Poorly eyes

[skilly16]

I took our little Polo to the vets as we went on holiday for 3 weeks and when we got back he had quite noticeable cataracts in both eyes! His eyes were normal before we went. Is this normal for them to appear so quickly?
It also made me think it must have happened quickly because he was banging into things and almost falling off shelves in his cage.

Any advice or will he just adapt? The vet wasn't helpful in any way! His brother is being a bit strange around him since - will he know Polo is blind/near blind?!

Not sure if this link will work- s1305.photobucket.com/user/skilly1616/library/Polo

[moletteuk]

Yes, they look like cataracts, and yes, they can come on very quickly, seemingly overnight sometimes.

He should adapt quite well given some time and if you avoid lots of rearrangements in the cage. Joey may not understand about Polo's vision and it may be that Polo is not responding normally to social cues from Joey simply because he can't see them, and Joey may be offended that Polo is ignoring requests for grooming and other important social things. Hopefully they will figure it out.

Have they been fed completely normally while you have been away? Is there a chance they have been fed extra grains, carbohydrates, high sugar veg or even fruit? A common type of cataracts is osmotic cataracts which is a response to too much carbohydrate in the diet being digested too quickly causing too much glucose in the body. Even if there was no change in diet while you were away it is well worth going over their diet and making sure any pellets are grain free, making sure they get plenty of forage, and eliminating any other high carb foods.

See food guide and I think beginner's guide mentions cataracts:
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16425/degu-feeding-guide
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/19754/beginners-guide-degu-keeping

[skilly16]

Thanks for the response.

They've been fed the same while we've been away apart from maybe a few more (sugar free) treats.

I've gone out today and bought a new food to mix in with their old 'pellets' that's pretty much forage-y, it's got bran, hay, fescue hay, grasses, alfalfa, straw, barely, birch, hibiscus and nettle.
I'll see if that makes any difference as I did think it could have been osmotic cataracts.

Makes sense what you said about Polo 'ignoring' the social cues. Hopefully they'll be ok!