Post by Orlaith on Dec 9, 2013 16:16:48 GMT
I forgot to post on this at the time, but anyway.
At the start of November I discovered that my piggy Maggie is blind. A few times over the last few months I've thought her eyes had a bit of a blue-grey cast to them, but when I looked closer it seemed to be just the way the light was hitting them. But at the start of November there I saw that one of her eyes was properly blue with no sign of injury and since I was going to the vet anyway I took her along to get looked at.
The vet looked at both her eyes and confirmed that she had cataracts and no trauma to the surface of either eye. She had minimal vision remaining at that stage. Since she's so young (just over a year), we assume it's genetic, although we have her mother and three siblings, none of whom have eye problems so far (touch wood!).
Since the diagnosis both her eyes have gone a sort of white-blue, so there's no mistaking it for a trick of the light any more, and she is now completely blind. If I'm very quiet and not smelling of veggies I can put my hand right above her head without her reacting at all. It doesn't appear to bother her in the slightest. She's always one of the first to get her veggies and she doesn't seem to bump into things - although sometimes other pigs get in her way. Mostly they know to move but since Persephone is new she hasn't properly realised that if she stands in front of Maggie and Maggie bumps into her that it's not personal, Maggie just didn't know she was there.
I'll get some pictures when there's good light so ye can see what her eyes are like.
Her prognosis is good. She shouldn't have any different of a life-span than other pigs, although I do have to check her eyes weekly. Sometimes as cataracts become old they can cause a little pain, so I just press gently on her eyes (with them closed, of course!) once a week to ensure that doesn't hurt her. Hopefully it will never be an issue, but if it does then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
At the start of November I discovered that my piggy Maggie is blind. A few times over the last few months I've thought her eyes had a bit of a blue-grey cast to them, but when I looked closer it seemed to be just the way the light was hitting them. But at the start of November there I saw that one of her eyes was properly blue with no sign of injury and since I was going to the vet anyway I took her along to get looked at.
The vet looked at both her eyes and confirmed that she had cataracts and no trauma to the surface of either eye. She had minimal vision remaining at that stage. Since she's so young (just over a year), we assume it's genetic, although we have her mother and three siblings, none of whom have eye problems so far (touch wood!).
Since the diagnosis both her eyes have gone a sort of white-blue, so there's no mistaking it for a trick of the light any more, and she is now completely blind. If I'm very quiet and not smelling of veggies I can put my hand right above her head without her reacting at all. It doesn't appear to bother her in the slightest. She's always one of the first to get her veggies and she doesn't seem to bump into things - although sometimes other pigs get in her way. Mostly they know to move but since Persephone is new she hasn't properly realised that if she stands in front of Maggie and Maggie bumps into her that it's not personal, Maggie just didn't know she was there.
I'll get some pictures when there's good light so ye can see what her eyes are like.
Her prognosis is good. She shouldn't have any different of a life-span than other pigs, although I do have to check her eyes weekly. Sometimes as cataracts become old they can cause a little pain, so I just press gently on her eyes (with them closed, of course!) once a week to ensure that doesn't hurt her. Hopefully it will never be an issue, but if it does then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
