• 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.
  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

    You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.

    We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.

    Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.

Fern's eye...Again!

Lanny

Warren Scout
Last night when I got home from work I noticed that Fern's eye was very swollen and I could see her inner eyelid. When I picked her and looked a little closer she had a massive lump on her cheek.

So, holding her still whilst feeling the lump to see if it was hard or not all this disgusting muck came out of her tear duct and it stank! :? ( it was absolutely disgusting sorry if anyone is having their brekkie! :wink: )

It just kept coming out, so we cleaned it all out and bathed her eye, this morning it seems fine we had another realy good feel and nothing came out, fern has had problems with her eye before, and they never really cleared up. She is a rescue bun and I think that it went a long time untreated and now it is just a permanent fixture, but it ususall weeps a mucusy type liquid and this was more like curdled milk

I will take her to the vet tomorrow, she is in no discomfort and the swelling has gone right down. Just wondered if anyone had come across this before?
Thanks
 
Hiya. If the pus/discharge actually came out of her eye then it could be a blocked/infected nasolacrimal duct (sort of tear duct) This can often happen as a result of a tooth root growing incorrectly and pushing on the duct. Fern does need to see the vet for a check of her eye AND her teeth. Hope all goes well and at least Fern is not in any discomfort Jane and Buns xx
 
Thanks everyone sorry I meant to say it came out of her eye, I decided to take her to the vet this morning just to be on the safe side.

The vet has put her on some eye drops again (she has had about 6 lots in 6 months :shock: , thank god for petplan :lol: )

He had a look at her teeth and say they weren't great but they weren't awful and he is reluctant to do anything under GA unless he has to as Fern does not come round very well from them (she takes about 5 hours to fully wake and then at least 24 hours to be herself again)

So hopefully with lots of TLC and these drops she will be ok, but I think a dental and a tear duct flush isn't too far away :?
 
Ah eye drops and tear ducts! there lovely! esp when you get that curdled milk thing going on! it may well be her teeth but could also be a blockage in the middle of her duct, i have had 3 rabbits with this problem. One had only half a duct and pasturella, not a good mixture, one has some scare tissue down there blocking it and the other had tooth root probs. She will be ok, but as it is reocurring every few weeks by the sound i would be tempted to have the vet look at her teeth properly. I know taht means a GA but if it is her teeth and sorting them may sort the problem out. XX
 
It might be a good idea to bathe and gently massage around Ferns eye, put gentle pressure just bellow the duct and massage upwards. This will prevent a load more gunk building up. If you use cooled pre-boiled water for the eye-bathing and just hold a warm water soaked cotton wool pad on the area below the nasolacrimal duct. This will also encourage the gunk out. The less gunk there is the more chance the eye medication will have to reach infected tissue. So do the bathing/massaging first and then apply the medication. Hopefully you will be able to manage the condition without a dental as if the teeth roots are causing the problem the dental wont sort it out. All the dental can do is address any problems with the actual teeth. Once a tooth root has over-erupted into the jaw/skull it is a life-long condition but symptoms can be well controlled with eye-bathing and medication if infection is present. Please let us know how Fern gets on. Jane and Buns xx
 
JCO said:
It might be a good idea to bathe and gently massage around Ferns eye, put gentle pressure just bellow the duct and massage upwards. This will prevent a load more gunk building up. If you use cooled pre-boiled water for the eye-bathing and just hold a warm water soaked cotton wool pad on the area below the nasolacrimal duct. This will also encourage the gunk out. The less gunk there is the more chance the eye medication will have to reach infected tissue. So do the bathing/massaging first and then apply the medication. Hopefully you will be able to manage the condition without a dental as if the teeth roots are causing the problem the dental wont sort it out. All the dental can do is address any problems with the actual teeth. Once a tooth root has over-erupted into the jaw/skull it is a life-long condition but symptoms can be well controlled with eye-bathing and medication if infection is present. Please let us know how Fern gets on. Jane and Buns xx

This si the problem Will had, his front tooth roots were pushing into his duct. But after we had the teeth removed the eye stopped getting guncky???
 
Thanks for all your great advice, as always! :D
We bathe it very regularly anyway, this build up literally happened in about 48 hours!

She has had a weepy eye for a very long time and the vet has mentioned berfore that it could be a root from her tooth as they can't see any spurs.

I just can't believe that so much gunk could build up so quickly, her eye weeps anyway and we bathe it to keep it as clean as possible and if iut does look a bit infected then we call the vet and they give us some drops.

Do you think it would be worth getting an xray done just so that we could see if it defo was the root and also how bad it was? :?:
 
It may certainly be useful to have an x-ray done, if only to give you peace of mind as to whats causing the eye prob.
 
Lanny said:
Thanks for all your great advice, as always! :D
We bathe it very regularly anyway, this build up literally happened in about 48 hours!

She has had a weepy eye for a very long time and the vet has mentioned berfore that it could be a root from her tooth as they can't see any spurs.

I just can't believe that so much gunk could build up so quickly, her eye weeps anyway and we bathe it to keep it as clean as possible and if iut does look a bit infected then we call the vet and they give us some drops.

Do you think it would be worth getting an xray done just so that we could see if it defo was the root and also how bad it was? :?:
An X-ray would be a good diagnostic tool BUT to get an accurate picture your vet would need to give Fern a GA. So unless Fern HAS to have a dental because she is unable to eat due to spurs or incisor overgrowth (and have an x-ray at the same time) I would be inclined to go with managing the symptoms.You say Fern is a particularly high GA risk so I would not go for any proceedure involving a GA unless ABSOLUTELY neseccary if I were you. If a bun has a tooth extracted EARLY in the process of acquired dental disease and ALL the root is removed too then the cavity may seel over but there is always a risk of infection/abscessation setting in and an abscess in the jaw is bad news really. Jane and Buns xx
 
Back
Top