nemo's eye infection

[timetowaste]

nemo has had an eye infection for well over a month now. i have given him a triple antibiotic ointment in the eye 3 times a day for 7 days, and then a prescription eye ointment twice a day for 10 days both by veterinary recommendation. instead of getting better, it is getting worse. i tried to see inside of his eye socket and moved his eye around, but to no avail except that a little more pus came out. i know it is in the corner by the tear duct, and the pus is flaking off of his fur around his eye. this evening, he was in my lap and i was trying to clean up around his eye, and some of his fur is falling out in clumps in that specific area. i can see his pink skin now.

its breaking my heart, and i don't know what to try next, besides another visit to the vet. i'm absolutely terrified that it is hurting him, even though he is acting as though nothing is wrong at all. being able to see that skin is just hurting me so badly inside; i don't want to imagine anything bad happening to my little baby.

any advice? please?

thank you in advance

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Did the vet do any tests?

There are issues they can have around the tear duct - anything can - but I'd make sure they knew what they are dealing with for sure.

 

[ra7751]

Hi,

Has a culture been performed on the discharge? If this were my rabbit (and I do have one that this exact same thing happened to), I would stop all antibiotics for about 3 days and get a culture so you will know what you are dealing with.I would also"stain" the eye at the same time looking for any ulceration.It could be a number of things. Among them are ulcer, tear duct issue, dental issue including abscess (especially in flat faced buns such as ND and Holland Lops)and head abscess. I would not hesitate to do some radiology to see what is going on. A basic x-ray can take a look at the teeth and jaw area and a really good rad tech can get a good enough picture that some soft tissue issues may become apparent. I would also get him on some pain meds. Most vets will prescribe metacam in these situations which is fine...but only for a limited time. An ulcer presents more intense pain and should receive more aggressive pain meds. Just wondering....what eye meds has he been on other the the triple abx? Some of the meds contain steroids which can actually "feed" the growth of an ulcer and it walks the rabbit into a new problem.

We have a bun that had an infection in his eye that was so bad, we discussed removing his eye. Just touching his cheek cause pus to gush from the tear ducts. It was the first of the resistant bacteria we have encountered that did not respond to traditional protocols. So I developed some new treatment protocols using more aggressive antibiotics. Bottom line....find out exactly what the pathogen is and treat accordingly. Hope this helps.

Randy

Hope this helps.

Randy

 

[naturestee]

Great advice from Randy!

Also, ask the vet to check if the tear duct is plugged. This often happens in eye infections and can also be the cause- for example, my Loki gets watery eyes from plugged tear ducts if his pellets or hay are dusty. There was no real infection for him, just gunked-up ducts that didn't allow tears to drain properly. Depending on how badly the ducts are plugged and how good the vet is, the vet might be able to quickly flush the ducts out with saline without using anesthesia. If they're pretty plugged up though, anesthesia will be necessary so the ducts can be properly flushed.

I definately agree with getting the infection cultured and getting more appropriate antibiotics. My vets use eye creams mainly as secondary medications, with stronger oral meds (or injected if necessary) as the primary meds.

 

[timetowaste]

thank you so much for replying, all of you.

luckily, pus doesn't just come out when i press his cheek. i had nemo neutered on august 21st, and the veterinarian looked at his eye when he was under anesthesia. he said he didn't see anything wrong in there, and prescribed me an ointment called Terramycin and told me to use 1/4 of a strip twice a day on that eye.

i did that for 10 days to no avail. i'm going to call them tomorrow (as i don't think they are open today, but i will definitely check) and see what they say from there. i'm scared and i am also a broke college student, but nemo is my baby and i'm willing to spend the money to heal him. thinking of him in pain is putting me in pain, poor little baby. like i said, he isn't changing ANY behaviors now. he is still binkying and eating and pooping normal and doing his normal day to day destructions haha.

thank you again. i seriously can't thank you enough.