weepy eye?

[Garden Flowers Rabbitry]

I have had one vet say that all rabbits carry pasturella, but some show symptoms and some don't. he said in a culture it will always show as that. He did say though, that rabbits are very prone to eye infections for many reasons as you have mentioned...but how do you know which is which?

I took a rabbit into a vet today as her third eyelid was large and looking inflamed. he said it was a congenital problem and was not attached as well as it should be or something to that effect. He gave me Chloramphenicol for her...and said don't breed her as she could pass the problem on. I am going to try to find a good home for her once the inflammation is gone, luckily she doesn't seem irritated by it at all. If I can't find a home that I want her to go to, I'll keep her...


AmberNBuns wrote:

Fromhttp://website.lineone.net/~scottvet/articles/rabmed.htm

Conjunctivitis. I see conjunctivitis on a regular basis,sometimes it is simple following some hay in the eye for example. This will respond to any old topical eye antibiotic such as Chloramphenicol.The majority that we see at our clinic are pasturella infections and are very resistant to treatment. Orbenin [ Cloxacillin] ophthalmic ointment seems to work well sometimes as do products containing Gentimycin. You would be well advised to carry out bacteriology and sensitivity on chronic conjunctivitis cases in the rabbit.

 

[KatsMeowTree]

If the eyes are almost crusted shut you can help with that. Use a mildly warm Saline Solution and a soft cloth or gauze to partially clean it away. Then try using a warm compress for a few minutes. After that you should be able to get the remainder of the"gook" off. Then try to flush the eye with saline solution, it should help. About the tea- you could use the cooled tea bag as a compress. .that may be an even better idea. We used it one time on a stray cat who had it's eye crusted shut.

Hope it helps,

Kat

 

[Bassetluv]

I have had one vet say that all rabbits carry pasturella, but some show symptoms and some don't. He said in a culture it will always show as that.

When I got Lucky I did a lot of searching for info on pasteurella,as I suspected that's what he had, and found a few sites that said most rabbits do indeed carry it (something like 80% or so). I also found it stated that in many cases the testing they do for pasteurella is rather unreliable, as often the results will come back as negative even though the rabbit does have it in his system.

So it left me feeling perplexed...if tests are run, then what is the point if the accuracy cannot be trusted? My experience with Lucky left me feeling very frustrated, as I found the vets couldn't tell me much beyond guesses.Unfortunately I don't live near any 'rabbit-savvy' vets.

I took a rabbit into a vet today as her third eyelid was large and looking inflamed. he said it was a congenital problem and was not attached as well as it should be or something to that effect.

As I was doing another online search about prominent 3rd eyelids in rabbits, I came across a condition in cats and dogs called 'cherry eye'. It sounds similar to what your vet said your bunny is suffering from...the eyelid is 'loose' or not attached very well. However, in these cases the 3rd eyelids were very irritated and inflamed. I wonder this is similar to what causes the prominent 3rd eyelid in rabbits?

 

[Garden Flowers Rabbitry]

I remember people including myself used tea bags to soothe sore eyes, but then we used mayonnaise as a hair conditioner then too lol lol wow, that dates me terribly

 

[Maureen Las]

Hi.....this is what I do with Jacques but some bunnies would not tolerate it. He is tiny so I hold him in one arm over the bathroom sink. Then I make sure I turn on the water luke warm and I make sure my hands are clean...then I begin to remove the hard crusted mat very slowly by placing water on my fingers and using my fingers to loosen the mat.

You would think that this couldn't work but I keep rinsing my fingers and then sort of "twisting the mat ..he loves the feeling and will relax and over a few minutes of doing this the mat is gone . Then I dry the eye with a soft towel. I have to work the mat out just like working a knot out of my hair. Does anyone else do this.?