Glaucoma Treatment - remove eye or drops?

I have a 7-yr-old male Holland Lop. He has cataracts in both eyes and glaucoma in his left eye. The pressure in his left eye is in the 30s. I have taken him to an opthamologist and it was recommended that his eye be removed. He says that glaucoma is very painful. My rabbit has had this eye problem for a few months now and has been on eye drops. He acts fine. He is very playful, enjoys time with his girlfriends and eats a lot. My friend who is a vet says that this is because he is a prey animal and is not suppose to show pain.
I am nervous about the surgery because he is an older rabbit and I have read posts about other rabbits not making it through the surgery. However, am I a bad pet owner for not giving him the best treatment possible? Should I remove the eye and relieve him from the pain? Or continue the eye drops and hope he continues to enjoy his life?

My criteria for deciding whether to remove a damaged eye are:
1. Is it painful?
2. Is the eye non-visual?

If I can answer yes to both questions then I know the best course of action is to remove the eye. A non-functioning eye causing pain is of no use to the rabbit. For intraocular pressure of >30 then there is a high likelihood of damage to the sensitive structures within the eye, rendering the eye blind. Glaucoma is typically a painful condition (although gradual increase in IOP is less painful than a sudden increase) but as your friend has already mentioned, rabbits will not often show overt signs of pain. Following surgery it is not uncommon to find a rabbit being more active and eating better. I take this to be a sign that they were not comfortable before and feel a lot happier.
Find a vet who is experienced with rabbits as removing the eye in a rabbit is different to other species due to anatomical quirks and can be a bit trickier. The last one I did was only a few days ago in a rabbit who had a lot of other problems (his own vets referred him as they were not keen to do an anaesthetic and surgery themselves) but he is now a different bunny - much brighter and active.

I have a bunny here who had his first eye removed a couple of years ago due to a bleed that didn't improve with any kind of treatment and this didn't affect him too badly as he could still get around.

About a year later his other eye started to deteriorate and his eye pressure began to rise, in addition to the newly developing cataract. The pain/discomfort that I imagine he was starting to experience began to change his personality and behaviour so that he no longer laid down or ever seemed to relax. He must have been in discomfort continually. This resulted in a further vet trip at which point his pressure was tested again and the decision was made to enucliate.

The very next day following the surgery, this little boy was already a much happier camper with much lying down and much more activity.

We had made the right decision and I feel that we have made his life much better. He does get around fine, although he never periscopes any more (no point) and doesn't go out of his area. He also doesn't like going out of his permanent space for fear of the unknown. His partner rabbit spends most of her day guiding him and they live a very contented life.

We recently changed their two storey hutch to a wendy house after considering his ability to get around and think that having a one storey home is by far the easiest for him.

I wish your bunny all the best, whichever decision you make.

Helen