Hello everyone! I decided to register here after spending hours and hours looking for info on the Internet (I may have read every thread and article about phacoclastic uveitis in English, Spanish and French by now, lol). But I found in this community someone I would like to contact (Jack's-Jane) because it's the only case that I've been able to find of a bunny actually living with the condition and not going for enucleation or another solution. I tried to send her a private message but the system won't let me, maybe because I'm a new user. So I hope she reads this, and at the same time if someone else can help with his/her experience, it will be greatly appreciated. So thank you very much in advance 
I'm sorry about my looooooooong post, but this has been awful and I feel that telling the whole story is the best thing.
A month ago my rabbit got a extremely severe uveitis caused by EC. I've not been able to find a case like this in which the condition developed so quickly, we didn't have any margin to treat it and it's been devastating He 'lost' his sight the first day, although the vets said that he still had some response later (but he has later lost it to glaucoma). The uveitis was so severe that he developed glaucoma five days later.
He's been treated with tons of things, but right now he is on Panacur, Cloramphenicol (about to finish now because it's been a month since we started this), Voltaren drops (which I feel have helped a lot) and Trusopt for the pressure. Trusopt has been good too for now, he had a pressure of 36 when he got them prescribed and a week later it had dropped to 22, we're going this week to check if it's still working.
His eye has gotten a lot better since we started the treatment, at first the conjunctiva was very red and the whole eye was totally blue, the vets couldn't see well through it at first. But, the vet says that the lesion in the anterior chamber remains the same. It's been a month with intense treatment (just not corticoids because of the infection/defenses thing) and the fact that it's not healing is discouraging.
Well, this is the reason I wanted to contact Jack's-Jane and any other person that is in a similar situation: we are not really happy about having the eye removed because we can't find any specialist here that has done this surgery on a rabbit. I'm from Spain and while there is probably some vet in the country that has done it, at least for now I've not been able to find anyone near where I live. Also, he's turning seven soon, and while I don't think he's old already (he really doesn't seem so), he's not certainly young (he's a 3 kg rabbit). I feel like the anaesthesia and the risk of the op, that is greater than for dogs and cats, is not something I'm really willing to put him through, plus the fact that I'm not happy about having it done by someone that has not done a rabbit before.
In the threads that I've read here, you talk about using Maxitrol drops every three days or so. These have corticoids, right? Could you tell me a bit about how the rabbit on Maxitrol drops is doing? How long has he been on them? Do they have secondary effects? I'm worried about having to give medicines to him forever because it doesn't seem right, I really feel that enucleation should be the way to go because he has glaucoma too, the eye does not work anymore, and to stop pain and medicines, but at the same time I don't want to do it because of the reasons mentioned before. Oh, and I've read that Maxitrol is not indicated in patients with glaucoma because it can raise the IOP, so what about that? I think I read that your rabbit also has glaucoma. Is he fine then with these drops? Do you know of another drops or medicine that could also be used to keep this under control?
The only good thing I can mention about the situation is that he's had an excellent mood through the entire month (which is another reason why I don't think the risks of the operation are worth it). He hasn't stopped being himself, eating like crazy, even when he's been a month on antibiotics, he has not had diarrhea. You couldn't really tell his eye is a total mess just by looking at him! He goes to the garden and plays like if he was the two year old bunny he once was. But he's on Voltaren so maybe when we take that out he's going to show some signs of not feeling well. I understand that we won't be able to heal this and treatment will be required forever if we don't take the eye out, so any information about it will be really appreciated. I want the best for him, it's been an awful month, the last thing I expected to happen to my beloved bunny was a not curable disease, and all of a sudden, so quickly, it's just not fair
Again, thank you very much for your time. I hope I can give my bunny a good quality of life. This is him, he's always been my photography model
I'm sorry about my looooooooong post, but this has been awful and I feel that telling the whole story is the best thing.
A month ago my rabbit got a extremely severe uveitis caused by EC. I've not been able to find a case like this in which the condition developed so quickly, we didn't have any margin to treat it and it's been devastating
He 'lost' his sight the first day, although the vets said that he still had some response later (but he has later lost it to glaucoma). The uveitis was so severe that he developed glaucoma five days later.He's been treated with tons of things, but right now he is on Panacur, Cloramphenicol (about to finish now because it's been a month since we started this), Voltaren drops (which I feel have helped a lot) and Trusopt for the pressure. Trusopt has been good too for now, he had a pressure of 36 when he got them prescribed and a week later it had dropped to 22, we're going this week to check if it's still working.
His eye has gotten a lot better since we started the treatment, at first the conjunctiva was very red and the whole eye was totally blue, the vets couldn't see well through it at first. But, the vet says that the lesion in the anterior chamber remains the same. It's been a month with intense treatment (just not corticoids because of the infection/defenses thing) and the fact that it's not healing is discouraging.
Well, this is the reason I wanted to contact Jack's-Jane and any other person that is in a similar situation: we are not really happy about having the eye removed because we can't find any specialist here that has done this surgery on a rabbit. I'm from Spain and while there is probably some vet in the country that has done it, at least for now I've not been able to find anyone near where I live. Also, he's turning seven soon, and while I don't think he's old already (he really doesn't seem so), he's not certainly young (he's a 3 kg rabbit). I feel like the anaesthesia and the risk of the op, that is greater than for dogs and cats, is not something I'm really willing to put him through, plus the fact that I'm not happy about having it done by someone that has not done a rabbit before.
In the threads that I've read here, you talk about using Maxitrol drops every three days or so. These have corticoids, right? Could you tell me a bit about how the rabbit on Maxitrol drops is doing? How long has he been on them? Do they have secondary effects? I'm worried about having to give medicines to him forever because it doesn't seem right, I really feel that enucleation should be the way to go because he has glaucoma too, the eye does not work anymore, and to stop pain and medicines, but at the same time I don't want to do it because of the reasons mentioned before. Oh, and I've read that Maxitrol is not indicated in patients with glaucoma because it can raise the IOP, so what about that? I think I read that your rabbit also has glaucoma. Is he fine then with these drops? Do you know of another drops or medicine that could also be used to keep this under control?
The only good thing I can mention about the situation is that he's had an excellent mood through the entire month (which is another reason why I don't think the risks of the operation are worth it). He hasn't stopped being himself, eating like crazy, even when he's been a month on antibiotics, he has not had diarrhea. You couldn't really tell his eye is a total mess just by looking at him! He goes to the garden and plays like if he was the two year old bunny he once was. But he's on Voltaren so maybe when we take that out he's going to show some signs of not feeling well. I understand that we won't be able to heal this and treatment will be required forever if we don't take the eye out, so any information about it will be really appreciated. I want the best for him, it's been an awful month, the last thing I expected to happen to my beloved bunny was a not curable disease, and all of a sudden, so quickly, it's just not fair
Again, thank you very much for your time. I hope I can give my bunny a good quality of life. This is him, he's always been my photography model
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