bad, it could be some sort of infection I'd he hesitate to leave it till Monday just in case.


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## PaisleyClown

Thank so much guys! I picked up some infant's ibuprofen and the swelling seems to be going down a tad. I used the dosage instructions at ratfanclub.org. Also, she can close her eyes, so I think she'll be ok without ointment. I'm unfortunately a bit limited in terms of getting Lucy to an emergency vet as I don't have a car at the moment, the engine died on mine about 2 weeks ago, and I just moved to Baltimore so I don't really know anyone who could give me a ride. There is a vet clinic that sees rats within walking distance of my house, but the soonest they could see her is Monday morning. Hopefully I can buy a car soon so I won't have this predicament again. Again, thanks!!!


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## ema-leigh

Is the red around the eye porphyrin staining... or red from swelling? Is there a smell of infection to the eye? 

My first guess would be she scratched the lens, in which case it might be healed in a few days. I would pick up some sensitive eye drops just to keep the eye flushed, cool and hydrated anyway.


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## PaisleyClown

The red is from swelling, no porphyrin to be seen, no smell of infection. There's a clearish discharge pretty much all the time. She is behaving normally, it just looks really grotesque. The eye is really cloudy now. Is it likely the eye will return to normal, or might it be cataracts? I guess I'll find out what the vet has to say in the morning. Poor girl...


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## PaisleyClown

OH MY GOD. I woke up this morning and went to check on Lucy and her "eye' is just a bloody mess. I'm wondering if due to the pain reliever she scratched out her eye, like she couldn't feel what she was doing to it.... I've found an emergency vet but I have no idea how to get there at this time in the morning. I don't have any cash on me for a taxi and I live in a seedy enough of an area that I don't feel comfortable going to an ATM at 5 AM. There's no way I'm taking a bus through that area of town right now, regardless I don't think the bus driver would let me on with a pet rat. The website for the emergency vet isn't working for me right now so I don't even know if the place is still open or not. I have no idea what to do for her right now. I feel awful. It looked like the eye was getting so much better last night before going to bed.


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## ema-leigh

If the red is from swelling, then its most likely infection. :-\ She may still be in pain and thats why she scratched it out. Or the eye may of died and she 'took care of it' 

I personally would double the dose of pain relief your giving her, make sure she has plenty of fluids and a clean environment.


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## PaisleyClown

Thanks for your help, ema-leigh. I'm really regretting not taking a taxi to an emergency vet on Saturday. I lost my job because my car died so I'm trying to pinch pennies. Remarkably, Lucy seems totally unfazed by her eye. It looks like the eye clotted, there's no more blood running down her face, and she's eating and drinking as usual.


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## ema-leigh

I wish I could be of more help :-\ The emergencies always happen on the weekends when your vet office is closed and the emergency vet is quite a journey away. 

Has she scratched out part of the eyeball itself? If so I would think she would now be blind in the eye and it would be permanent. I think the vet may even want to remove the entire eye itself. It shouldn't affect her really, they do not rely on their eyesight too much.


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## lilspaz68

Sounds like the eye isn't viable any longer. They can puncture their eyeball with a nail, a cagemate's nail, or they may have an abscess, tumor or infection behind the eye and there's also Glaucoma. 

I have dealt with eye injuries from fights (eye removal), Glaucoma (eye removal) and a punctured eyeball from a scuffle (she kept the eye but it took a long time for it to shrink and not be an issue with infection).

Pain meds are key, its possible the pain meds wore off and she scratched it then. Losing an eye isn't that important to a rat, its the infection you have to worry about.

2nd day after a scratch across the eyeball









months later









Glaucoma caused by traumatic injury


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## Kiko

My rat Curly had his eye bitten by a cage mate and it was severely perforated.
Lots of antibiotics, and painkillers, and eye drops and he is fine. Blind but fine.
Lucky he got to keep his eye, but I also got care for his eye within an hour of it happening thanks to a very nice Dog/Cat vet who took me on a moments notice.


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## PaisleyClown

The glaucoma pics look just like Lucy's eye before it burst. The vet said it likely ruptured due to an injury to the eye, and she gave me Gentamicin Sulfate Ophthalmic Solution eye drops to give her three times a day. I'm supposed to keep an eye on her for a week and if she shows no improvement I'll go back in and have the eye removed. Here's a current picture of the eye. It's kinda graphic:










I asked about pain meds and she said they wouldn't be necessary, that more often than not pain meds did more harm than good and interfered with the digestive tract.


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## ema-leigh

They said pain meds weren't needed? her eye is scratched out of her head.... :-\ they are VITAL!


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## PaisleyClown

The vet said the eye is still there, it just burst... or something. I couldn't tell what happened to her this morning because there was so much blood. I think I'm still gonna give her the infant ibuprofen. She's behaving fairly normally but I can tell she's in pain.


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## ema-leigh

The pain meds will stop her bugging it as much and help it heal - I don't think child's ibuprofen would really cut it. Whether the eye has burst or been scratched... she will be in lots of pain!! 

Honestly though I would not trust a vet who said pain meds were not needed in this case. I'd get a second opinion.


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## lilspaz68

I just have to say it.

YOUR VET IS AN IDIOT!

OK I feel better now.

yeah that eye is done. Drops are going to do frig all, its going to dry out and become infected and likely the rat could die.

The drops are to prevent this from happening. UGH. OK obviously not feeling that much better.

Please tell me you can find another vet???

Since we have gotten the gross pics out already...

this is Eli, a rescue who came to me with a severely damaged/dead eye









Unfortunately when Eli got stressed the pressure would bulge the eye out of his head









It would bother him and he would swipe at it









Then there'd be a bloody mess









We had Eli on both metacam and tramadol (2 strong pain meds) as well as antibiotics...

This is Eli the night after his eye was removed









and now


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## ema-leigh

Eli is exactly the handsome little guy that came to mind whilst reading this post. I remember how skinny he was too, he looks amazing! Great job Lilspaz! 

Even though the vet says the eye is still there, the amount of blood shows there is some pretty bad damage. No need to try save the eye the best thing would be a removal w/ pain meds.


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## PaisleyClown

I agree with what you guys are saying, I was really surprised the vet didn't want to take it out on Monday. I'm going to get a second opinion... for the time being she seems to be doing pretty well. The swelling is going down and the scab thing fell off, but her eyeball is pretty red, which I assume means there's blood in there. I had some pain meds left over from my other rat's tumor removal earlier this year, so I've been giving that to her. She seems to be leaving the eye alone, which I'm super happy about. Overall she's behaving normally.


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## lilspaz68

PaisleyClown said:


> I agree with what you guys are saying, I was really surprised the vet didn't want to take it out on Monday. I'm going to get a second opinion... for the time being she seems to be doing pretty well. The swelling is going down and the scab thing fell off, but her eyeball is pretty red, which I assume means there's blood in there. I had some pain meds left over from my other rat's tumor removal earlier this year, so I've been giving that to her. She seems to be leaving the eye alone, which I'm super happy about. Overall she's behaving normally.


I would definitely get the 2nd opinion if only to get oral abs just to prevent any infection. 

Glad to hear she is doing well, they are astounding creatures just dealing with things that would bring a human to their knees!!


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