And the Eyes Have It

8% of our critter eyes are busted....  that sounds like a lot - really its not - its two eye on two different critters.

First - I noticed that Winston (pig) had a red and swollen eye.  He has allergies so its not out of the realm of possibility for him.  I asked him to lay down for me and thankfully he is a pig who loves maintenance so he happily let me clean around his eye and flush his eye out with colloidal silver.  Upon further inspection his eye is good - not gunky and the eye itself does not look angry at all.  He has some sort of scratch or bite just below his eye.  So - tonight when I tucked him in he let me clean it again and put some Benedryl gel on it (being very careful not to get any too close to the eye itself).  The great thing about pig anatomy is that you can put topical medications on them - pretty much anywhere - and they are not built to lick or scratch it off.  Winston appears to be feeling super and the thing under his eye is purely superficial I am certain.  I will keep a close eye on him - no pun intended.

The second eye issue belongs to Oliver (kitty).  He has what we have affectionately named squinty eye.  Ollie was a stray who found his way into our world.  Since the beginning he has had one eye that seems to bug him at times.  The vet has repeatedly checked it and nothing ever shows up.  Every once in awhile when he is wrestling with Phoebe (kitty) or one of the ferrets he gets poked in the eye and then its really squinty.  It makes a bunch of gunk and he squints for a couple of days and then voila he is fine once again.  I have flushed it with colloidal silver to get rid of any foreign bodies and then I dosed him with a soothing feline eye ointment that I have from the vet.  Since this has happened several times over the years I expect that by early next week he will be back to 100% but of course I will keep a close watch.  He does make me laugh - over the course of the day I have gone down to critter land to check on him several times.  If he doesn't hear me come in I can watch him and he is still squinting but he is keeping his eye about 3/4 open.  When he sees me he holds it all the way shut - 'Oh, my eye.  I am so pathetic.  Love on me.'  Little stinker....

Other than the two eyes - the rest of the critter parts seem to be doing just great.

As always - I am not a vet and any treatment that you read about on my blog should be discussed with your own veterinary professional prior to trying on your critters.  I do what works for me but am not trying to give any sort of medical advice....