The protruding white or flesh-coloured thing you can see in the lower part of the eye in this photo is called Fatty-eye (or Pea-eye in America).
What is Fatty-Eye?
The term Fatty eye is used to describe a
permanent protrusion of the lower conjunctival sac. The
tissue involved is supposed to be associated with
the lachrymal gland of the eye. This
condition is inherited, but several different forms
of Fatty eye exist among the show cavies. Some gets big
and other sits in the corner of the eye. These different
forms have been reported as being separately inherited
from eachother. It is not uncommon that the animal have only Fatty-Eye in one eye. So does my pet cavy
Nemo, which is in the photos on this page.
Does it hurt the guinea pig?
To the right is a close-up of the photo of Nemo above.
Many guinea pig breeders state that Fatty-Eye is not
harmful to the guinea pig. This is not always true.
When The fatty-eye tissue grows big it really messes up the
guinea pig's ability to close it's eye properly,
thus the eye gets watery and runny. 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.
And then it will get runny and watery.
Only known cure:
Operation. To have the vet remove some of the extra tisue if the Fatty-eye
is big and irritating.
How to prevent:
Never breed from guinea pigs with Fatty-Eye!
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Photos by Eva Johansson.
Last update: 2nd of December 2005.