Advice needed - very sore eyes

We have 3, 8 week old Netherland Dwarf babies. One developed sore looking (red rimmed) eyes and then another one also had the same symptoms. Took them all to the vets assuming conjunctivitis. The vet prescribed Tiacil drops which we applied to all 3 baby rabbits (the vet said the 3rd baby had very slightly red eyes). After less than a day and 3 doses of the drops, all 3 babies had terrible looking eyes. Even the one who previously had little obvious redness was looking awful. They all had white discharge from their eyes. We have gently bathed the babies eyes with boiled water and cleared the white discharge, then called the vet and went back to get some other eye ointment - the name escapes me, but we have previously had this for eye problems in one of the parent rabbits.

We were hopeful the babies would be looking better today, but instead they all look even worse. They are all sitting still with their eyes closed looking very miserable.

My wife and I are desperately upset as we feel we've caused this.

Is there any advice for what we can do to make the babies more comfortable and solve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

russhill said:

We have 3, 8 week old Netherland Dwarf babies. One developed sore looking (red rimmed) eyes and then another one also had the same symptoms. Took them all to the vets assuming conjunctivitis. The vet prescribed Tiacil drops which we applied to all 3 baby rabbits (the vet said the 3rd baby had very slightly red eyes). After less than a day and 3 doses of the drops, all 3 babies had terrible looking eyes. Even the one who previously had little obvious redness was looking awful. They all had white discharge from their eyes. We have gently bathed the babies eyes with boiled water and cleared the white discharge, then called the vet and went back to get some other eye ointment - the name escapes me, but we have previously had this for eye problems in one of the parent rabbits.

We were hopeful the babies would be looking better today, but instead they all look even worse. They are all sitting still with their eyes closed looking very miserable.

My wife and I are desperately upset as we feel we've caused this.

Is there any advice for what we can do to make the babies more comfortable and solve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

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Poor babes

Did the Vet check their eyes for corneal ulceration ? This can be VERY painful and Tiacil can actually aggravate the problem. Is the new treatment Isathal, formerly known as Fucithalmic ?

How long have they been on the new treatment ?

Did the Vet check for any signs of swollen genitals in the babies ?

Is Mum Bunny vaccinated against Myxomatosis/VHD ?

russhill said:

We have 3, 8 week old Netherland Dwarf babies. One developed sore looking (red rimmed) eyes and then another one also had the same symptoms. Took them all to the vets assuming conjunctivitis. The vet prescribed Tiacil drops which we applied to all 3 baby rabbits (the vet said the 3rd baby had very slightly red eyes). After less than a day and 3 doses of the drops, all 3 babies had terrible looking eyes. Even the one who previously had little obvious redness was looking awful. They all had white discharge from their eyes. We have gently bathed the babies eyes with boiled water and cleared the white discharge, then called the vet and went back to get some other eye ointment - the name escapes me, but we have previously had this for eye problems in one of the parent rabbits.

We were hopeful the babies would be looking better today, but instead they all look even worse. They are all sitting still with their eyes closed looking very miserable.

My wife and I are desperately upset as we feel we've caused this.

Is there any advice for what we can do to make the babies more comfortable and solve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

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I'm sorry to hear this, it must be very worrying for you both

I have had rabbits who reacted to Tiacil, although in the main it's fairly well tolerated. But as your rabbits are very young, their eyes are obviously sensitive.

The vet has probably prescribed Fucithalmic. This is now labelled as Isathal I believe, but it's the same formulation of fusidic acid. It often works well in rabbits for soreness and discharge.

Bathe away any white discharge as it appears, with cooled boiled water, and then apply the eye ointment.

Good luck xx

We have been prescribed Isathal.

The vet did spend time looking at the babies genitals, but we had asked for them to be sexed (which the vet was not sure about due to their age).

We have only used the drops 3 times then switched to Isathal after things seemed to get worse quickly. They have had 3 doses of Isathal now but they still seem very sore with plenty of white discharge from the eyes.

We are bathing the eyes with boiled water and trying to get the discharge out.

Should things seem to get worse before they get better? Is this the normal pattern?

russhill said:

We have been prescribed Isathal.

The vet did spend time looking at the babies genitals, but we had asked for them to be sexed (which the vet was not sure about due to their age).

We have only used the drops 3 times then switched to Isathal after things seemed to get worse quickly. They have had 3 doses of Isathal now but they still seem very sore with plenty of white discharge from the eyes.

We are bathing the eyes with boiled water and trying to get the discharge out.

Should things seem to get worse before they get better? Is this the normal pattern?

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If the Tiacil aggravated the problem then it may take 2-3 days for the Isathal to start to work. If there is no improvement at all after 3 days of treatment (ie after 6 doses if you are doing it 2 x a day) then I'd call the Vet again for more advice.

Are the babies all eating, drinking, pooing and weeing OK ?

