Hannah Has An Eye Infection(gross pics)

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Bad Habit

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It started sometime between last night and this afternoon - I was busy so only fed this morning and probably missed the beginning signs of it.

I had clipped her nails last night, so am hoping that she didn't scratch her cornea with a freshly clipped nail. She was playing dead bunny in the litter box this morning, so might have scratched it on some hay, but I doubt it.

I flushed it with some saline solution and applied some topical cream from my cat's eye infection. It looks like her eye was removed and replaced with a marble, it's just awful. I can't believe how quickly it came up. Poor thing.

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She's not acting like she's in pain. Eating and drinking fine. Have her out right now and she's getting into everything, like normal.

I gave it another clean, a bit more invasive this time. Managed to find 2 wee little tiny pieces of hay deep in her eye, so I'm hoping that's what it was. I'm not entirely sure how they would have gotten in there so deep as to cause such an issue. Her eye is completely free of gunk for the moment, though. I'll check again before bed, wash it again if I need to.

Can I feed her willow if she's nursing?
 
:( Poor baby! I wish I had more advice, but it sounds like you're doing everything already!

It sounds like it was so fast, maybe it's the result of an injury like a scratch, like you said.
 
I had a look at that website, but it doesn't really have anything that describes Hannah's symptoms :(. Thanks anyway though.

When I cleaned it out and got the hay out, I had a good check and didn't see anything that looked like it might have been a scratch. I have been putting extra hay on top of her cage, to force her to stretch and work for it. I think that's probably how she got the hay in her eye in the first place. I haven't seen any new gunk coming up, though, so I hope that's a good sign.

---

Well Hannah's eye hasn't produced nearly as much discharge overnight as it did during cleanings yesterday. I might be being hopeful, but the swelling does seem to have gone down a bit. I caught her feeding her babies, which alleviates a fear. I hope I'm not being optimistic here, and it actually is getting better.
 
I would think that something coming up that fast would almost HAVE to be an injury and not an infection. I would continue to check and flush it.

I was thinking about doing the same thing with my hay on the new cages, don't think I will now.

Hope Hannah continues to improve.
 
I feed willow to my rabbits at any time and have never had a problem with nursing does. It may make Hannah more comfortable and reduce any inflammation.

I know you have to clear out the gunk, but be very careful. I once over-cleaned a kit with nest box eye and it just kept getting worse. The inside of the eyelid got very red. I finally gave up on it and was working myself up to euthanizing it. And guess what... as soon as I quit messing with it, it started to clear up on its own.
 
Yeah, I understand that too much cleaning is a bad thing, but I had to clean it enough last night to get a good look. I just cleaned the outer part this morning, with a cleaning pad and some saline.

I don't know exactly how long it has been bothering her. I feel awful because I have been busy, and not as dilligent about daily checks as I normally am. If I'd noticed it before, I would have flushed her eye and probably gotten it out then.

Hopefully she continues to improve, and I don't have to take her to the vet-the only rabbit vet in town is the same vet who wanted to remove my 11yr old cat's eye due to infection. The swelling was definitely down this am and she was opening it a bit, which she wasn't last night.
 
I think her eye is mostly back to normal size. It still looks swollen because there is discharge making the hair lay flat, but it's nowhere near what it was last night. She had it mostly open until she realized I was looking at it, then she closed it and did her very best to look pathetic and sad, in hopes of getting another treat. Cleaned the hair around the outside, figure if I carefully clean that away, I have an estimate of how much it is putting out.

Poor girl. She's still acting 100% normal, but it must hurt her. When I was mixing grains, she came and stuffed her head right in the oat bag, as she normally does, and helped herself. Her babies have full tummies, so she's still feeding them. Here's hoping it all clears up on its own, and that the improvement continues.

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This is a top view from today.
 
well, because the fur is wet, and the flesh underneath is pink, the flash reflected really badly. That big white blur on the left side? that's her swollen eye.
 
I attended some seminars last night at the Rabbit Convention in Turlock, and one of the speakers spoke of treating eye infections (not the dreaded "P", but red rimmed eyes, etc.) with a drop of injectable Penicillin G Procaine in the eye.

I don't know if you have access to a feed store that carries it, but I bought a HUGE vial of it at TSC for about $20. I can't recall the exact price, but a lot less than an office call at your vet!

I hope Hannah's eye improves. :clover:
 
I think it is a lot better today. It definitely looks less swollen this morning, and around her eye seems pretty dry and clear of pus. I'm not sure what is swelling, and what just looks like swelling because of the way her hair is matted down.

When I get home this afternoon, I'll have to gently flush her eye, and see if I can't fluff the hair around it, get her looking more normal. Her cheek fuzz is definitely further out than her eye today, which is a vast improvement.

If the irritation isn't gone by tomorrow, I'll check at the feed store, I actually have a trip there planned for tomorrow anyway.
 
That's an interesting way to treat an eye infection, MSD.

Bad Habit, you should be able to get Penicillin G Procaine at a good feed store. It has to be refrigerated and you have to shake it really well to get it mixed. Don't get a huge one unless you have a large rabbitry... It has an expiry date. If you are buying needles and syringes, get large needles because this stuff is really thick. I think the size we used for Alice was 20.
 
I have to get a picture, but Hannah's eye is pretty much back to normal. The swelling is about gone. Her eye is pink rimmed, and a little cloudy still, but I'm hoping tomorrow it will be even closer to normal. It still looks bad, though, because either how the hair is laying, or because she lost a bunch of hair around her eye.

That was really scary though. I thought she'd put her eye out when I first saw it. Thank you all so much, because I learned just about everything I tried from here.
 
I'm not crazy, right? It looked really bad in the original pictures, and not nearly as bad now?
 

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I suspect that once you got the bits of hay out of her eye that her natural good constitution kicked in and fought off the incipient infection. Keep an eye on her... but I think she is past the worst.
 
MaggieJ":1g367qmg said:
I suspect that once you got the bits of hay out of her eye that her natural good constitution kicked in and fought off the incipient infection. Keep an eye on her... but I think she is past the worst.

I've always said for all the mistakes I made starting out, I at least started with rabbits with a good immune system.

I can't get over how quickly it came up, and how quickly it is going away. I felt so sick all the time, as I went through something similar several years ago with one of my cats, and all I could think about was that. I feel almost like Hannah dodged a bullet, if I can be dramatic about it.

I think I might still buy some pen-g, depending on how long before it expires. It seems like something that I would like to have on hand.
 
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