Squinting Rat!

[*Rebel_Angel*]

I dunno if any of u remember my sweet baby rat Jade, well she's not a baby anymore...still young but not baby.

She has the cutest face and deep piercing eye's (she looks at u and it's like she see's right down to ur soul which make's it impossible to deny her anything), well I noticed she's been squinting...and today she has eye boogies.

Infact now that I think of it I never saw her eyes she always has tiny eyes!

My question's:
Do some rats just have small eyes? Like no bug eyes.
And if not
What is this? eye infection..

 

[hopefloats]

I think a picture may help? Algernon squinted when he was a baby, he is a Pew. I think templeton does it when his eyes are itchy and annoyed. if she has eye guck, then it may be something in the eye, infection or scratch on the eye. Some of my boys have tiny eyes so I think the eye size can vary.

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

I just looked at her again, they seem to be light sensitive.
I'll get pics now!

 

[fenshae]

Pics would definitely help

Some rats do have a condition called "micro-eye" where the eye is smaller than normal, I believe they also have vision problems/blindness associated with that. It's fairly rare from what I understand.

Squinting & porph can also be a sign of pain. Awhile back my boy Stock (rip) was squinting and I was like "wtf? why are you always squinting?" and when I looked him over I realized he had an abcess on his "boy bits" which was causing him pain. Got him on some meds and cleaned out the abcess and suddenly he was big-eyed again!

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

Here are the pics!
Sorry for the hand, I couldn't get a pic of her face without it!

I think this is the best

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

She is squinting and I discovered something new..she dug a gash below her ear, poor kid!

How should I clean it for tonight?
Will prob. have to take her to the vet tomorrow!

Sorry for asking how should I clean out a wound..this never happened before and these are my first rats, call me unprepared :-(

I can't use peroxide since its so close to her ear?

 

[jorats]

Squinting is usually a sign of pain.
You can just flush the wound or dab a cloth in warm water with added salt. Do this once or twice. It will heal fast enough.

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

I fell so silly for asking this, english is my second language so how do u flush a wound?

And for the salt just plain old table salt?

Should I wait a few days before taking her in to the doc's to see if the sqinting was due to the wound, but she was squinting way befor the wound.
I know Kaina and Aili had a lil` dispute today for all I know maybe Jade was the cause and someone bit her, she was around when the dispute happened.

 

[Dazzle87]

Basically you just want to rinse out the wound.

I like epsom salt for this, but table salt in warm water works also.

To make it:

1 cup (8oz) warm water

1/2 tsp salt

 

[jorats]

Flush... Rinser la blessure, avec de l'eau avec du sel ajoute a l'eau.
Squinty can also mean stress.

 

[jorats]

Oh, I just saw the pictures, finally downloaded on my iPad... Its only in the one eye?