Cloudy eye

[leebishop]

Just been chatting to my goo's and realised Alan the eldest (about 3) has a slightly cloudy looking right eye. Bit worried it night be a cataract or he's starting to go blind in it.
Obviously going to book him into the vets by just wondered if anyone had come across this before?

[saddlers]

Cataracts are quite common in degus, they can be as a result of a poor diet, but it can also just be a genetic issue. When we adopted one of our degus he had a cataract in his one eye and he was less then 12 months old, he does just fine. What feed are your degus on?

[leebishop]

They have pets at home degu nuggets mixed with some of bags of dandelion suprise/ other leafy type mix mixed in, hay. Occasional treats and veg bits that's I've picked up from the forum.

[ntg]

It does sound likely to be a cataract, does it resemble these (maybe a bit less cloudy?)

[leebishop]

Yeah it looks like that, assumed it would be a cataract I must of scrolled straight past the thread near the top.
Is there much that can be done or just something that will be left? He seems fine in himself so not overly worried at the moment. He's just the oldest and our first goo so don't want him being ill.

[ntg]

Cataracts aren't necessarily the degu being ill, they are very prone to them but they can be an indicator of diabetes so if it's suddenly developed and he seems to be drinking and weeing a lot more than usual then it could be something to be concerned about. Alternatively it could be due to genetics from bad breeding or what we call an osmotic cataract, which can be reversible if they're on a good low-sugar diet with few cereals and large amounts of variety in plant matter, herbs and flowers.

The final alternative is that it's age-related, but I don't know how likely this is as (I'd say) he is only just over middle-age or so at 3.

[redheaddegu]

In humans cataracts are due to a combination of factors, genetics, old age and can be one of the complications of diabetes. I'd suggest talking to a vet and trying to dip the wee for glucose to check that his sugars aren't high.

I doubt that anyone operates on cataracts in degus - it's a tricky surgery in humans and we have bigger eyes! If the other eye is fine, then he can probably see well enough, but depth perception may be difficult. I remember reading a thread a while ago where someone had an elderly and almost blind degu. They set the cage up so that he could find his way around using his whiskers (ie no leaps of faith onto a ledge) then didn't change it, so he didn't go bumping into things. I'd observe him for a while and see how is getting on, then think about setting up the cage so loss of depth perception isn't such a problem (ie if he's a bit off when jumping for a ledge etc, he isn't going to fall any distance and hurt himself)