eye

Question
Hi Pat,

Our oldest guniea pig has a bulge in the membrane of her lower eyelid; it could be pea-eye/fatty-eye, but I'm not sure. It's whitish-pink, and basically looks like her eyelid's drooping, and bulging slightly underneath, and flipping outward.

She's about four years old, and lives with one other female guinea pig.
We only noticed that something was wrong with her eye about a month ago, and it certainly wasn't there much for longer than that.

IS this something I ought to take her to the vet for? I have taken pictures, but I don't know how to send them here.

Thanks so much.

Jill

Answer
Good news!  This is nothing the vet can do, unless you want to pay for an expensive cosmetic surgery to fix what is commonly known as Pea Eye aka Fatty Eye.  The conjunctival membranes are simply showing because the lid has lost its elasticity.  Typically this presents itself by a year old, sometimes a bit later. But doesn't often happen at age 4.

This condition is harmless, painless and nothing more than cosmetic. It's rarely seen in pigs with a longer nose. It's all too common in those cute little bunny faces that we've bred for because they're considered more attractive than the long nose.

Judges always gravitate to the round nose pigs. And for that reason we keep replicating that face in our breeding programs.  But Mother Nature did not intend guinea pigs to have that kind of look. And anytime we start trying to 'improve' what nature gave us, we end up with problems. In this case genetic problems.

In some animals it's considered desirable, like Bassett Hounds. In your Doberman has it he is disqualified in the show arena. If a guinea pig has it on the show table, they too are disqualified.  

For those who don't show up for a year or two they've most probably been bred and this is a trait that is past on in the genes.  For that reason a pig with pea eye should not be bred.  Unfortunately there are breeders who are willing to take the risk for the sake of bringing home a few trophies and ribbons before it manifests itself. But that defeats the purpose of responsible breeding. A good breeder's goal should be to improve the line, not contaminate it.

So rest easy, this is not something that needs fixing. She's fine and will continue to be. She just has a droopy eyelid.