Bulging eyes, tear stains, bleeding.. Help Please!

[hoiitsjade]

My Hedggies name is Cheesecake <3 She is so lovely and small. She was also the runt of the group. She's very sweet and friendly towards everyone.. of course she has her off days.
I check on her every morning, and make sure she has water and just check if she is okay. Yesturday she was just fine, a little cranky than normal.. but why wouldn't they be cranky 11 in the morning?
This morning I checked on her.. I saw the tear stains.. :/ it wasn't normal and I looked at her face on.. her right eye is bigger than her left eye.. it looked like it was bulging out. It was red.. some blood in the corner of her poor eye.. it was clouded over. It freaked me out.. she was acting like normal, eating and drinking water just fine. She even let me touch the tear stain.. or blood stain.
I took her to the vet and she gave me these medicated eye drops (I have to put it on the eye 3 times a day) and I have to feed her this medicine (once a day)
She told me a lot of things it could be.. she didn't have the answer..They said if it didn't help they would have to remove the eye.. :,(

Does anyone know the cause of this problem?
She's my widdle baby and i'm worried about her.

[Nancy]

She is adorable.

Sad to say, but this is fairly common with hedgehogs and can be for numerous reasons. Hedgehogs have very shallow eye sockets and the least bit of trauma can cause the eye to proptose (bulge out). She could have scratched at it. Sometimes but less common is a tumour.

When the eye bulges out, they can no longer blink so the eye starts to dry out which is why it looks cloudy. She is possibly blind now, or at the least limited vision in that eye.

What medications did the vet give you? Usually they are put on pain meds. She may scratch at the eye and may actually dig it out. Yes I know, this sounds horrible but they don't seem to be affected too much by doing it, especially if they are on pain meds.

You can get the eye removed and then the socket will be stitched closed. after a few weeks, you wouldn't even know there was an eye there.

If you look here https://www.hedgehogcentral.com/forum...-samson-2.html you can see my Samson. who was found on the street and lost both his eyes. His eyes were removed and stitched closed. I have some new photos of him to post but can't even tell he had eyes.

[abbys]

Disclaimer: I am not a hedgie health expert, so if a breeder responds definitely listen to them instead.

Sometimes hedgehogs get tumors in their heads and when it gets big enough it starts to put pressure on the eye causing it to bulge out. But I think that there are usually other signs that something's wrong by the time it gets that big (I think). Has she been acting differently in the past few weeks?

The discharge from her eye makes me think it could be an infection, but like the vet said it could be a lot of things. If she does end up losing her eye, don't worry. Lots of hedgies have gone on to have long fulfilling lives with just one eye.

Hopefully a breeder will come along and be able to tell you more.

P.s., she's a beautiful little girl!

Edit: Oops, too slow. Disregard my post, listen to Nancy.

[hoiitsjade]

Thank you guys for the fast replies. I'll see what happens in a week with this medication the vet gave me. Hopefully it's just pink eye.. I know when they get pink eye, it bulges out because of it being swollen.. If not i'll have to find a place to take out her poor little eye..