DawntheSnipe
Well-Known Member
Good evening all,
I've had a good deal of tragedy over the past couple of months--I lost two of my girls to PT, one within a week of me realizing she had the symptoms. Her sister, though, passed after a very odd problem with her eyes that I still don't understand.
Lexie had had a couple of minor eye infections in her left eye that we treated successfully with polydex drops. She (and her two sisters) had developed cataracts long enough ago that I don't remember when I first noticed them. In late May, however, the lens of her left eye looked like it expanded and turned a yellowish color.
I took her in to the vet, who offered to refer us to a veterinary ophthalmologist. Unfortunately, I was between jobs, so we put her back on drops and metacam until I could afford surgery. The area under her cornea filled with blood, and her eye swelled a bit, so the vet had me start putting lubricating drops in her eye as well. She seemed to be hanging in there, though she lost weight as they always seem to do when I have to administer eye drops.
I finally started a new job during the last week of June, so my husband took over administering the mid-day doses. I had been looking at her right eye for comparison to judge how her left was declining, and never noticed any problems with it. The surface of her left eye started becoming ulcerated, so I was counting the days until I got another paycheck.
You can probably imagine my horror when, upon checking on her and her sister after getting home from work on July 3rd, I discovered her huddled in the back of the cage bleeding profusely from her RIGHT eye. I had my husband drive us to the emergency vet immediately.
They found a perforation in her cornea, and prescribed a baytril/doxy combo in addition to refilling our metacam. She wouldn't eat baby food with the antibiotics mixed in, or drink from a syringe when we got home, but she ate a piece of banana.
With regret, I put an e-collar on her to keep her from scratching at her eye while I tried to get some sleep. I got up every couple of hours to offer her food and water, but she stopped accepting anything after about four in the morning.
We took her back to the emergency vet around ten to request stronger pain medication, as I feared her refusal of food was due to pain. Sadly, Lexie passed away while we were waiting to be seen.
The vet tech informed me after the vet examined her that he thought she might have had an auto-immune issue. I read everything on Rat Guide about eye ailments shortly after her left eye trouble began, and I don't remember seeing anything like this. I have only kept rats for five years now, and have never had any with serious eye conditions.
Have any of you had something similar to this happen? Did you find out a cause?
Thanks for helping me find some closure with poor little Lexie.
Dawn
I've had a good deal of tragedy over the past couple of months--I lost two of my girls to PT, one within a week of me realizing she had the symptoms. Her sister, though, passed after a very odd problem with her eyes that I still don't understand.
Lexie had had a couple of minor eye infections in her left eye that we treated successfully with polydex drops. She (and her two sisters) had developed cataracts long enough ago that I don't remember when I first noticed them. In late May, however, the lens of her left eye looked like it expanded and turned a yellowish color.
I took her in to the vet, who offered to refer us to a veterinary ophthalmologist. Unfortunately, I was between jobs, so we put her back on drops and metacam until I could afford surgery. The area under her cornea filled with blood, and her eye swelled a bit, so the vet had me start putting lubricating drops in her eye as well. She seemed to be hanging in there, though she lost weight as they always seem to do when I have to administer eye drops.
I finally started a new job during the last week of June, so my husband took over administering the mid-day doses. I had been looking at her right eye for comparison to judge how her left was declining, and never noticed any problems with it. The surface of her left eye started becoming ulcerated, so I was counting the days until I got another paycheck.
You can probably imagine my horror when, upon checking on her and her sister after getting home from work on July 3rd, I discovered her huddled in the back of the cage bleeding profusely from her RIGHT eye. I had my husband drive us to the emergency vet immediately.
They found a perforation in her cornea, and prescribed a baytril/doxy combo in addition to refilling our metacam. She wouldn't eat baby food with the antibiotics mixed in, or drink from a syringe when we got home, but she ate a piece of banana.
With regret, I put an e-collar on her to keep her from scratching at her eye while I tried to get some sleep. I got up every couple of hours to offer her food and water, but she stopped accepting anything after about four in the morning.
We took her back to the emergency vet around ten to request stronger pain medication, as I feared her refusal of food was due to pain. Sadly, Lexie passed away while we were waiting to be seen.
The vet tech informed me after the vet examined her that he thought she might have had an auto-immune issue. I read everything on Rat Guide about eye ailments shortly after her left eye trouble began, and I don't remember seeing anything like this. I have only kept rats for five years now, and have never had any with serious eye conditions.
Have any of you had something similar to this happen? Did you find out a cause?
Thanks for helping me find some closure with poor little Lexie.
Dawn
