Rabbit blindness?

What are the symptoms generally shown when a rabbits sight is becoming bad?

My 8 year old bun Timmy started scanning a week ago and my vet put him on antibiotics and Metacam daily for 2 weeks, to treat Vestibular syndrome. He seemed to improve but I have just walked into his room and turned the light on and he scanned again :? Obviously this could still be symptoms of the infection rearing their head again but a few times in the past couple of weeks before this happened I have wondered about his vision. I have put down his food bowl and he has seemed to not see it, things like that. He's not bumping into things, but a I do have to wonder.

Thankyou for any thoughts you have on this. Vibes for my little Timmy also greatly appreciated x

Millions of vibes for Timmy. Sorry I haven't got a clue about scanning and eye problems. Xxx

Gemmapookie said:

What are the symptoms generally shown when a rabbits sight is becoming bad?

My 8 year old bun Timmy started scanning a week ago and my vet put him on antibiotics and Metacam daily for 2 weeks, to treat Vestibular syndrome. He seemed to improve but I have just walked into his room and turned the light on and he scanned again :? Obviously this could still be symptoms of the infection rearing their head again but a few times in the past couple of weeks before this happened I have wondered about his vision. I have put down his food bowl and he has seemed to not see it, things like that. He's not bumping into things, but a I do have to wonder.

Thankyou for any thoughts you have on this. Vibes for my little Timmy also greatly appreciated x

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Scanning can be a sign of impaired vision. Has he any sign of cataracts ?

This link may be helpful

http://www.disabledrabbits.com/blindness.html

Sending Timmy lots of vibes xx

Lots of love and vibes for Timmy. xxxx

Sending lots of vibes for Timmy.

My Poppy had pretty rubbish eyesight I think, it is hard to tell!

With her the main symptoms were;
Scanning
Easily spooked
Inability to find food :roll:
Unwillingness to jump, she wouldn't climb as she couldn't jump down with no depth perception.
Following Thor a lot (that might just have been her)
A general look of 'huh? What's going on here?' She may have just been lacking in little grey cells though...

I know she had bad eyes but I am only really sure because I saw her when she came into rescue, apparently as a viscous rabbit :lol: she really really wasn't but in a scary unfamiliar place she was just sat huddled in a corner scanning frantically at every noise and visibly jumping and lashing out at every approaching hand... It wasn't hard to work out that she couldn't see us properly!

At home though, once she was settled it was much harder to spot. She pretty much never ran into anything other than Thor as he didn't stay still :lol: and I saw her misjudge a wall once and look a bit confused! She stopped lashing out once she realised that I would never grab her without letting her know I was there by talking and a quick stroke first. She ran around her space confidently and without fear although I believe she could see if poorly so maybe not that surprising. I did notice that on the rare occasion that she did jump onto a box or something it was never higher than she could reach by periscoping and she would always jump down from the exact spot she jumped up... I guess she knew exactly what to expect on landing that way. If I went in and she was asleep she would often spook quite badly as I guess the noise would wake her and she was unable to see what was happening, I used to sneak back out and try again later if I saw she was sparko before accidentally waking her! Unless her and Thor were snoozing together as she would wake up half panic and then realise Thor was acting like there was food available and she would be fine! I also used to physically place her face down in her food most nights, she would know it was there, somewhere, and be desperately nosing around about 3 inches to the left or something whilst Thor was helping himself... Possibly another reason she stopped freaking out about unexpected hands... They moved her to food almost daily! :lol:

Gemmapookie said:

What are the symptoms generally shown when a rabbits sight is becoming bad?

My 8 year old bun Timmy started scanning a week ago and my vet put him on antibiotics and Metacam daily for 2 weeks, to treat Vestibular syndrome. He seemed to improve but I have just walked into his room and turned the light on and he scanned again :? Obviously this could still be symptoms of the infection rearing their head again but a few times in the past couple of weeks before this happened I have wondered about his vision. I have put down his food bowl and he has seemed to not see it, things like that. He's not bumping into things, but a I do have to wonder.

Thankyou for any thoughts you have on this. Vibes for my little Timmy also greatly appreciated x

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Hi Gemma

Scanning as you know is common in red eyed white rabbits and can indicate an impairment of vision, though not total vision loss. It may be he has trouble seeing the perspective of things - how near or far they are from him?

If he were truly blind then he would bump into things. Scanning can also be a neurological sign brought about by E.C. or a vestibular cause.

Lots of vibes for Timmy xx

JJ- thanks for the link and the vibes. He's showing no signs of cataracts as of yet, nothing that my untrained eye can see anyway. It's reassuring to know they can adapt to going blind OK with some TLC. He's a very relaxed bun aswell so he's got that going for him.

Hele- Timmy does sound very similar to your Poppy. I have to physically put him next to his food sometimes, he will know it's there and looking for it but unable to find it. He's also in recent months stopped jumping on my bed and sofa. I assumed it was down to age but could definitely be linked to vision impairment.

Thankyou so much for the vibes everyone, I'll be keeping a very close eye on him over the next few days.