Eye weeping and messy bum and tear drop shaped poos

Hi All,

I have 2 brother bunnies who will be 6 months old on Saturday, one of the buns is fine but the other who is a lot more timid has had a weepy eye, I took him to the vets the other week as it had been weeping several days, although he didn't seem any different from normal in himself. The eye didn't seem to be discharging anything, it was just quite watery, and he was also doing small hard tear drop shaped poos and leaving quite a few of his caecotrophes. I mentioned all of this to the vet who to be honest seemed quite useless. He looked in his eyes and did a rectal thermometer thing and listened to his tummy but just gave me Chloraphenicol eye ointment and told me to come back if not cleared up after 7 days. He thought his eye looked a bit red and it could be an eye infection or could be because his brother is recently always grooming his eyes, so thought it could be over grooming. Well for a start I found the ointment very hard to get in Elliots eye and most of it just seemed to get stuck around his eye but not in it, which worried me due to his brothers intensive eye grooming. It's now just gone 7 days and today I noticed that there was a small amount of white discharge in his eye so I am very worried. Today he also had a bit of a messy bum, he had a slightly messy bum the other day too but the other day it was more just a bit unclean looking but no poos attached, but today he seemed to have a couple of squished soft poos around it, I tried to clean off as much as I could which was a nasty job!. I also found some squishy poos in their hutch so guess they are his, they were not caecotrophes and not diarrhoea (I don't think) but a few huge soft ones, and he still seems to be doing mainly tear drop shaped small poos.
Has anyone got any idea what is up with him? I will take him back to vets tomorrow but will need to ask if they have a more rabbit savvy one. I am worried as it seems it may indicate tooth problems?

I too would be concerned about his teeth. Did the vet check his teeth with an otoscope (like the thing they look in your ears with) when you took him the first time?

Could you maybe post on here looking for a better vet in your area?

Thanks, no he didn't look in his mouth. I am not really very knowledgeable on bunny teeth but is it something I have ready about called spurrs that could be the cause growing into his eye? Sounds awful if so for poor Elliot, and also worryingly expensive. I am regretting not getting round to buying pet insurance, although I don't know if they would cover that kind of thing anyway?
Yes I will post and see if there is a recommended vet in the Coventry area, thanks!

Sounds very similar to my Poppy who has been like this for years. She has runny eyes due to dental problems that we are trying to manage. She also, on a daily basis has left-over ceacotrophs & sometimes a dirty bottom-& the soft poos you describe, I put it down to the fact her diet is far from ideal-she gets too many pellets & too much veg because otherwise she'd starve, she doesnt seem to eat hay due to her teeth, does your bunny eat hay?

I think a teeth check with a rabbit savvy vet is the way forward, i also dont have insurance that covers Poppy's teeth so I feel your pain.

In regards to the eye grooming, it may not be a bad thing, i know it helps in a lot of cases when one bunny to grooms anothers eyes when they are weeping as it stops the skin under the eye getting so sore. When Poppy had no friend her eyes were a lot worse than they are now Peter cleans them for her.

Hope things go well at the vet and you manage to see somebody a bit more rabbit savvy.

Thanks for your reply, yeah he seems to be eating hay since I bought some oat hay from the hay experts. I don't think he eats as much as his brother but I have definitely seem him nomming some, and he loves the pellets. He has always been much skinnier than his brother though!

Pellets can give them an upset tummy if they have too many, does he have a lot? I know some people only give am egg-cup full a day but if he is a bit thin this may not be a good idea. Somebody once gave me some good ideas on how to manage Poppy's tummy troubles, i will try & find the old thread later (I am on my phone at the moment).

Thanks that would be great! Yeah I think maybe I give them a bit too much and I'm trying to reduce it down but since I have I'm sure he looks a little skinnier :-S
I am also in the process of changing them over from excel to the new science selective 23% fibre but doing this very slowly with only a few pellets of SS each day, Elliot seems to love them so far. Maybe once I've fully swapped their food over and they are eating SS and not excel it might improve his poos as they have never been as amazing as his brothers usually are. His bum seems pretty clean today though so that's good, there were a few caecetrophs about their hutch but not like the other day so maybe things are improving, though still small tear drop shaped poos! His eye also looks better today and doesn't even appear to be watering so will leave it another day before I take him to the vets and see how he is tomorrow.