Buns STILL not opening his eye?!

[lauren8165]

My bun had a very serious eye injury about a month go. The infection he got after the injury is almost completely gone, but he STILL won't open his eye. Swelling has 100% gone away, so I don't know if he is purposefully keeping it closed or what. I have to really get in there and pry it open just to clean it and even then I can only get a tiny crack open. It's impossible(for me at least) to know what's going on wirh the eye itself, because it's still hard to tell what's the injury, what's the left over infection, what's the scar tissue, and what's the actual eye. Just so much going on in there right now. Vet says it's too soon to tell if it's scar tissue or just the eye healing.

So, my question is:
Anyone that has experience with eye injuries know if it's normal for his eye to still be closed?

 

[Aki]

I can't offer much input except that no, a rabbit is definitely not keeping his eye closed on purpose. That's going against all of his instincts. So if he is not opening his eye it means he can't. Is your vet an ophtalmologist? Eyes are very delicate things, but in my experience when they can heal, they do so pretty fast - my dog injured his eye while running around last summer and it was a real pain to cure (you had to wash it and put a antibiotics in his eye every 2 hours and he hated it... he had to wear a cone too and was terrified of it ^^') but after five days his eye was completely cured. And from what I've seen that's the same for human eyes so I would think rabbit's eyes would be more or less the same. I might be wrong though. If you are worried, is there no way to consult an ophtalmologist?

 

[lauren8165]

Vet is not an ophthalmologist, but has over 30 experience with rabbits. I love him, but I think I am going to ask for a referral to an opthalmologist. We have done SO much for the eye and spent so much money already and I always leave feeling like I have no answers. He keeps telling me to wait a little longer for more healing time to assess the eye and go from there, but it's been over a month! To be fair, the eye did end up getting infected and it took some time to get that cleared up. He has an appointment on Tuesday and if he doesn't have a plan or some answers,I am going to have to ask for the referral. I didn't think it was normal for the eye to stay closed like that. The vet did say from the beginning that the eye would more than likely have to be removed,but he was trying to avoid having to do that as it isn't the safest surgery. Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it.

 

[Aki]

Yeah, that's really frustrating when you keep on trying things and spending money without getting any real answer. I think as long as there is no risk of the eye getting infected you don't have to enucleate, so even if the eye doesn't open, as long as the rabbit is not in pain and that there is no risk of the eye worsening you might be able to do without it. The rabbits I've seen who had to get an enucleation had eyes which looked really bad. But if you need to get his eye removed, I know several rabbits who had to go through that and who did fine. The good news is that rabbits live really well with an impaired vision (I've got a rabbit who has been blind for almost two years and you would never guess watching her, she's been a real trooper about this and developped an extraordinary memory and hearing - I've never seen her bump into anything and she's still bossing her husbunny around with no trouble). Anyway, I hope the issue will be resolved soon - when one of my animals has a problem I spend my days looking for answers and the internet and stressing about it so I know how awful it can be.

 

[lauren8165]

That's so funny that you say that bc that's EXACTLY what I do. Google every spare second I get. There's not much info about what I'm dealing with on there though.

He's definitely blind in the eye. I don't think there's anymore infection in the eye. I will know more after his appointment though. He spent maybe the first 4-5 days bumping into things,which what heartbreaking to watch, but he picked it up very quickly. I was so surprised. He also has his other good eye, so he's still got that going for him. Other than the visual aspect, you wouldn't even know there was anything wrong with him. He's a happy, sweet, inquisitive (which is what got him into this mess lol) little boy. I wish the eye would have healed, but as long as he has a happy/pain free life, I will take it.

I will be sure to update you after we see the vet. [emoji3]