Irritated Eye Not Getting Better

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mariethomas

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
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Location
Ecuador
Hello!
I wasn't sure if I should have posted this in my previous thread. As I posted a few weeks ago, Casper was prescribed eye drops for his irritated eye. I believe that was for 3 days, every 6 hours.

It all started when I noticed one of his eyes was red. I thought it was irritation from dust or his bedding. I waited a week, it didn't pass. I brought him to the vet, the vet said he was fine.

Another week later, I brought him to the vet for the eye, again, and only then did he say it was irritated. He prescribed eye drops. The problem was one of his eyes was red, but we treated both eyes.

After 3 days, his eyes still weren't clear again. So it went on another 5 days after that. Once again, waited, eyes weren't clear again. The next time I phoned him he made me bring him in. This time and the last time we were there - he prescribed new eye drops. 3 drops in each eye, every 8 hours. We just finished treatment and nothing. His eyes are still the same, maybe even worse. Of course, this has been a span of almost 5 weeks.

I don't know what to do. I don't want any infection he might have to spread. No other animal in the house has eye issues. I don't know how he got it in the first place, but I do have an idea of what had caused it. Maybe it's a combination of dust particles, or Samoyed fur stuck in the carpet? I think he contracted whatever he did from his liter box. He digs in it, flops, and then cleans his little face all while in the company of his own poo. I've been following him around cleaning his droppings because I had to take the litter box away. :( We do not have different types of bedding here. I can post what kind I use, but I don't think it's necessary.

He doesn't seem to be in any pain, or uncomfortable. He has always had bright happy eyes that are always wide, and they still are that way. With the exception of tonight - he was squinting the eye that is worse for the first time.

Not all the eye drops are accurate of course because he hates receiving them, he closes his eyes and will not open them. Some might fall around the eye and I'll try to push them back in - but it's not the same.

Is it possible to wash his eye out with something? I haven't seen any pictures of articles on what my bun seems to have. And no, the vet did not check my buns teeth, just an examination of his eye. Casper is very happy, and has no discharge, no fur loss, no tears. I haven't got a picture of his eye in quality, and he doesn't enjoy flash. As you can see in the picture, the corner of his eye has that small drop of almost like a discharge? Sorry, I don't know what to call it. That has been there for weeks. I'm too afraid to touch his eyes thinking I might be doing more harm than good. I'm calling my vet soon to see what he thinks. Thanks so much.

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is the eye swollen at all?

Other than being red his eye looks good. So I would be wondering what causes the redness.
 
Maybe a second opinion wouldn't go astray in this matter
 
What symptoms are you seeing exactly, that makes you think there is something wrong with the eye? Also if you can get a better picture(without the eye reacting to the camera flash) showing what exactly you see is wrong.

What type of eye drops has the vet prescribed so far?
 
No, the eye is not swollen at all. I have an idea of another small pet vet I could bring him to, but she only does injections and refuses to tell me what's in them. She's done it twice in the past and I only go to her as a last resort.

I will admit his eye does look better in the photo than in reality. No other symptoms as of right now. I can't manage to get a good picture because I'm not with him during the day, and his fluff in the darkness does not come out very well, so that's why I had to use flash. As you can see, in the very corner of his eye it's almost completely a dark brown, not white. It almost seems as if it has a very thin, veil like thing in the corner of the eye as well. That's the issue really, the rest of the eye from what I see, is fine.

The first eyedrops he prescribed were an antibiotic & anti-inflammatory for eyes and ears. 10ml. The second, it doesn't say, but I suppose the same thing. Here are the ingredients if anyone is interested.
neomycin sulfate...500mg
Prednisolone sodium phosphate...144mg
chlorobutanol...500mg

Then, after these failed to help, he gave me a prescription to fill for Oftagen eyedrops.
gentamicin (as sulphate)...300mg
benzalkonium chloride, disodium phosphate, sodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium metabisulfite, sodium chloride, purified water.

I think I might ask the vet if there's something he can take orally instead?
 
A better way to describe his eye would be, a blocked tear duct.
Now I'm thinking he could possibly have elongated teeth or even an abscess? I don't even want to think of these possibilities since they both require surgery I don't have a vet for. I'm just praying it's an infection that we can try to flush.
Two different types of eye drops has not helped at all. He never has any other symptoms or discharge, not even watery eyes. So I have nothing to report to the vet other than the irritation is not getting any better.
I've attached the best photos I've ever taken of it. I apologize for the red eye and blur. These are from two days ago, taken within minutes of each other.
In the first photo I've divided the problem area into three areas to better see it. Discharge (which is actually just occasionally sleep crust), the darkened tear duct itself, and then where his third eyelid comes in I suppose, this being the area I describe as veil like. It's also very prominent. The second photo is what it looks like if you weren't to suspect anything, but it's still subtly there. And the last photo of course is blurry - but it is the actual redness itself. I have a feeling if I bring him back to the vet he'll just prescribe antibiotics...and not suggest an x-ray or anything of the sort.
Casper needs to be treated for fleas, but I'll have to wait to get something suitable for rabbits sent to me from the US, because we have nothing here. Hopefully his eye situation is as simple as him scratching himself in the eye.
Thanks in advance.

