Lacerated Cornea and Lens

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adnyl68

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Guelph, Ontario, Canada
I'm so sad right now :( My bunny Beau was scratched in the eye by my sister's cat. I've had him to a vet and a vet/opthalmologist. This was the diagnosis:

Corneal laceration with some iris prolapse-lens lacerated and some expuslsion into anterior chamber

I'm really scared as the vets both said that things like this don't heal by themselves. I'm really hoping there is someone on here who can give me a professional opinion.

They put Beau on:

Baytril every 12 hrs (oral antibiotic)

Metcam every 12 hours (oral anti inflamatory)

Tramadol HCL 1xday (oral pain med)

Tobrex eye drops (antibiotic)

They wanted to remove the eye...but he just started on the meds and otherwise he seems fine. Still eating and active. I want to wait until I see if the meds work. Even if he loses most of the sight in the eye, at least he'd still have his eye and some sight. The surgery to "try" to repair it is $3500.00 and there is no guarantee it will work. The removal of the eye is $1500.00. I've already spent $400 in vet fees and medicine.

Am I doing the right thing in waiting to see if the meds work? Has anyone else ever been in this situation where the lens has been lacerated as well as the cornea?

Any help would be appreciated.

Lynda, Beau's mommy.
 
Hmmmm That does seem a little extreme to me that they would want to remove the eye right away. But eyes are different. I've only dealt with a cat scratch on a bunny's ear. So maybe someone will have a better answer.
 
I have had a similar experience. My ferret bit my rabbit in the eye and her eyeball was like oozing out of the socket. I took her to the vet and they ended up sewing her eye shut for a bit and gave her the same meds yours rx'd. After the stitches came out the eye was fine but she did have limited vision in it. She had a little scar on her eyeball but it didn't seem to affect her a whole lot. She had a little bit of problems with depth perception but she learned to compensate and did just fine. And it only cost me like 400.00. Good luck with your baby.
 
I. Want to say that Peppers eye injury was very severe and there was a chance the eye would be lost, but it healed really nice so there is hope. I would wait it out.
 
JuJub...thank you so much for giving me some hope. I was a bit surprised too that they would want to remove the eye right away. I just couldn't do that to Beau. I'm so worried about him though...I cried like a baby all last night. Now just trying to buck up and hope for the best.
 
I will, thanks jujub. I gave him his meds this morning. I think he knows it's coming now and he doesn't like it one bit but I got them into him.

Did your rabbit keep the bad eye closed most of the time as it was healing? At what point did he stop squinting or keeping it closed? Do you remember?
 
oh my goodness. I hope your little guy is okay. I wouldn't rush into surgery just yet- vet's love making money. But obviously watch for signs of discomfort and irritation. Eyes are an essential organ and may adjust to the condition so the rabbit can live without being bothered by it. By anterior chamber, do you mean the anterior cortex?!? I only vaguely remember from psychology class.
Sending good vibes from me and Acacia. While she never got scratched in the eye before she did lose part of her cheek bone to a bad abscess. And she wishes your little guy the best recovery :)
 
Hi A-Berry, I know, I got the feeling that the vet had dollar signs in his eyes. Beau hasn't shown any signs of discomfort except that he closes his left eye and if I go to pet him he sometimes jerks his head away. I've learned to approach him from the side with the good eye.
Thanks for your and Acacia's positive thoughts.
 
Yeah I went to one vet who wanted to remove my bunny's ear because the cat scratch got infected. I went to another vet who worked with my budget and put him on a new meds. The meds took care of the infection. He didn't lose his ear, but he does have a scar and a bald spot. Which to my surprise has started growing hair. It's still patchy, but I'm just happy it's healed.

Bunnies can sometimes surprise you on how well they can heal. Even my vet was surprised and delighted on how well he healed once he had the right medication.
 
Peppers eye was temporarily sewn shut, and she also had stitches on her eyeball. In about a week or so they took them out and she was fine. I did hide meds in banana though ; ). She never was squinty that I recall afterwards, just a white scar on her eyeball. One thing though, like I said her vision was somewhat affected, when she would try to jump on the furniture, she would be just short and miss. It was sad but kinda funny. After some practice she could jump up on my king size bed like no other,
 
We went through this too. And our vet is in Guelph!

Poor bunny was poked in the eye with a piece of hay. BAD corneal ulcer resulted. His injured eye was all white in 24 hours.

We rushed him to CEAH (I assume that is your vet, best bun vets in the country).

They offered me two options - ennucleation (removal of the eye) or treatment.

We choose treatment. It was a hard road. Multiple doses of both topical and oral meds, hourly at first. No sleep for humans for a few days. Then it eased off. We went after it very aggressively, same protocol as you have plus canine opthalomologic (sp?) serum.

We kept this treatment regime up for three-four months. Weekly visits to the vet. Yes, exhausting. Expensive too, but not more than the surgery.

Ultimately? He completely healed in a few months. Got his vision back in that eye. Nothing left but a tiny scar. Happy, healthy bunny in the end.

Moral of the story: Treatment works, the eye can be basically fully restored. Hell yeah, you are doing the right thing.



 
Bunchofbuns, it is so great to hear from you. Thanks for your post. You are correct, we are using the same vet! They never really talked to me about what happens after this course of medication? The vet didn't even suggest a follow up visit??She basically said this type of injury will not heal but gave me the medication to keep him comfortable??? Kind of confusing. I asked the specialist vet about what happens if I don't get the eye removed and his response was:

"It's like a hole in the floor, you can put a rug over it but there is still a hole in the floor". I'm not sure what this means exactly?

What was the canine opthalomologic serum for?
 
Sorry to bother everyone again....but I need to get someone's advice. I was at the vets on Thursday and I just got a call today, Monday, saying that I should bring Beau back in tomorrow to be looked at by the vet. That is only 5 days he has been on the medication. Do you not think that's a little too soon to take him back in especially when he is showing no signs of discomfort, is active and eating well? I'm just not sure what else she could tell me that she didn't say last time...except maybe change meds...but these ones seem to be working from what I can tell.

I would have assumed that the return vists would be weekly? Any opinions?
 
I think if I were in your situation, I would get my bunny the surgery.
Your bun has a corneal laceration, which is different from BunchOBuns situation with a corneal ulcer (did I get that right Bunch?). Since they are different ailments, they probably require different treatments. I did some Dr. Googling, and tend to agree with your vet, that corneal lacerations wont heal themselves. I didn't look up the other issues with his poor eye though :(

In my opinion, its likely he's acting well because he's on pain medication, he's simply not feeling it. The antibiotics are to keep the current open wound in his eye from getting infected, which is good, but not to cure it. And with any antibiotic, too much would lose its effectiveness so it's not really a long term solution.
I would seriously recommend taking the vets advice, and doing whichever you can financially afford. Best of luck, and keep us updated please!
 
It sounds like there needs to be better communication. Ask why when the vet's office says to come in sooner than you'd expected and when a vet answers a question with an analogy, ask for clarification,

About why the most aggressive treatment seems to be recommended, I think it's not to get more money [they already have a lot, usually], but because over-treatment gets less attention than does under-treatment. If it's like for our treatment by MDs, doctors get sued for what is thought to be under-treatment & seldom for over-treatment. People want doctors to do something, anything, in the hopes that it will hekp. I'm not saying that in this situation it'd be over-treatment [I don't know], but that tends to be the case more often than the reverse.
 
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