Eyelid injury

[kateej94]

Hello! I'm new here. I was reading through a few of the other forums discussing eye-related problems and I thought I'd ask here about the injury my rabbit must have gotten on Monday.

I have indoor/outdoor rabbits, depending on the weather. On Monday I had them outside in their run(s). I have 4 rabbits, two males and two females. My male dug all the way from his run to another (I didn't have the wire placed all along the bottom at that time, I do now so he can't do it again). Anyways, I put him back in his run as I saw no injury at that time. I went outside early the next morning to open their doors so they could get into their runs and all looked normal (although I didn't have a great look at him, he looked a little bit dirtier than normal, so I bet it was beginning to fester). Yesterday evening, I was at work all day, my sister went out to check on everyone and feed/water she noticed his eye had become swollen and had white discharge in it. I spoke to a local vet (that doesn't do rabbits), and was sent home with Neopolybac to apply two times per day. I've cleaned up his eye and can see that he has two little chunks out of his upper and lower eyelids. Neopolybac treats bacterial eye infections, which with the presence of white discharge, I'm definitely assuming there is an infection setting up there.

Has anyone had experiences with eyelid injuries like this? What did you do? What did your vets recommend? I have three vets here and none of them do 'exotics.' The eyeball itself looks normal in size/shape. It is a little bit red around the iris and the iris is slightly discolored (he has blue eyes but this one looks slightly purple) but pupil is intact.

The picture was taken today after I used water to clean the area a little bit (thats why it has such a wet appearance). Effected eye is his left, right eye is completely normal. He isn't holding the eye shut generally, it was just shut in this picture. You can see the bottom spot well, but not the top. I am planning on shaving the area, if he lets me do it safely, to get it more sterilized (he is so sweet and calm, he lets me do just about anything).

 

[JBun]

I would ask the vet for oral antibiotics as well. You have to make sure it's rabbit safe as some can't be given orally to rabbits like penicillin. Baytril suspension syrup is the most common oral antibiotic used with rabbits(keeping in mind most rabbits detest the taste of baytril). SMZ/TMP is another option and usually better tolerated tastewise. The link below has dosage info if needed. I would want to give for 2-4 weeks minimum. Then if the infection worsens while on the oral antibiotic, or doesn't show improvement after a week, you may need to go to a different antibiotic, maybe an injectable one.
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Safe_drugs_main.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/Unsafe_medication/dangerous_antibiotics.htm

You may also want to ask the vet about giving meloxicam if your bun is showing any signs the wound is painful and/or if there are signs of inflammation. Meloxicam is a NSAID pain reliever commonly prescribed to rabbits. It is prescription so you would need to get it from the vet, or it's cheaper online and they will call your vet to confirm.
https://www.vgr1.com/metacam/

Assuming you are already applying the antibiotic eye ointment to the eye itself, if you aren't already I would also put a light dab of the neo/poly ointment directly on the wound as well. Or I've used plain neosporin ointment(not the pain relief one) on wounds as long as it won't get in the eye. Then after applying the ointment you will want to distract him with a snack or something so he doesn't immediately try and groom it off.

Also keep a close eye on his eating/drinking/pooping. If the eye starts to become very painful it will most likely affect his eating and cause a lack of appetite. If this happens you will need to intervene so he doesn't develop GI stasis. He would likely need to be syringe fed something like oxbow critical care and get a gut motility med. Plus if pain is increasing, it likely means the infection is as well, so you would need to reevaluate the antibiotic you are using and I would consider switching to something like injectable pen g procaine/benzathine. Also giving(or increasing dosage) pain reliever. So these would be things to discuss with your vet if his condition worsens.

I would also recommend keeping him indoors until the wound has healed. It will attract flies and put him at risk of flystrike occurring, which is quite dangerous to rabbits. Even indoors you will need to keep a close watch on the wound to make sure no fly eggs show up.

 

[kateej94]

Thank you so much, JBun! That is exactly the information I was looking for. He is definitely inside, despite his wishes, lol. He's a pretty chill dude and would rather lounge or explore than snack, but he is eating and drinking normally right now. I will definitely keep an eye on that. I've been watching him closely since we found his eye like this. I will see if the vet will let me pick up some antibiotics tomorrow as well, thank you for that advice!

When we noticed the eye we put some Neosporin on it (very carefully as to not get it in the eye itself) until we got the neo/poly ointment, so I'm glad that was the right thing to do. I have been applying it directly to his eye, but I will definitely start putting a dab on the wounds as well. He is still hopping around like normal and seems to be okay. When he was a baby he fractured his toe and I took him in to the vet who said he was fine and that she didn't want to administer pain meds for him because he wasn't showing any signs of pain (he was acting totally normal!). I don't know what pain signs look like in rabbits generally, but it seems like a fractured toe would've been painful, so I took him in for some meds (knowing they really can't do much for the toe itself). He doesn't seem to be too terribly bothered by the eye at the moment aside from a very slight squint (which I think may be just because its a little bit swollen?), what should I watch for in case of an increase in pain?

