Anyone have buns with poor eyesight/deafness?

ripminnie · May 8, 2011

I am wondering if it's possible for a vet to be able to tell if a bun has bad eyesight? Does anyone know? Olly, my head tilt bun, is quite deaf and doesn't hear most things, although he hears aeroplanes (which he doesn't like) and bags rustling (which he does like). Recently his eyesight seems to have deteriorated quite badly

I don't know if this is connected to his hearing problem or not. He only really uses one eye, he points that eye at whatever he's looking at, but I think that eye is going worse now too

he seems almost scared of us sometimes, like he doesn't remember who we are

but then at other times he's better. If his bad sight is connected to his ear problems, could it get better? I will be taking them both to the vets next week for claws clipping and Vhd vaccines, so am going to ask about it then, but in the meantime I'd love to hear from anyone with similar buns... :wave:

sdf76 · May 8, 2011

My daughter bunlover has a partially sighted bun. The centres of his eyes look cloudy and his poor eyesight has been confirmed by a rabbit savvy vet.

However- it's important to note that the strongest of the senses for a bunny is their sense of smell.

Also we use a thick plastic tub that we rattle the science select pellets in before we feed him so he knows it's teatime.

We try to keep his environment the same so he doesn't bump into things- or we show him if we need to make changes to the garden. He runs as normal and sometimes binkys in the centre of the garden too.

He is very protective of his personal space- and can become aggressive if he doesn't know who or what is entering into it. We always talk to him as we approach and reach out to stroke his head so he knows it's us. We find it best to approach him slowly so he has time to realise who it is by our smell and voice.

He will often stand on our feet- we think this is so he knows we can't tread on him.( I guess if I saw a big shadow coming towards me quickly I might think the same.)

He has a wifebun whom he adores(she is fully sighted).

I do think you need a rabbit savvy vet - firstly to diagnose if his eyesight is poor and why, and secondly if is has anything to do with his head tilt. (Was the head tilt caused by EC?)

sue:wave:

ripminnie · May 8, 2011

Thanks for the reply :wave: Olly's eyes aren't cloudy at all, they look just like Honey's (his sister) and they haven't changed at all since he was tiny :? He's only 9 months old now though so it makes me really sad that he's disabled in this way

our vets have been good with the buns and I've been happy with them so far, so I'll see what they say about it next week. I'm not 100% sure whether his head tilt was EC or a couple of bad ear infections. He had treatment for both, so not sure which meds made him better. It doesn't help that he has bad hearing too, because we do talk loudly when we approach, and even wave at him, but sometimes he still doesn't know we're there! And sometimes Honey will come running to greet me and Olly will follow, but when I crouch down to stroke him he looks wary and runs off

he used to adore just sitting being stroked, he still does occasionally but nowhere near as often (maybe because he has Honey with him now, I don't know). I have been wanting to move things round a bit in their room to stop Honey getting bored, but don't know whether to as it might upset Olly :? I just want him to be happy and not scared of us!

sdf76 said:
My daughter bunlover has a partially sighted bun. The centres of his eyes look cloudy and his poor eyesight has been confirmed by a rabbit savvy vet.

However- it's important to note that the strongest of the senses for a bunny is their sense of smell.

Also we use a thick plastic tub that we rattle the science select pellets in before we feed him so he knows it's teatime.

We try to keep his environment the same so he doesn't bump into things- or we show him if we need to make changes to the garden. He runs as normal and sometimes binkys in the centre of the garden too.

He is very protective of his personal space- and can become aggressive if he doesn't know who or what is entering into it. We always talk to him as we approach and reach out to stroke his head so he knows it's us. We find it best to approach him slowly so he has time to realise who it is by our smell and voice.

He will often stand on our feet- we think this is so he knows we can't tread on him.( I guess if I saw a big shadow coming towards me quickly I might think the same.)

He has a wifebun whom he adores(she is fully sighted).

I do think you need a rabbit savvy vet - firstly to diagnose if his eyesight is poor and why, and secondly if is has anything to do with his head tilt. (Was the head tilt caused by EC?)

sue:wave:

BinkyBun · May 8, 2011

You say he is a headtilt bun. Did your vet give you panacure or Lapizole to treat possible EC connected to the headtilt? When bun suffers headtilt because of EC, one of the symptoms is catarax which affects the eyesight.

My bun Darcy suffered from headtilt and was left with catarax in the centre of both eyes. Luckily the Lapizole treatment stopped it getting any worse. It doesn't really seem to affect him that much.

My bun Frasier was born with deformed eyelids so his sight isn't great either but he doesn't let it bother him in the slightest. I think they learn to compensate with their other senses.

ripminnie · May 8, 2011

Yes he's had panacur, several courses in fact. That was my first priority as I've had an EC bun before who had to be PTS due to lack of knowledge at the time

could you see the cataracts in his eyes? Because Olly's eyes appear completely normal, they just don't seem to see things very well :?

BinkyBun said:
You say he is a headtilt bun. Did your vet give you panacure or Lapizole to treat possible EC connected to the headtilt? When bun suffers headtilt because of EC, one of the symptoms is catarax which affects the eyesight.

My bun Darcy suffered from headtilt and was left with catarax in the centre of both eyes. Luckily the Lapizole treatment stopped it getting any worse. It doesn't really seem to affect him that much.

My bun Frasier was born with deformed eyelids so his sight isn't great either but he doesn't let it bother him in the slightest. I think they learn to compensate with their other senses.

ripminnie · May 8, 2011

Having said that about him being scared, I've just given him a really long stroke while he was lying down, then he gave my nose a good lick

I love my Olly chops!!!

BinkyBun · May 8, 2011

ripminnie said:
Having said that about him being scared, I've just given him a really long stroke while he was lying down, then he gave my nose a good lick I love my Olly chops!!!

Awwwww bless him

You can only see the catarax in my Darcy's eyes when a light is shone right on them. So only really at the vets.

Anyone have buns with poor eyesight/deafness?

ripminnie

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sdf76

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ripminnie

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BinkyBun

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ripminnie

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ripminnie

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BinkyBun

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