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Tobys Crying

Toby

Banned
Hi All,

For a long time now (just under a year) Tobys right eye has been watering down his cheek. He has been to the vets twice about it and seen the same lady and she says he is healthy and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. His eye is clear and wide open as normal, only now and again he will have sleep stringy bits in his eye that I do clean out. I clean his eye often, and I have notised that his tears are fairly thick. He doesn’t have a runny nose and his ears are fine also. I was just wondering if dust could be a problem? Maybe Toby has a sensitive eye? Or maybe its old age? What I did notice is, when I went back to my mums to visit Toby had a run around the garden so he was outside more and his eye did stop running, this is why I think it might be dust. His not in a dusty area, but I was thinking of moving him somewhere else see if that helps. However I have notised that his tears are fairly thick.
 
I have the same problem with Sheffield. He gets a wet sticky eye. He also sneezes a lot. He's going in to see the vet this evening. I'll let you know what she says.
 
Thanks. My Vet just says his fine. I just go with what she says because A) she’s a vet and B) Toby doesn’t appear to be ill or anything - just has a runny eye. But I would like to know if he feels uncomfortable or if there is any more I can do. I don't want to but salt in the water I clean his eye with if its sensitive. Hope your bunny is ok - if you let me know what the vet says that would be great :)
 
Sheffield is now on baytril. But he had quite a snotty discharge from his eye yesterday, looked like a big bogey. The vet said that that was a cause for concern and he suspects that there's an infection. My vet made it sound like a clear discharge isn't too much to worry about, but the moment it turns milky you're looking at an infection and you need to take him back in.

Not meaning to panic you at all, but do keep an eye on the little fellow. I'm sure you will anyway, but Sheffield's eye started off as just a clear discharge. I don't know what you should be doing for him otherwise. I know that Sheffield always appreciates having the dry bits picked off, so maybe a bit of friendly cleaning wouldn't go amiss. :)
 
In the absence of infection, eye ulcer, teeth problems or blocked tear ducts (all the things a Vet checks for)..bunnies with unexplained runny eyes, tend to do be fine with careful husbandry.

We have several bunnies here that have unexplained weepy eyes, and we wipe their eyes daily with cold tea which is soothing.(saline is fine too..a quarter teaspoon of salt dissolved in a cup of boiling water and allowed to cool..once dissolved and in this amount salt is not an irratant, but we prefer the cold tea..not sure if the bunnies do though :lol: )

We trim the area of fur under the eye (with baby safety scissors!) as the tears run down and keep the fur constantly moist. This then turns into a skin problem, and scabs form...if the area is kept dry and trimmed back this prevents the problem, although bunnies can look a little odd with being trimmed around that area.

I guess that Toby does not have a blocked tear duct as such, but perhaps as he is a mature bunny(!) things are a little slower than in a younger bunny, so he is getting a gradual build up of tears(an allergy may also be contributing to the condition)...hence the thick tears!.
It is not a problem that requires medical attention, just husbandry and careful monitoring. Toby may be more prone to eye infections so this is something to watch, and keeping the eye bathed daily will reduce the risk.

Toby is absolutely stunning, please give him a cuddle from me :p

Best wishes Adele and all the Sanctuary rabbits too
 
Hi there, thank you for your advice, Bertie and Adele. I have to take him into the vets anyway to get his nails clipped, so Ill get his eye looked at while I am there, and mention the chance of infection. I don’t know how to describe the tears, thick and snotty looking I guess lol. But it is constant running; even after I have washed his eye I can see that thick tear appearing again.

There is a pic below with his runny eye, please don't Laugh at his goatie he is abit sensitive about it :lol: (dunnu if you can see it well, I normally have to edit his tears in fireworks :lol: ), Will give Toby a big cuddle for ya :wink:


tear.jpg
 
Toby is off to the vets tomorrow morning. His other eye is running now and I think he needs another check up. Then its a long trip back to grimsby :)
 
Is this the nail clipping appointment, or a special appointment for his eye? Are the tears still clear?

Sheffield had a snotty eye again today. :( He's 8 days into his antibiotic so I think I'll have to increase it to 14 days instead of 10. He won't be best pleased, but he should have thought about that before he got poorly.
 
Whot has the vet given to put in the eys you both mention, as there are generaly 2 different ones Tiacil is mainly used for watering eyes and Fucathemic cream for the eyes if its pussy. this would be in conjuction with batril i would have thought. Do ask the vet to check the eye is not blocked at the duct. val
 
We didn't get eye drops. Sheffield's main problem was sneezing, and then he got a clear weepy eye, and then I found the eye snot and made him an appointment straight away. We'd had him checked for the sneezing before, but as his lungs sounded ok and he needed treatment for mites and his VHD vaccination we gave those priority. Then Monopoly started sneezing and Sheffield had his discharge from his eye.

He's only had a milky discharge twice now, so I don't think the problem lies with his eye directly, but rather that the vet is right and he does have an infection that's causing the problems. The vet gave him a thorough check up, including a good poke about of his eyes. He even put in dye to check there were no scratches on the surface.

In any case, he gave us Baytril for 10 days and told us to increase it to 14 if we were still worried and to bring him straight back if there were any other problems. As he had his second lot of eye snot yesterday I'm definitely increasing the treatment to 14 days. The sneezing in both of them is greatly reduced, and if there's any more discharge from his eye, clear or otherwise I'll take him back in.
 
toby crying

daisy had this and my vet said she had an infected tear duct. he put her to sleep to flush the tear duct out & she was fine. it can be done whilst awake but daisy could be a little aggressive so it was better under anaesthetic.

:) xx
 
Just to put a little twist on things: my lop Sunny had his tear ducts blocked last summer (2003) and got them flushed. That sorted the problem, but he always had a little discharge mainly in one eye. Then one side of his face seemed like wasting away. After lost of investigation and four vets later (a specialist), he was diagnosed with a damaged facial nerve which made the muscles on that side waste away. It also caused dry eye as he was not able to close that one eye properly due to the muscle wastage. The blocked tearducts he had in summer 2003 was the first symptom of the wasting face muscle.

Since his diagnosis, he gets artificial teardrops twice a day and he has not had any problems since.

I just want to highlight that sometimes, it is not the obvious that causes certain problems.

Here's a picture of Sunny, as you can see the right side (left when you look at the picture) is like skinny and the right eye has also dropped a bit. That's the side that is largely paralysed.
Sunny1%201104.jpg


If you also feel that it might be allergic, then an air purifier in the bunny's room would probably help.

Vera
 
Has he been tested for pasturela? as this can cause all sorts of things to go wrong, like abccesses behind the eye, although it dosent sound bad enough for that, but its worth a mention. It must be very frustrating for you not to be able to get to the bottom of it. val
 
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