 

[Popsicles]

With regards to pain, as you know rabbits are really good at hiding pain, and although the eye probably isn’t agonising I would imagine it is at least a little bit painfu, and metacam is pretty harmless for rabbits (and pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things) so if it was me I would probably go for some analgesia for now. But maybe not totally necessary! if he is in lots of pain he will probably just have less activity, off his food, potentially grinding his teeth - but this will be mainly with severe pain. If Just mild, you are unlikely to notice anything externally.

 

[JBun]

Reduced appetite or lack of appetite is usually the best indicator of a rabbit being uncomfortable or experiencing pain. So as long as your bun is eating and behaving normally, he's probably not feeling too badly. Though of course continue to monitor the inflammation and infection for any worsening regardless of any pain response. Also make sure the eye doesn't start bulging, as that would indicate infection behind the eye.

If you happen to not be able to get oral antibiotics prescribed by the vet since they aren't a rabbit vet, if the infection isn't too severe, with regular application of the antibiotic ointment to the eye and wound several times a day, that may be enough to get the infection under control.

 

[kateej94]

Popsicles: I can definitely see where you're coming from and I'll ask about that tomorrow to see what the vet wants to do! I definitely don't want him in any pain and I agree, I feel like it probably is causing some just because its swollen and inflamed right now. I definitely don't mind paying if its recommended! Thank you for your advice!

JBun: It's really good to know that its possible for the ointment to control the infection if I'm not able to get the antibiotics prescribed. The vet said to apply twice per day, do you think you would do three times (or more)? I don't mind doing it at lunch also if we think it might help heal him up faster or even help to avoid any further infection from happening until it heals. Since the vet said that this ointment wouldn't hurt him (in case he had something else going on with the eye), I'd assume its pretty safe to do three per day.

Is there anything else that y'all think I can do for him? I've been doing a warm compress to the area before I apply the medication.

 

[Popsicles]

Sounds like you’re doing a good job to me! You’re very attentive, he’ll be healed in no time just keep an eye out for any changes really!

 

[kateej94]

Thank you, Popsicles! I hope so! You guys have been so helpful also.

 

[JBun]

It's just an antibiotic eye ointment, so isn't going to cause harm to apply more often. In fact will have a chance of being more effective when applied more frequently. You might be fine with applying in the eye itself only twice a day, but topically on the wound I would try for 4 times a day if possible, just a small dab. Just because it's likely to get rubbed off easily, so the more contact time the ointment has with the wound, the better chance it has of fighting the infection. Also important to distract your bun so it doesn't get rubbed off immediately.

That's why oral antibiotics would be beneficial, because they'll be fighting the infection internally so can't get rubbed off by your bun. So the addition of oral antibiotics would be better if your vet will prescribe them(just be very sure whatever is prescribed is rabbit safe, extremely important to verify especially when working with a non rabbit savvy vet), but if you can't get the oral antibiotics from the vet then I just wanted you to know that the wound could still possibly heal alright if the infection was minimal.

 

[Bunny gurl]

I would definitely stick to the eye ointment and add an eye rinse with boric acid and water 1 cup of distilled water and 1/4 teaspoon boric acid powder mixed in just use dropper to gently rinse eye twice a day for 5-7 days and then apply ointment to his eye I wouldn't use any antibiotics unless necessary as he.may build immunity and with rabbits we have few choices of safe meds already so you dont want to have him with even fewer options and Baytril is typically not the drug of choice for eye infection it is better suited to respiratory problems and internal issues duramyacin is better suited for the eye and eye injuries tend to heal very quickly when kept clean and adding an ointment fast healing area

 

[kateej94]

Thank you both!!

And BunnyGurl, that's definitely something to think about considering he is only about 10 months old now, so *hopefully* he still has a long long life ahead of him!

 

[kateej94]

Update:

He is doing awesome today. His eye is already starting to look better. The redness and inflammation is going down, so I'm thinking I will hold off on oral antibiotics for right now, but I'll continue to watch closely. He is eating still, drinking still and acting normal.

 

[JBun]

Great news! Sounds like the ointment is controlling the infection well. You'll want to be really vigilant about continuing to apply the ointment. I would continue with it several days past the last sign of redness and infection, just to make sure it's completely cleared up.

 

[kateej94]

Update:

He is almost completely healed! His hair around the injuries is coming back and the discharge is slowing down (it's still a little wet, but no more white, infected-looking, discharge). I didn't end up having to put him on oral antibiotics treating the eye twice per day and the injuries around the eye 3 times per day worked perfectly!

Once again, thanks all of you for your input!!