• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Glaucoma/Eye Removal/Blindness - U/D 12th March

Fifibutton

Wise Old Thumper
Mona my almost 11 year old bunny has glaucoma in one eye. Due to recent events in my life I have not seen her for a bout 10 days but she has received stellar care from my parents. I've just managed to see her today and her glaucoma eye is now white as you see in the picture below. I am pretty sure that means she has gone blind. My dad said the eye changed colour within two to three days at most, it was very fast. He phoned the vet who felt it wasn't an emergency as she wasn't in pain. So far so ok. She is acting normal, eating, playing and manages to get about fine with one good eye. My concern is that the eyeball looks bigger to me and it feels bigger when I stroke her head I can feel it bulging slightly. She has had a hole in her iris for years in case you wondered what the mass below the main part of the iris is. Also she has been getting trusopt eyedrops for months every day which were supposed to alleviate any growth and pain and until now they have worked.

2013-02-24175440_zpsfd241b4b.jpg


She is now booked in for a consult tomorrow morning. In the meantime she again seems happy, calm, very affectionate and shows no signs of pain.

My concern is that they eyeball will continue to grow and the only outcome will be eye removal. She is very old and might not survive an op. I know it is down to the vet's discretion and I think he will operate with my consent although I know there will be a greater risk given her age. But I think for Mona's sake the risk has to be taken.

I am also concerned it could be a tumor although I think it more likely to be related to the glaucoma. I wondered if anyone has experienced a similar situation or has any one eye rabbits (how do they cope) and could generally give advice please.
 
Last edited:
The white part is most certainly a dense cataract on the lens inside the eye. If it has come on suddenly this may have been caused by a raise in pressure inside the eye or possibly some trauma at the back of the eye.
Unfortunately the cataract will prevent a detailed examination of the back of the eye (the retina).
Hopefully your vet will be able to work out what is going on.
Sending vibes it is nothing serious xx
 
I have had one Rabbit who lost an eye due to Glaucoma/EC. But he was considerably younger, about 6.

I think I would want to try all none invasive options before contemplating enucleation. There are other eye treatments that might be of more benefit than Trusopt It really would be a big op for an 11 year old Rabbit. I doubt that not having the eye would be an issue in itself, she probably has no sight in it anyway. But she would be under GA for a relatively long time and at her age recovery may be very slow. I would certainly want a full blood profile done to check her major organ function. If her Kidneys and/or Liver are not now as efficient as they might be (due to age) then personally I dont think I would put her through such a major op'. But that is just me, others may feel differently and as long as you trust your Vet I would take his/her advice about it all.
 
Thank you ladies. I feel a bit better prepared for tomorrow. I hadn't thought of a cataract but I did think increased pressure had caused the whiteness. I wonder how the vet could examine her eye further if the opthalmoscope won't be able to penetrate this cataract.

A GA worries me too Jane, she is thinner these days then when she was a young bun too, full bloods is a good idea. I just hope in all the time it takes to investigate and treat this something awful doesn't happened. I have read about prolapses and eyes exploding and tbh I am dreading that :(

I guess we shall have to see what happens tomorrow and take it from there.
 
I did a bit of bunny eye reseach last night, due to my eye related post. I saw some pretty enlaged eyes that were intact and in comparrison, your buns eyes look great! Don't worry about them popping before tomorrow, I should think they will be ok.
Good luck, I hope it goes ok for mona
 
I too would only consider eye removal if the eye or surrounding structures caused any additional problems. If the eye stays like this and nothing else to worry about then just leave it be I say. Mini is blind in one eye after a serious infection, the cause we don't know, I have only recently adopted him. His eye is still there, it wasn't removed, it atrophied and has scarred over but it doesn't cause him any trouble so unless it does it will be staying there. x
 
Thank you ladies. I feel a bit better prepared for tomorrow. I hadn't thought of a cataract but I did think increased pressure had caused the whiteness. I wonder how the vet could examine her eye further if the opthalmoscope won't be able to penetrate this cataract.

A GA worries me too Jane, she is thinner these days then when she was a young bun too, full bloods is a good idea. I just hope in all the time it takes to investigate and treat this something awful doesn't happened. I have read about prolapses and eyes exploding and tbh I am dreading that :(

I guess we shall have to see what happens tomorrow and take it from there.

I understand your panic about the eye exploding as we had to wait for dylans eye to be removed and we thought the same might happen. But the vet reassured us it wouldn't be that dramatic

the oldest bunny we had an eye removal done on was 9.5 years. She recovered well but got a tumour in her other eye six months later which we think was just a bad coincidence.
 
I'd forgotten to update this a couple of weeks ago but I meant to say Mona was diagnosed with a cataract and her eyeball had indeed increased in size. She is also completely blind in that eye. So her eye drops were increased to twice a day. Despite being half blind she gets about well and still manages to play and jump without any issues. We were back today for a check up and the eyeball has gone down in size which is great news. Sadly there is no cure for blindness but thankfully she is not in pain. She is also paralyzed in one hindleg due to a recent stroke but she is also starting to put some weight on that foot occasionally though mostly still dragging it. But despite these issues she has been deemed strong and healthy and she still has a lust for life. Not bad for an almost 11 year old lady.
 
Bless her. Mr Fluff developed similar issues at 13 and I'd also said i wouldn't go down the surgery route with him. I hope she keeps going strong...

Mr Fluff had full bloods done fairly regularly- 3 monthly i think. He was on long term pain relief so we were also checking on implications of that. Checking eye pressures at the same time also meant we knew if anything was changing before it became a real problem.
 
Thank you Vanessa, I hope so too. Mona is a real trooper.


Bless her. Mr Fluff developed similar issues at 13 and I'd also said i wouldn't go down the surgery route with him. I hope she keeps going strong...

Mr Fluff had full bloods done fairly regularly- 3 monthly i think. He was on long term pain relief so we were also checking on implications of that. Checking eye pressures at the same time also meant we knew if anything was changing before it became a real problem.

Wow, 13 is amazing. Do you still have Mr Fluffs? My vet is also adamant as am I about not doing any surgery. We are both concerned she might not survive or be greatly weakened by it. Mona's bloods came back negative for all nasties which is really good. She is actually very healthy internally and has a good strong steady heart and very good circulation too, just things on the outside seem to be showing wear and tear now.
 
Thank you Vanessa, I hope so too. Mona is a real trooper.




Wow, 13 is amazing. Do you still have Mr Fluffs? My vet is also adamant as am I about not doing any surgery. We are both concerned she might not survive or be greatly weakened by it. Mona's bloods came back negative for all nasties which is really good. She is actually very healthy internally and has a good strong steady heart and very good circulation too, just things on the outside seem to be showing wear and tear now.

Mr Fluff was very similar- eyes hadn't been good for a good couple of years before the glaucoma and he had arthritis but was otherwise a picture of health. Sadly we had him pts in July, just before he was 14. His back legs just stopped working :-(

I hope Mona keeps going strong :)
 
Back
Top