I had this happen with a guinea pig, with Maxitrol drops, where the eye got a whole lot worse, with gunky discharge. It took a few days on the Isathal for it to even start to calm down.

Jack's-Jane said:

If the Tiacil aggravated the problem then it may take 2-3 days for the Isathal to start to work. If there is no improvement at all after 3 days of treatment (ie after 6 doses if you are doing it 2 x a day) then I'd call the Vet again for more advice.

Are the babies all eating, drinking, pooing and weeing OK ?

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Yes, they seem fine with respect to food and drink, and up until we used the Tiacil, they were all really active (as normal). Since the eyes got worse, they've been quieter, sitting together with their eyes closed looking forlorn

russhill said:

We have been prescribed Isathal.

The vet did spend time looking at the babies genitals, but we had asked for them to be sexed (which the vet was not sure about due to their age).

We have only used the drops 3 times then switched to Isathal after things seemed to get worse quickly. They have had 3 doses of Isathal now but they still seem very sore with plenty of white discharge from the eyes.

We are bathing the eyes with boiled water and trying to get the discharge out.

Should things seem to get worse before they get better? Is this the normal pattern?

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Because of the previous aggravation to the eyes, it may take a bit longer than normal. Isathal can begin to work in a day or two. But perhaps it may take a little longer for your babies.

Can your vet advise you as to when the improvement will take place?

MightyMax said:

Because of the previous aggravation to the eyes, it may take a bit longer than normal. Isathal can begin to work in a day or two. But perhaps it may take a little longer for your babies.

Can your vet advise you as to when the improvement will take place?

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Thanks for that. We'll persist with what we are doing for a couple more days and hopefully will see an improvement...it's so sad to see them looking so miserable so the sooner the better that things start to work the better.

russhill said:

Thanks for that. We'll persist with what we are doing for a couple more days and hopefully will see an improvement...it's so sad to see them looking so miserable so the sooner the better that things start to work the better.

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Poor wee things. I hope their eyes begin to clear up very soon x

Glad to say, the three of them seem a little better today. Small improvement, but still an improvement...

russhill said:

Glad to say, the three of them seem a little better today. Small improvement, but still an improvement...

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Great to hear things are going in the right direction :wave:

russhill said:

Glad to say, the three of them seem a little better today. Small improvement, but still an improvement...

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That's great. I have always found Isathal to be a better option than Tiacil. The latter has caused issues in a few of my Rabbits in the past

I hope that the babies eyes will soon be 100% better xx

I hope they are looking even better today :thumb:

sending you positive vibes for you sweet baby ND's.

Thanks everyone, the babies seem better still today, though there is still clearly some redness and soreness. We are continuing with the bathing and drops routine twice a day.

Well, unfortunately, overall the bathing + cream routine seemed to have helped. However one of the babies - popcorn - still has a problem. At one point it looked like the cream was working, but then her eyes seemed to get more sore again. We stopped with the cream for a day and just bathed her eyes. However the one eye has just got worse and worse. See pictures:





(she's such a super-cute bun!)

This is her left eye and it was actually shut this morning but we bathed it and white discharge came out but finally we got it open. Note that the pictures show popcorn AFTER we bathed and applied the Isathal, so some of the white you see may be cream.

We re-applied the Isathal cream and let her have a run around in the house for half an hour to let it settle in before putting her back in the hutch. She seems lively in herself and ran around happily, coming back to me frequently for a tickle. I will say that when we lifted popcorns top eyelid to put the cream in, the white of her eyeball did look somewhat red.

We are just so worried that we can't seem to get on top of this.

This is the second lot of Isathal the vet prescribed, so the babies have been having it for 2 weeks now, twice daily.

As I say, overall the others seem better, though I still see some redness on the edges of cocoa's eyes, but chunk is seemingly fine.

We are back at the vets tomorrow again. I don't have a lot of faith in her tbh. Last time we were there she said the next step would be to take a swab and send it off for analysis.

It's all getting so costly too, which is another worry - goodness knows how much the swab will cost us.

Hello there. If you don't have much faith in your Vet you could post on here asking for a Rabbit Savvy Vet in your area. The babies are not being kept on woodshavings are they as this could be the cause but I doubt it. I do hope you can get on top of this.

tonibun said:

Hello there. If you don't have much faith in your Vet you could post on here asking for a Rabbit Savvy Vet in your area. The babies are not being kept on woodshavings are they as this could be the cause but I doubt it. I do hope you can get on top of this.

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The hutch does have wood shavings (not saw dust) in it yes - the one we use says it is dust-extracted. I have to say that I have wondered about this in the past and have researched alternatives but can't seem to settle on something else to try.

We are in the West Midlands, just North of Birmingham - if there are any rabbit-savvy vets in the area, that would be good to hear.

It may be that there is now an ulcer on the cornea. If so then the Vet is likely to change the treatment again from Isathal to Chloramphenicol. Isathal does not penetrate the cornea, where-as CMP does.