Bloody places around her eyes

[ChinaBun]

Hi all. I haven't been on here for a long time,but I find it has a wealth of information. I've been researching the Infirmary branch today, since during the night something happened to my rabbit's face. Next to her left eye there is a plug of hair the size of a pencil eraser missing, with a sore below it. And above her eye is what seems to be a scratch. Her eye may or may not have blood it in; I can't tell for sure. She is eating and playing fine. I washed out the wounds and she allowed me to touch them. She didn't whine or make any noises to show me that they hurt, even when I touched the wounds. When she has a stomachache (from too many carrots, for example), she makes a noise that shows she's in pain. But no noise today. I was scratching behind her little ears (well, her big ears!) yesterday and didn't notice any facial problems. My guess is that she cut herself on something in her room yesterday, though I'm not sure how she managed to lost that small plug of hair. She's not shedding much now, so that's not it. I've been reading on here, and it looks like what I should do is put some antibiotic ointment on the sores. I have a Bacitracinointment that I brought from the US. I googled it and it's one of the three components of Neosporin, so I'm assuming that it would be fine,as long as I keep it out of her eye.

If she's worse tomorrow I'll take her to a vet. AFAIK there is no rabbit-savvy vet in my city, but I'm thinking that a skin problem like this could also be treated by a cat or dog vet. Today is a holiday,otherwise I would have taken her today. Plus, she is showing no signs of discomfort and the wounds don't look bad, once you get used to the idea of your sweet rabbit being injured.

Thanks for reading!

Nancy in Xi'an, China, wishing you and yours a Happy New Year

 

[Pipp]

I think you're doing everything right.Is there somewhere she could have tried to stick her head that didn't quite fit? One of my bunny sitting charges just crawled under my stove, I never would have thought he could have fit there. :shock:

And you're sure nothing could have bitten her?

As for the blood in the eye, Pipp got swatted by a cat once (the cat was defending herself), and it nicked her third eyelid -- I guess they have an instant 'close' reflex. Looked terrible, but the vet just shrugged it off.

Also carefully check her nails, she could have one that's loose or crooked and it caught her the wrong way when she was scratching or grooming.

Let us know how she is!

And you'vebeen missed! Glad to see you back, Chinabun, hope you stick around!



sas

 

[ChinaBun]

Thank you so much for the reply! I caught her again and looked at the wounds and they are still simple wounds. Her eye has no blood in it. She has a scratch above the eye and an area where there's been a plug taken out next to the eye. I put some antibiotic ointment on the wounds and checked her front nails, but she escaped before I could check her back nails. I saw that it is time to cut them again. I can't do it alone, so I'll call a student and have her help me tomorrow. I think you are right that she either stuck her head in the wrong place or, more likely, cut herself scratching. I'll look around her room again for any dangerous places (but they make danger for themselves sometimes, don't they?!) and cut her nails tomorrow.

Thanks for the welcome. Maybe a new year's resolution would be to visit TO more often!

Nancy

 

[naturestee]

Hi Nancy! Long time, no see!

I wonder if maybe she was spooked and hurt herself that way?

How deep is the wound? If sounds like you're doing everything right to take care of the wound. Just keep a really close eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected. As long as it looks okay and isn't very deep you probably won't need to take her to the vet.

Keep us updated!

 

[ChinaBun]

Sorry I haven't updated this! China is experiencing Internet problems due to an underwater fiber-optic cable that was damaged in an earthquake close to Taiwan. It was fortunate that I had a good connection the day I needed it, with poor Qingqing hurt, but then I lost it for several days. Yahoo must have a server in China, because I can check my email, but I can't get to most other sites.

My bunny's wounds are healing well! Thanks again for the advice, not only here but in other threads that I consulted. I decided not to take her to the vet on the 2nd (which was also the second day after she hurt herself) because I didn't think that they would do anything more than what I was already doing. I was putting an antibiotic ointment on it twice a day and keeping a watch on her, as well as giving her her usual veggies and letting her run free in the apartment. The wound is clean and now has a scab. The cut over her eye apparently is healing, but I can't see it due to her fur. Actually, I think it was more of a scratch than a cut.

Of course I'll never know what happened, but what I think happened is she was scratching her head with her rear foot and was distracted by something and got too close to her skin and cut herself. When my student and I cut her nails (I hold and my student clips) the nails didn't seem to be too long, but nevertheless I will be more careful about cutting them regularly. It had been about six weeks.

So this story has a happy ending!

Nancy

 

[LuvaBun]

Hi Nancy. Glad to hear that Qingqing seems to be doing OK - well done for taking such good care of it! I don't know,these bunnies always semm to be getting into some kind of trouble:disgust:. I guess they just like to keep us on our toes

Jan