Very regular tear duct flushes - bad idea, am I right?

Alfie is having his tear duct flushes weekly at the moment and I am really uncomfortable with this - I just want to see if I'm overreacting a bit or whether others would feel the same?!

He's had about 5 so far and even though there is still pus with each flush, it is breaking down. Originally it was solid blocked and took 12 flushes to clear it. With any luck, his eye won't flare up again (we've just today stopped his antibiotics) and we can reduce the flushes but if not, I don't see how having weekly flushes is good for him. The stress of going to the vets, having it flushed under local and then going home again is surely not good for him...as well as the fact his tear duct is inflamed as it is due to the blockage, and it can only take so many flushes before it bursts/tears/whatever the correct term is!

I don't want to have to start thinking about this but I'm not really prepared to subject him to having the ducts flushed every week as I don't feel that it's in his best interests. Obviously if that was the case (he needed weekly flushes) I'm thinking that I'd have to have him PTS as I'm a 'quality over quantity' person.

Wwyd? :wave:

Is the cause of the blocked Ducts related to elongated tooth roots ?

Continued flushes can cause problems. The tissue within the ducts can become thickened with scar tissue and thus they will effectively be permanently blocked. With appropriate care Rabbits can cope with chronic runny eyes,PTS is most certainly not an inevitability.

Jack's-Jane said:

Is the cause of the blocked Ducts related to elongated tooth roots ?

Continued flushes can cause problems. The tissue within the ducts can become thickened with scar tissue and thus they will effectively be permanently blocked. With appropriate care Rabbits can cope with chronic runny eyes,PTS is most certainly not an inevitability.

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Yup, it's the tooth roots causing the problems. If anything, I thought the flushes would weaken the ducts as opposed to thickening them? If they did become permanently blocked, is there a treatment for that?

I'm not going to rush into PTS, don't get me wrong! I'm just not comfortable with weekly flushes for my little lad.

JemimaH said:

Yup, it's the tooth roots causing the problems. If anything, I thought the flushes would weaken the ducts as opposed to thickening them? If they did become permanently blocked, is there a treatment for that?

I'm not going to rush into PTS, don't get me wrong! I'm just not comfortable with weekly flushes for my little lad.

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The ducts may become permanently blocked due to the elongated tooth roots, the thickened tissue due to scarring. If that happens it is a case of managing a chronic problem- bathing the eyes, applying a barrier cream to minimise discharge coming into contact with skin and making it sore, using abx eye drops if active infection.

Regular Dentals under GA are also likely to be required to keep the crowns of the molars short and to try to slow the rate of progression of tooth root elongation.

Hi there,

I spoke to you before about my rabbit Betty who is having a similar issue. Our vets seem to have a different approach which is similar to what Jacks-jane has said. She had a flush to clear the infection and some drops and she still has some discharge from her eye but the vet said that if she gets another infection from the tooth roots they will refer her to a specialist (to see if other treatment options would be better) but at the moment its just discharge and to manage making sure her eye is healthy and she is happy.

They said that they wont flush unless it is an infection and unless any change to re-examine in a couple of months.

Maybe speak to the vet about your worries and see if its safe to give bunny more time between his flushes or if his quality of life would diminish if you did stop them?

I know what you mean about the vets though! Betty gets so stressed out at going, I feel awful leaving her there and its the time out of work and the check ups too! (i go to work and can pay for vets or i dont go and cant afford).

Hope bunny feels better soon.

iggyperdyandme said:

Hi there,

I spoke to you before about my rabbit Betty who is having a similar issue. Our vets seem to have a different approach which is similar to what Jacks-jane has said. She had a flush to clear the infection and some drops and she still has some discharge from her eye but the vet said that if she gets another infection from the tooth roots they will refer her to a specialist (to see if other treatment options would be better) but at the moment its just discharge and to manage making sure her eye is healthy and she is happy.

They said that they wont flush unless it is an infection and unless any change to re-examine in a couple of months.

Maybe speak to the vet about your worries and see if its safe to give bunny more time between his flushes or if his quality of life would diminish if you did stop them?

