Joined
·
209 Posts
Hey guys!
During the past couple of weeks one of my ratties (Pop) has had a bit of porphyrin staining on his right eye, on and off.He's about 1 year old, and he's never had this problem before... I don't know what's wrong, and what I can do to help. :/
There have been some days where it's quite "dramatic" (teary looking eye and a porphyrin all around it), but most days it's just a small little rim or a couple of dots. A couple of times it looked like it had sorted itself out, only to come back again. His left eye is perfectly normal.
I think he's acting like his usual self - doesn't seem particularly lethargic (he's as lethargic as any 1-year-old male rat. haha) and he definitely has an appetite. He doesn't seem to scratch at his eye or anything like that either. My partner says he's a bit slower in his movements, but I don't agree, tbh...
Here's all I came up with in terms of changes to his environment:
- DST. I live in Sweden, so the days are really short and dark all of a sudden.
- Central heating is on now, but it's been on for well over two weeks, I'm pretty sure of it. It's been freezing.
- I deep cleaned their cage and everything around it a few days/a week before the eye problems started. I didn't use any chemicals on the cage itself, but I did use some Mr. Muscle on the wall and floor around the cage. I washed it thoroughly afterwards though, of course!
- I refilled their homemade food mix. The ratios might vary a bit, but I have a pretty steady selection of ingredients. Nothing weird has been added.
My other rat, Stig, is perfectly fine. He's his usual happy, healthy, chubby little fella.
I've cleaned Pop's eye with cotton and warm water a couple of times when it looked more uncomfortable, but mostly I let it be rather than stress him out further (he HATES IT when I clean it). I have also been giving him echinacea on and off, since it helped him before when he had the sneezies, but I'm not sure if it helps with whatever is wrong now.
His eye doesn't look too bad at all today, but since the problem has been persisting I can't just hope that it won't be worse again tomorrow... Here's how his eye looks now.
I'm really at a loss here. I would have taken him to the vets by now, but our financial situation makes that really really difficult... I though I'd ask here if anyone has any clue what might be the problem - if it's something serious I can try to pull some strings to get him treatment. I just want him to feel OK, the poor little thing... I feel like a bad rat mommy.
During the past couple of weeks one of my ratties (Pop) has had a bit of porphyrin staining on his right eye, on and off.He's about 1 year old, and he's never had this problem before... I don't know what's wrong, and what I can do to help. :/
There have been some days where it's quite "dramatic" (teary looking eye and a porphyrin all around it), but most days it's just a small little rim or a couple of dots. A couple of times it looked like it had sorted itself out, only to come back again. His left eye is perfectly normal.
I think he's acting like his usual self - doesn't seem particularly lethargic (he's as lethargic as any 1-year-old male rat. haha) and he definitely has an appetite. He doesn't seem to scratch at his eye or anything like that either. My partner says he's a bit slower in his movements, but I don't agree, tbh...
Here's all I came up with in terms of changes to his environment:
- DST. I live in Sweden, so the days are really short and dark all of a sudden.
- Central heating is on now, but it's been on for well over two weeks, I'm pretty sure of it. It's been freezing.
- I deep cleaned their cage and everything around it a few days/a week before the eye problems started. I didn't use any chemicals on the cage itself, but I did use some Mr. Muscle on the wall and floor around the cage. I washed it thoroughly afterwards though, of course!
- I refilled their homemade food mix. The ratios might vary a bit, but I have a pretty steady selection of ingredients. Nothing weird has been added.
My other rat, Stig, is perfectly fine. He's his usual happy, healthy, chubby little fella.
I've cleaned Pop's eye with cotton and warm water a couple of times when it looked more uncomfortable, but mostly I let it be rather than stress him out further (he HATES IT when I clean it). I have also been giving him echinacea on and off, since it helped him before when he had the sneezies, but I'm not sure if it helps with whatever is wrong now.
His eye doesn't look too bad at all today, but since the problem has been persisting I can't just hope that it won't be worse again tomorrow... Here's how his eye looks now.
I'm really at a loss here. I would have taken him to the vets by now, but our financial situation makes that really really difficult... I though I'd ask here if anyone has any clue what might be the problem - if it's something serious I can try to pull some strings to get him treatment. I just want him to feel OK, the poor little thing... I feel like a bad rat mommy.