We had planned to spend a nice, restful weekend out at the farm this past holiday weekend. We did end up doing that, but it didn’t start the way we expected. As we were getting ready to hit the road, my wife ran downstairs to check on the rabbit and guinea pig one more time and to top off their food and water since we wouldn’t be home for a couple of days. She noticed that Cinnamon, the guinea pig, hadn’t touch his food from the previous night, which was odd, since he was always a good eater. She peered into his cage and he look fine, but she decided to pick him and looked right as his cute little face and then gasped in horror. His left eye was literally bulging clear out of the socket. It was right out of a horror film gross. I’m not kidding. I thought for sure we would be saying goodbye to our beloved little pig.

Fortunately, our good friend Brek, who is also our vet, was working a fill-in vet for a clinic nearby our house on Saturday. She gave him a call and he said, “Bring him right in.” Brek looked him over and was astounded at the eye. He’d never seen one that bad. Apparently, rodents are peculiar in the reactions to eye injuries. If they injure an eye, even with something as simple as a scratch, their immune systems can kick into overdrive and cause their bodies to literally reject the eye, which is his theory as to what happened to Cinnamon. After his exam, his initial reaction was not what we wanted to hear — he didn’t think there was anything we could do and that we should consider putting him down. After a few minutes of thinking about it though, he changed his mind. He said, “Actually, there is one thing I could do. If this were to happen to a dog or cat, I’d surgical remove the injured eye, sew the eyelid shut, and then treat for infection. I’ve never done that type of surgery to a guinea pig, but the surgery is relatively straight forward. We could try that on Cinnamon if you are willing to let me try.” We thought about and decided to go ahead. An hour later, we had a one-eyed guinea pig.

So far, the recovery seems to be going pretty well. My wife has been giving him pain medicine twice a day and oral antibiotics. His little face is swollen, but even that seems better tonight. He’s eating again too. I guess time will tell, but I have much higher hopes that the little guy will pull through. Who’d thought?

If he survives, we’ll be making him a little pirate’s eye patch for him to wear on Halloween. Don’t you think that’s a good idea? Keep the little guy in your prayers.

–Pete