3122. Eyelid stye in a dwarf hamster that has a very painful eye.

Vet 1 referred owner to Vet 2 who diagnosed eyelid stye and prescribed eyedrops with steroid. But dwarf hamster still rubs his eye. So, came to me.

1. Evidence to show the owner. A good digital camera and lens collaborated with Vet 2's diagnosis.
However I provided the digital evidence to show the owner. This involved photoshop to enlarge the images.

Intense eye rubbing caused 90% of the corneal surface to be red due to bleeding. This was shown to the owner. Hence the eye is very painful. Home treatment applying eye drops was not effective. The hamster was hospitalised for 3 days to be treated with eye drops and painkillers and surgery (incision and drainage) if necessay.  



2. Corneal ulcers are painful. So I used fluorescein eye drops onto eye. No green stain on the cornea indicating no corneal ulcer.

VIDEO



TREATMENT
1. Antibiotic eye drops and oral painkillers for 2 days
2. Incise and drainage of eyelid stye as soon as possible, if the stye has not reduced.



CONCLUSION
Digital photography is very useful but it takes time and patience to acquire the skills to produce close up clear images to provide evidence to the worried hamster owner. The owner used her mobile phone to snap a picture but was not able to get the details as shown here. I used a Canon EOS 70D and macro lens.   

80% of the cornea is bleeding red, due to hard rubbing of the eye.

Eyelid stye (pimple) is also known as hordeolum. It is an infection of the oil gland of the eyelid. It can be inside the eyelid or outside. In this case it is inside. If the blocked oil gland is not infected, it is known as a chalazon which is not painful.  
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