I know what you mean about the vets though! Betty gets so stressed out at going, I feel awful leaving her there and its the time out of work and the check ups too! (i go to work and can pay for vets or i dont go and cant afford).

Hope bunny feels better soon.

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Hi :wave:

We are trying at the moment to reduce the time inbetween flushes, but we have no idea whether his eye will flare up again or not. He's not on his antibiotic oral, or the baytril, just the metacam and we've changed his eye drops again. Sarah (vet) has mentioned that she is flushing regularly at the moment because there was SO much gunk the first time, she wants to get it as clear as she can before reducing the flushes - we're pretty much at this stage now. I said to Sarah yesterday that I'm not comfortable with these weekly flushes for a long period of time, and she agreed. We're seeing her weekly anyway and it's a waiting game now to be honest. Sarah said that at the moment it's like being inbetween a rock and a hard place, because neither option is easy!

Fun fun fun. :?

We took a bunny in several years ago with blocked infected eye ducts. One of the ducts was so blocked liquid would not flush through it. All her tears went down the front of her face. She needed daily eye wipes with cotton wool and water. She was with us for several years but in the end the infection took over so badly and stopped responding to any antibiotics that we decided to put her to sleep. She had a really good life with us and didn't seem overly bothered by her runny eyes. OUr vet tried flushing her eyes from time to time. We managed the condition but were unable to cure it

Jack's-Jane said:

The ducts may become permanently blocked due to the elongated tooth roots, the thickened tissue due to scarring. If that happens it is a case of managing a chronic problem- bathing the eyes, applying a barrier cream to minimise discharge coming into contact with skin and making it sore, using abx eye drops if active infection.

Regular Dentals under GA are also likely to be required to keep the crowns of the molars short and to try to slow the rate of progression of tooth root elongation.

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Absolutely this. :thumb:
I found chloramphenicol eye ointment and a clean with some cotton wool and cooled boiled water the best for Grimlock. Or better still, a bunny friend to clean the eyes. If they're blocked by the teeth they will always run even if they're not infected. It helps to learn the difference so you can give antibiotic eye drops when needed. I also found central heating/warmth made it more likely to get infections due to the warm/damp combination of the tear ducts. Moving Grim outside helped a lot.

I have a bun at the moment who has blocked tear ducts, he's had them flushed, and although it did clear some of it, it hasn't been able to clear all of it, at the time my Vet did say it may not work.

He looked so sad coming home, we went back a few weeks later and it wasn't a success but he was prescribed some eye drops and some pain relief, and that is how we manage it now..

Merlin always has a wet face look bless him but I bathe it every couple a day's or so and get rid of all the salty wetness on his face and most of the time he lets me get rid of the clumped bits on his face, I bathe his eyes in chamomile tea (just organic chamomile tea from the shops) and mix it with a tad of hot to blend the leaves and then fill with cold, I then bathe his eyes with this, it reduces the redness around his eyes and seems to keep it under control, doesn't seem to faze him though when he has flare ups I do take him back to the vets and get him m ore eye drops.

Since the flush hes been on the drops 2 or 3 times but mostly the chamomile does help reduce the redness and gets the saltyness from his face, my vets said to do this with him as well.. It seems to work for him and he doesn't seem to bothered by it, and will just sit there when I bathe him so I do think he likes it..

bunnylover177 said:

We took a bunny in several years ago with blocked infected eye ducts. One of the ducts was so blocked liquid would not flush through it. All her tears went down the front of her face. She needed daily eye wipes with cotton wool and water. She was with us for several years but in the end the infection took over so badly and stopped responding to any antibiotics that we decided to put her to sleep. She had a really good life with us and didn't seem overly bothered by her runny eyes. OUr vet tried flushing her eyes from time to time. We managed the condition but were unable to cure it

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Grim has had runny eyes for six of the seven years he's been alive.

He's now on two very strong antibiotics, oral and injections, to keep the infections away. But like your bunny he doesn't seem overly bothered and has had a long an happy life.

Pain relief is also very important in the later stages.