Watery eyes

[lapaki]

Location: Kapolei, Hawaii

Breed: Mixed (likely part Himalayan, and the rest ??)

Age: 2 to 2.5 years old (not sure of exact age, he was a stray I adopted)

Weight: 4.5 lbs

Sex: Male (neutered)

Lately the Zoomer has had watery eyes. He doesn't seem to be in any distress, I can rub his face near his eyes and he doesn't react any differently. So there is no pain or tenderness, etc. Also,it does seem to be just water. No pus or mucus. But sometimes his eyes water so bad that it mattes the fur around them.

It isn't continuous, either. Some days it's fine, then a few days later he'll have watery eyes again. And it's usually only one eye, but not the same eye each time.

At first I thought it was irritation from hay. He tends to eat a hole through the middle of his hay box, so he's poking his head all the way into the box. But I've tried to be more prudent about keeping the box full, and the watery eyes continues. I'm thinking about removing the box and putting his hay in a large bowl again, but he's had the box for a while, and the watery eyes only started recently.

I've seen no changes in behavior. He's happy and energetic. Eating and drinking the same.

Oh, one other thing it could be. He sleeps in bed with me at night, and lately I've been closing the bedroom door to keep the AC in the room and save a bit on my electric bill. So it gets pretty dry in the bedroom (Hawaii is normally very humid). Could the dry air be causing it (he has plenty of water available to drink)?

I'm wondering how serious this is. I'm unemployed at the moment, and I don't want to pay an expensive vet bill if it's something minor that will clear itself up (or something I could treat myself).


Thanks, Tim (& Zoom-zoom)

 

[LakeCondo]

Even before you mentioned AC, I was thinking low humidity. On nights when the temp lets low enough, you could use a window fan for your apartment instead of the AC. There are some good, weatherproof ones available from amazon etc. For about $50 you can save even more on electricity. Get one you can switch from blowing in to blowing out without physically turning it, with a timer, thermostat, etc. I usually use mine blowing out in a window not in the bedroom, so the open bedroom window brings the cooler air in. I hope this works in your situation.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You might try changing from hay to orchard grass--less dust and sneezing.ray:

 

[lapaki]

@ LakeCondo,
Thanks for the suggestion, but it rarely gets cool enough to use a window fan in Kapolei. Certainly not this time of year (at 2AM it's still over 80 degrees).

@ Nancy,
Zoomer doesn't like Orchard grass. He's picky. He'll only eat Timothy hay and Meadow hay. Could be the dust, though. I'm getting to the bottom of the bag of hay, and that's where all the dust settles.

I have replaced the hay box with a bowl, so we'll see if that helps. I guess I should toss the dusty hay and open a fresh bag too. As for the AC, I guess I could put him back in the kitchen at night. That's where he used to sleep, except when he would escape and hop in bed with me.

I'll miss my bunny alarm clock, though. When I sleep in too late he'll hop up on my nightstand and push things off so they crash onto the floor and wake me up. It's a little annoying, but a lot cute! I'll hear a crash, and when I open my eyes he'll be sitting on the nightstand near my head, watching me. When he sees I'm awake he gets real excited.

He even knocks things over in the order of loudest to quietest. So the plastic puzzle goes first, because it makes a nice loud crash, and the tissue box goes last, because it hardly makes any noise at all. After each item he watches me for a moment to see if it worked, and if I don't wake up he moves on to the next loudest one.

Thanks for the help.

If anyone else has any info or suggestions about the watery eyes, I'd appreciate the input.

Aloha, Tim (and Zoom-zoom)

 

[Erren]

Your rabbit sounds brilliant - my rabbits throw things around for attention too. must be hard when you can't speak (though mine produce some impressive grunts occassionally)
just a thought - one of my buns had watery eyes when his teeth grew spurs. Have a little friendly rub around his jaw and his cheeks - he should love it of course, but if there's any sensitivity there he might let you know? Worth a try. If he freaks out, you'll know something's wrong.
Hope it clears up x