Abcess Behind Eye :o(

Hi All,

We've just been told our Poppy has an abcess behind her eye.. she's on steroids and antibiotics but having had previous abcess experience with Daisy I have to say I'm not hopeful.. The vet suggested removing her eye if the drugs don't work.. can a rabbit have a quality of life with one eye.. or am I just delaying the onset of further abcesses?

Any help appreciated!

xxxx

I'm very sorry to hear about your bunny

Are they certain it is an abcess? Have they done Xrays of the skull? I would be a little concerned re. the use of steroids if it is an infective lesion (such as an abcess) as this would to me lower bun's ability to fight the infection. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories would surely be far safer alongside strong antibiotics?

I have no personal experience but have heard of many buns successfully having the eye removed in order to properly remove a retrobulbar abcess and that this then certainly delays or removes the risk of reoccurence. But you need to be aware that with any abcesses the risk of it coming back at some stage is high. The most beneficial treatment is removal if possible, so if eye removal is feasible and appropriate it may give your bun the best chance, but I am not a vet and not aware of all the circumstances of your bun's case.
Most commonly I understand the cause is due to tooth root elongation - it may be that removing the offending tooth would also be sensible? Or atleast skull Xrays to find out a bit more what is going on.
I really hope you can find some treatment that works and that your bun makes a good recovery.
I think there are several one-eyed buns on RU! :wave:

Oh I'm sorry, well first off, no abscesses are not good news in bunnies and this is only what happened to Joejoe and I know he was lucky, but he got an abscess behind his eye after eating some bristles one fo which got lodged in hos soft pallett which led onto get infected and I was told his prognosis was extremely poor and i prepared for the worst one at least 3 occasions but he is now fit and well.

His usual rabbit expert brilliant vet was on holiday by the time the abscess developed and the other vet who saw him told me his eye may have to come out, however the eye expert vet said that it serves no purpose removing the eye :roll: As they still have to close the eye over so the pus still ends up trapped in, so they treated him intensively with depocillin daily for a few days, then every other day then when we took him hom once a week, he was also on Baytril, Metacam and Fucithelmic Eye ointment for a good couple of months but bit by bit the swelling went down and eventually when it had remained non-swollen for a few weeks they stopped the injections to test the waters and thankfully he's been fine ever since.

I had googled like mad about it and found some articles, aimed at vets so i couldn't understand all the terminology, but basically saying intesnive depocillin treatment is the way to go.

They can remain on it long term too if necessary as i was told i may have to learn how to administer it at home but luckily it never came to that.

They did x-ray him and found it hadn't spread to the bone and it was after that that they decided to treat him, while he was under GA for the x-ray they did manage to drain some pus through the roof of his mouth, but they can't really get at it any other way which is why some vets still recomment removal of the eye.

Due to his eye bulging out of his head due to the swelling, he got an optic nerve trapped so he is now blind in that eye but apart from him occasionally bumping into things it doesn't seem to have affected him at all, he still runs around and binkys

I don't want to falsley get your hopes up as abscesses aren't good but i just wanted you to know they can pull through them

Sending lots of positive healing vibes for Poppy xxxx

Sorry my post was really long and a bit garbled and also full of typos i was just about to leave work and the security man was hovering behind me waiting to sit down so it was all a bit rushed!

So, is Poppy at home or have they kept her in?

I hope whatever course of treatment they decide to go down that it all works out and if she does lose her eye then she will honestly manage, we had joe and jess out in the garden tonight and he was binkying about like mad so only having sight in one eye doesn't seem to hinder buns at all

Let us know how she gets on xx

I dont have any advice, but wanted to send get better vibes.
I have read about alot of buns recovering from abscesses, so fingers crossed x

I'm sure that if she has to lose her eye she will manage fine. There are a few blind buns that manage well. They are tough wee cookies

Thank you so much for your replies. Poppy is so happy in herself, eating fine and jumping around the garden & getting more attention from Oscar.. you'd never know she was poorly other than her eye.. we started Baytril yesterday so I'm hoping that as she hasn't had this before it will work wonders..

I'll be sure to quiz the vet though about the treatments you've suggested..

Thank you.

:wave: xx

Daisy Pants said:

Thank you so much for your replies. Poppy is so happy in herself, eating fine and jumping around the garden & getting more attention from Oscar.. you'd never know she was poorly other than her eye.. we started Baytril yesterday so I'm hoping that as she hasn't had this before it will work wonders..

I'll be sure to quiz the vet though about the treatments you've suggested..

Thank you.

:wave: xx

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That's great news that Poppy is bright and happy in herself

I think you're going to need a much stronger antibiotic than baytril though for a retrobulbar abcess :?

My bunny Maa had an abscess behind one of her eyes - vet removed the eye but the abscess came back a couple of times as it's apparently very hard to clean all the pus (and therefore bacteria) out of that part of the head, with all the nerves and blood vessels there. Eventually got it sorted after a couple more operations - one abscess had been caused by the internal stitches not dissolving! The only way to knock out the bacteria is to have a swab of the pus analysed - cost me about £30 extra but it was worth the money because the lab results came back that baytril (always the vets favourite antibiotic) would not even touch this type of bacteria - it was the MRSA type, and she needed just a week's course of metronidazole tablets - half of one (she was a normal sized loppy - see my sig) which I ground up and added to mushed up pellets (I think - long time ago - I added a ground up papaya tablet to make it taste nicer?) Anyway it worked after just one week, and I asked the vet next time the abscess came back, if she could have metronidazole again and the vet agreed - again just a week on it and she was cured for good that time.

she managed fine with just one eye, so long as I didn't come up to her on her blind side - she was a bit deaf too poor lass with being a lop. It did cause a problem with other rabbits though as they naturally tried to groom out the stitches and then the lumpy scar tissue, by licking and nibbling the area, which obviously hurt her as she attacked them! So she was a single bunny after that for a couple of years before she died of heart problems aged around 7yrs old I think (rescue so I'm not sure of her age)

Hi there,

I also had a rabbit who had an eye removed due to an abscess and he managed fine with one eye. Just wanted to let you know there's hope for one eyed rabbits! Good luck.

H