Possible blindness

[hok9]

Our new girl acts weird when it comes to being out of her element. When she first gets out of the cage she doesnt move for a while then it is a flurry of excitement in an open area, followed by her sitting in a corner. When i approach her she doesnt know im there until i say something or get a hold of her. I have tried doing things like moving my hands in front of her face and she does nothing. Her eyes are not cloudy as i would expect with a blind bunny but i am a little concerned about her eyesight.

Is there anything else i can check for?

 

[Flashy]

If you're getting a flurry of excitement then I'm not sure she is completely blind. What does she do in her 'flurry'?

Could it be she is not feeling great? Or maybe sleeps really heavily (they can sleep with their eyes open)? I know Polly has buns who can sleep and can be hard to wake up and can still carry on sleeping despite being picked up (she's got a funny bunch).

If you approach her and give no audial indication you are there does she jump when touched or anything?

We had a girl who was blind in one eye and she used to be vicious when she didn't realise someone was there. I would expect a reaction of probably fear if she was blind and didn't know someone was there and then realised they were.

 

[hok9]

She does get startled. In her flurry she does the typical binkies and running around, just not like our others. She will stay in an open area and wont travel far. This is when she is alone though, when i let her friend out they will play normal and she will have no problem following her.

 

[tonyshuman]

It just sounds to me like she's not totally comfortable with her new space yet. Like Flashy, the buns I've known with eye problems have aggressive behavior if they don't know you're there, like if your hand suddenly appears within their "personal space" they will bite it. When you're moving your hands around her she may just be too scared to move. Besides, blindness isn't that big a deal for rabbits since their eyesight isn't that great to begin with--they rely a lot more on sound, smell, and whiskers to understand the world around them.

 

[Maureen Las]

When she is in a relaxed state you can open each eye and shine a flashlight into each eye and then away quickly ; if the pupil doesn't constrict( get smaller) when the light is in it that can be indication of eye damage and/ or blindness.

If a rabbit is very anxious the pupil may not constrict so it is important that she be in a more relaxed state when you do this.