Tear duct flushing.....

How often is too often?

Diesel is having his done about every 3 weeks at the moment,hes on antibiotics both for that and also for infection in the sockets where his incisors were taken out.

Today the tooth sockets have been packed with antibiotic and hes had tear ducts flushed again ,hes a difficult bunny to do this conscious because he keeps throwing his head back so when he has flushes its done under GA otherwise they can't flush them properly :?

Not sure if all that makes sense ,I'm just kind of wondering if its doing any good?

ETA I do trust my vet ,of course, I just don't want to 'push it too far' for Diesel.

I dont really know, sorry, but just wanted to say that I sympathise. Starbuck has a lot of problems with his teeth and eyes, but he hasnt had a tear duct flush for a while, but am wondering if he might need a GA to do this again and look properly at his toothies (normally has a conscious dental).

I hope Diesel's eyes and infections get better soon.

helgalush said:

I dont really know, sorry, but just wanted to say that I sympathise. Starbuck has a lot of problems with his teeth and eyes, but he hasnt had a tear duct flush for a while, but am wondering if he might need a GA to do this again and look properly at his toothies (normally has a conscious dental).

I hope Diesel's eyes and infections get better soon.

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Thank you.

With Grim I was told packing the cavity where his incisors were wouldn't work because the shape of the hole was too awkward. My vet said the packing might leave little gaps where the infection could fester even with the antibiotics. Luckily the injections worked for him but they also cleared up the infection in his tear ducts at the same time. What things have you tried? Grim was also intolerant to some of the antibiotic eye drops and they inflamed his eyes even more. Now he has some eye cream for cattle, but it works.

My rabbit has blocked tear ducts. At the beginning of the year she had them flushed lots of times but her eyes were just getting worse everytime, I was also told that if it's done too much the duct can burst which would be incredibly painful for the rabbit. Poppy hadn't had her teeth out because her x-rays are inconclusive and I think the surgery would be risky for her (she doesn't seem to recover well after ops), so I just tried the penicillin injections which worked really well for her. Has your vet tried that? Her eyes aren't perfect but much improved. Has the removal of the incisors not stopped the problem? I don't really know how it works.

Jenova said:

With Grim I was told packing the cavity where his incisors were wouldn't work because the shape of the hole was too awkward. My vet said the packing might leave little gaps where the infection could fester even with the antibiotics. Luckily the injections worked for him but they also cleared up the infection in his tear ducts at the same time. What things have you tried? Grim was also intolerant to some of the antibiotic eye drops and they inflamed his eyes even more. Now he has some eye cream for cattle, but it works.

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Hes had several different types of eyedrops over the last year and courses of baytril and septrin .....my vet isnt keen to use penecillin yet and I'm useless at doing injections so it would be problematic tbh.

When his incisors were removed the vet found that there was infection under 3 out of 4 teeth and thats what we're trying to clear,he also thought the roots from the incisors at the top had pierced the tear ducts hence the infection being so persistant in the tear ducts.

Sorry I haven't replied to your pm. My parents have been staying so things have been a bit hectic :roll:

Daisy is currently having hers flushed once a week but thankfully she can have it done consciously.

I think opinion on this varies greatly from vet to vet. I once had a bunny who had his flushed every day for 10 days to try to clear the infection :shock: and another vet always avoided them at all cost as she felt it was a distressing procedure to do on a conscious rabbit :?

How about suggesting a combination of septrin and metranidazole for the infection? These are both oral antibiotics and they taste nice. It worked well for Eddie's eye infections

Hugo's There said:

Sorry I haven't replied to your pm. My parents have been staying so things have been a bit hectic :roll:

Daisy is currently having hers flushed once a week but thankfully she can have it done consciously.

I think opinion on this varies greatly from vet to vet. I once had a bunny who had his flushed every day for 10 days to try to clear the infection :shock: and another vet always avoided them at all cost as she felt it was a distressing procedure to do on a conscious rabbit :?

How about suggesting a combination of septrin and metranidazole for the infection? These are both oral antibiotics and they taste nice. It worked well for Eddie's eye infections

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Don't worry Liz,I know you're very busy .

At the moment we're back on baytril ( 1ml twice a day) just to see if it has an effect....Diesel finds these flushes quite distressing conscious hence I suggested a bit of sedation to help both him and the vet....hes got to go back on 15th to have the packing taken out which will probably mean another GA .

Hes reasonably bright today,ate very well overnight after yesterdays treatment ,hes a determined fella!!

Daphne had her eyes flushed several times a while ago. Every time the vet would shrug and say they couldn't unblock them. One of her eyelids is now mis-shapen from it all.

She had her insicors out earlier in the year and that cleared up one of her eyes but the other is still bad - the one with the mis-shapen lid.

I gave up with it in the end. It was costing me £90 a time and it wasn't working. Daphne's eye isn't infected, it just gets weepy. I've taken to just keeping the fur short around it (she's a very fuzzy lionhead!) and keeping it clean with cotton wool and cooled boiled water.

I'm not sure what to suggest for your bunny to be honest. I would hope that your vet would be much better than the ones over here seem to be! Ultimately, I think my vet made Daphne's worse rather than better.

Lots of luck to you both! Penicillin worked best for Grim. Any idea why your vet doesn't want to use it? It can't be given orally so injection would be the only way though.

Jenova said:

Lots of luck to you both! Penicillin worked best for Grim. Any idea why your vet doesn't want to use it? It can't be given orally so injection would be the only way though.

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I think he thinks its risky in rabbits,not sure....I've used penecillin in the past with my bridge bunny Angel but did find injecting very stressful (Angel wasnt the easiest to inject,she used to tense up really hard ) .

I'll just have to see how this latest lot of treatment goes and work from there :?

When I read up about it there were warnings but I assumed they were for using it orally... I could be wrong though.

I had times when injecting was a nightmare. My housemate is also allergic to penicillin, so when it got blocked up and exploded all over the front room, he wasn't too pleased. :lol:

Jenova said:

When I read up about it there were warnings but I assumed they were for using it orally... I could be wrong though.

I had times when injecting was a nightmare. My housemate is also allergic to penicillin, so when it got blocked up and exploded all over the front room, he wasn't too pleased. :lol:

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:lol: my vet was too and I managed to spray it all over her when she showed me how to inject