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moo.jpg

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If he doesn't have watery eyes, I doubt it is a blocked tear duct, as that would cause his tears to not drain, causing runny eyes. And since there is no discharge, possibly not an infeciton. A little bit of crusties in the corner of the eye each day is pretty normal. Most rabbits will clean it out themselves. It's when there is runny or thick discharge that it is a problem. And this will become aparent by thickened discharge in the eye, or wet and/or crusty fur in the corner of the eye.

It's possible that elongated tooth roots is causing the irritation, or possibly an abscess, but I would expect you to be seeing more severe symptoms if it was one of these(but not always). Without further testing it would be hard to determine if either of these is the cause, and if your vet isn't experienced with anesthetizing rabbits, I don't know that I would risk putting your bun under GA for xrays. And even then, if somethibng was found on xrays, not sure what your vet would be able to do about it besides prescribe meds.

I have one other thought that may be a possibility. Is there some hair loss on the skin there at the corner of the eye? Are you seeing any crusting or lesions on the skin itself? If so, check around the mouth, nose, and genitals for any similar crusting, lesions, and inflammation.

If you can, a close up picture of the good eye might be helpful to compare with.
 
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My vet is going to going to neuter one of our dogs, but he is a cat and dog surgeon. While I don't doubt him helping our rabbit, I don't know if I would trust him with surgery on my bun.
Maybe I should mention that he's been making new noises while grooming himself. I didn't find anything online, nor do I know how to describe them so I managed to take a video of them. You can hear them 0:07 - 0:09, 0:16 - 0:20, 0:25 - 0:30. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not. Hopefully he's just commenting on his fur.
I observed everything you suggested and it's all fine. No crusting, hair loss, or inflammation. However, the hair on the back of his neck is thinner due to scratching. It's pretty clear in the video.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdnEDMT8i3U&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

About two weeks ago I noticed while petting his head he had something odd. He usually gets pellets stuck inside his hair so I thought it was one, until I found nothing and it just felt like a small bump on his head. I searched for it by parting his hair and it was just a tiny white scab, basically a flake of dry skin. It was coming off, so I carefully brushed it out. It was white and tiny, and the "bump" that I was feeling was just a small white flake. I checked the area again, and there was none left, and no injury. Again, I believe it was from scratching his face. I didn't think it was necessary but I circled the area the little flake was found just in case.
I've attached a clearer photo of his eye, sorry I really can't get too close or it won't focus.
Thanks a lot for your help JBun, you've been a tremendous help from the beginning. :)

CASPEREYES.jpg

CASPERHEAD.jpg
 
Hi mariethomas, I am a very newbie to buns but thought I'd add my similar experience with my bun 'Wilbur'.
He had same irritated eye thing,it never really got yucky but always looked wet around the fur and looked like he'd been scratching it. Vet gave me antibiotics for it but never made a difference, the eye never got worse but never better either.
Then it clicked to me that this silly bun was sticking his head under the pellet container in his greed to get his pellets, I thought you stupid mummy, you've been doing this to your bun. I have since changed how I put the pellets in his bowl and haven't had any eye issues.

I hope you can work out what is irritating your bun,goodluck

cheers shooni
 
Marie, his little squeaks he's making sound normal. If he's having occasional dry flakes and scratching at his neck he may just have sensitive skin. Maybe it's something worse, but maybe not :) Is it cold in your house at night? Once when the power was out on my street in winter my Faye had terrible eye gook the next morning :( I felt so bad (I'd tried adding extra blankets and some warm water bottles to help keep them warm that night) but she was fine after that so no harm done. I have noticed a bit more of 'normal' eye gook or crusties during the winter as compared to the summer. I'm not sure how cold it gets in Ecuador right now.
 
Hi all. Thanks for your replies.
In the afternoon he was laying down with one eye closed, and the other fully open. So an hour after that I took him to the vet to get his eye checked out again. The vet said it was fine, and that it looked a lot better than last time. Basically that it's irritation and inflammation was gone. Honestly, it did look a lot better in the vets office. I mentioned how prominent his third eyelid had become and basically what he explained was that it was no big deal, and it was simply his eye protecting itself. But his eye still looks red to me.
He doesn't make the sound in the video that often anymore. Yes, it's always cold here and at night he always has a thick blanket over his cage.
He's been acting more hormonal lately, and he's always had perfect behavior. Today he was under the bed when I decided to give him a treat, and he ended up charging and biting me hard. There was three of us in the bedroom, and he ended up charging at all of us afterwards. He does this to our dogs, but the only human he ever does this to is my brother, it was really surprising.
 
I'm not quite sure what to tell you. Without access to a good rabbit vet that can do the proper diagnostics to find the cause of the problem and properly treat it, it makes it very difficult to know what else you can do to help your bun. If it were tooth root problems or an abscess, this would really require an experienced rabbit vet to treat.

The new aggression your bun is exhibiting could be due to him not feeling well and experiencing some pain. All I can think is that you could try the pain reliever meloxicam if you have it available to you there. If he does have tooth root problems, this should help some.
 

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