Eye question

Question
My guinea pig Zuzu is 5 years old.  I think she has developed "pea eye."  She has a droopy eye with a pinkish whitish ring on the bottom of her eye. This tissue is showing but it's not protruding out.  I was wondering if there is anything I can do to help it go away.  I saw at another site they suggested guinea pigs need more exercise.  She really isn't that "fat" and she has a pretty good diet  I'm concerned she can't blink very well though. (She can only go about halfway it looks like.)  My parents will not take her to the vet though.  Is there anything I can do? :/ Could I give her basic eye lubrication drops to help her blink?  If I can at least give eye drops how often would a guinea pig blink?

Thanks so much!

Answer
Ash,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I've been working over time at work and also needed to do a little checking into your Question as it has been sometime since I've seen or dealt with pea eye.

Pea eye is a relatively harmless to the Guinea Pig. When Zuzu can not blink at all then you'll need to take her to the vet. It is prbable that the guinea pig feels pain when it cannot blink because of the protruding fatty-eye tissue.
Blinking is supposed to wipe the eye clean and keep it moistured. So when the guinea pig cannot blink the eye may get dry, which may involve pain on the part of the guinea pig. Also dirt will stay in the eye because the guinea pig cannot blink and clean the eye properly. Blinking is a complicated process in which all kinds of dirt in the eye is removed. If this does not work properly the dirt will stay. The eye may start to hurt because it is both dry and there is dirt in the eye.

Human eye drops can harm a Guinea Pigs eye so that isn't a good idea at all. Regular water in a little dropper will work much better. Just a little drop of that every say 2 to 3 hours may help in keeping the eye moist and such.

Make sure she is getting plenty of water, and vitamin C along with A and E as that has been known to reduce the pea eye so that she is better able to blink.

If it does get bigger to the point where she can't blink at all then she'll diffidently need to see the vet no matter what. Other wise she'll just be in pain and that isn't fair to her.

I hope this helps and that everything is alright with Zuzu.
                Take care now,
                     Jules