Eye issues

[Puddingpie]

Hi,
I was looking for some advice/similar experiences.
A few weeks ago my 9 year old rabbit developed watery eyes, then her eyelids got red and started to become swollen. The vet put in dyes to confirm her cornea wasn’t damaged and said it looked like bilateral conjunctivitis and started her on antibiotic eye drops and eye baths. He also said she had a cataract forming (about a quarter of an eye going cloudy) and that it was because of her age and nothing to worry about.
Despite the eye drops, her eyes just kept getting worse - more swelling, white discharge, pus nodules around the eyes and they were really beginning to bother her (bit grumpy, decreased appetite, not as active).
I took her back to the vet and she had both tear ducts flushed and started on steroidal eye drops.
Her eyes improved greatly, eye lid swelling went down, much less irritated, less discharge from the eyes. She became her normal self again, active and eating normal amounts.

However I noticed the eye with the cataract is starting to bulge? The cataract isn’t any bigger and hasn’t got any worse. She also isn’t showing any sign of discomfort.
I’m going to take her back to the vet and see if they can check the intraocular pressure but I wondered if it was worth getting her tested for E.Cunicili? i know you need multiple blood tests to confirm as most rabbits carry it and you can also get false negatives. (Roughly how much does this cost in the UK?)
I also wondered if anyone knew whether cataracts formed by E.cuniculi are usually the whole eye/both eyes and show suddenly? And if symptoms worsen over the weeks or could stay as is?


Thanks

 

[JBun]

A bulging eye could also mean there is pressure behind it from a mass(abscess, tumor). So that's something to check along with the eye pressure. I wouldn't see e. cuniculi as likely as it doesn't really cause an eye to bulge. I would be looking more at glaucoma or infection. I think infection(retrobulbar abscess) seems the most likely with what she had recently experienced.

 

[Puddingpie]

Thanks for your reply JBun.

I was thinking that but I kept coming across posts/websites about E.cuniculi causing cataracts and they didn’t go into much detail.

Would an abscess/glaucoma not be very painful for her? I hope it’s nothing sinister how would they diagnose either of these conditions?
I also read that glaucoma treatment is rarely effective in rabbits... does anyone have any experience of this?