How to accommodate for bunny losing her sight?

[Bella Von Hoppenheimer]

I'm not sure if I should put this in the Health and Wellness forum, because it's not exactly a medical issue that I can fix. I just want to put the question out there in case anyone has any advice. Bella has cataracts and the vet says she'll probably be blind within the next year or so. What should I do to make it easier and safer for her to navigate? Should I change their area so that there are fewer things to climb or hop over? Is there any chance she could get lost if she goes into another room? At the moment their water bowl is up on a box, should I move it to the floor? Etc. Any and all advice is welcome!

 

[JBun]

You do want to create a safe and accessible environment for a blind bun, but it's also important to not change certain things, as rabbits have their whole area mapped out in their head, and making too many changes could be confusing for the bun.

For my buns that lost sight, I found they stopped using their shelves and levels, and stayed on the ground floor. In some instances I did have to convert to a low sided litter box. And for another bun I had to lay out disposable pee pads as she just wouldn't make it to the litter box any longer. And all necessities were on ground level in the same places.

So try and keep as much the same as you can, unless you notice it becoming a problem or unsafe. Though I would suggest putting a water bowl on the ground level as well, and any other necessities, but off to the side so it won't get in her way. Then just working on getting her familiar with these new items in her area on the ground level.


http://www.disabledrabbits.com/blindness.html

 

[Bella Von Hoppenheimer]

Thanks that's helpful! I've been considering switching to low-sided litter boxes anyway because both buns are getting older and sometimes have trouble hopping over.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Our avatar Nikki had cataracts and was blind. She stayed in one room we have set up just for our bunnies. We kept every thing in the room the same and never moved anything around. She knew the layout and would even run around the room. I cut the sides on a couple of litter boxes to ground level, but, that was the only changes we made. She got by for more than 4 years with no problems except those we all get from aging, and finally passed at almost 11 years--still miss my sweet little girl.