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what are the pros & cons of a 13 year old bunny doing cataract surgery?

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

Wise Old Thumper
I just notice my bun has chalky eyes on both eyes. She is either at age 13 now, or will be in a month or 2. There is no other signs or symptoms. She can see things very well, she knows where her urine spots are, she hops downstair just yesterday to her bunny castle.

I am concern about putting a bun of her year under a GA. ANd if the surgery needs to be done, to reduce exposure to GA, would it make more sense to do just 1 eye?

Her left eye has no other symptoms.

Her right eye, in the past 1 to 2 year, has the regular fluid discharge, this is an old age problem, it could be a partial block on the tear duct

In the past 1 to 2 year, she gets nervous and takes deep breath if I tickle her cheek. This is a change from the days when she's young

and what are the post surgery complication?
 
If she is managing OK as she is and there is no other reason for a GA, I wouldn't put her through it, personally. I don't think there would be any advantages to removing her cataracts at this time vs the possible risks of surgery. If there were life threatening reasons or major benefits to it, then I would go ahead - but in this case there don't seem to be any. Maybe get the weepy eye looked at again - ask about antibiotic drops for it to see if it will help with a blocked duct. She is a fabulous age and seems to be coping just fine as she is.
 
I have an almost 8 year old rabbit with cataracts in both eyes. Like you I have not noticed that this impairs his quality of life at all. He finds absolutely no dfficulty in moving around and doing his normal rabbity things.

I have discussed this with my vet and together we have decided not to have the cataracts operated on and so I have also not had him examined by an Opthalmologist. I see there is little, if anything, to be gained.

This is a personal decision and I can well imagine that others will disagree, but for me it is not something that I deem important for him.
 
Omi, so how old your bun now? in other words, how long has he been having the cataracts since and is there any problem since?

============================

Shimmer, I concur, thank you
 
Happy Hopping said:
Omi, so how old your bun now? in other words, how long has he been having the cataracts since and is there any problem since?

============================

Shimmer, I concur, thank you
Click to expand...

My rabbit will be 8 in February and the cataracts were first noticed around a year ago. I have not noticed any change in behaviour or mobility since they were first seen. He, like my other rabbits, have always seemed to locate food more by smell than sight and he, of course, knows his accommodation very well as he has been here for 7 years.

In short, he seems no different before and afterwards :)
 
Shimmer said:
If she is managing OK as she is and there is no other reason for a GA, I wouldn't put her through it, personally. I don't think there would be any advantages to removing her cataracts at this time vs the possible risks of surgery. If there were life threatening reasons or major benefits to it, then I would go ahead - but in this case there don't seem to be any. Maybe get the weepy eye looked at again - ask about antibiotic drops for it to see if it will help with a blocked duct. She is a fabulous age and seems to be coping just fine as she is.
Click to expand...


I have to say I concur with Shimmer's advice. I didn't have my rabbit's cataracts operated on when he was younger than 13. If they were seriously eroding her quality of life I might consider it, but I would make sure a pre-op work up was done before I agreed to anything.
 
this is great to hear from all of you. So on my end, the only change I have made is to turn on the light from 7 to 9 pm during this fall /winter time when I go to the gym every 2nd day. So it's easier for my bun to hop around her usual area. In the summer, it's daylight at that time frame.

My light bulb is energy saving, so it's only 16W x 4, so no biggie for me.

thank you everyone for your input
 
Happy Hopping said:
I just notice my bun has chalky eyes on both eyes. She is either at age 13 now, or will be in a month or 2. There is no other signs or symptoms. She can see things very well, she knows where her urine spots are, she hops downstair just yesterday to her bunny castle.

I am concern about putting a bun of her year under a GA. ANd if the surgery needs to be done, to reduce exposure to GA, would it make more sense to do just 1 eye?

Her left eye has no other symptoms.

Her right eye, in the past 1 to 2 year, has the regular fluid discharge, this is an old age problem, it could be a partial block on the tear duct

In the past 1 to 2 year, she gets nervous and takes deep breath if I tickle her cheek. This is a change from the days when she's young

and what are the post surgery complication?
Click to expand...
dear happy hopping,-I too was confronted with the surgery/eye[glaucoma]-I elected to not-have it done because like your bun,mine was 13 years old,and the likely hood of losing him due to the anathesia-[no-thankyou]-longevity was the issue.-sincerely james waller-have the dvm exam for eye problems..
 
We have had cataract surgery on one of our buns (lens replacement surgery)
He had very rapid onset cataracts, initially just in one eye which made little difference but when the second cataract developed (from no cataract to "complete" cataract/completely blind within ~48hrs) it had a huge impact on his quality of life, he became very withdrawn, reluctant to eat etc (he was about 5 at the time). Most buns adapt very well to the gradual loss of eyesight, if its not having any significant effect on her I would agree with the other responses and not go ahead with the surgery.
 
iiisecondcreep said:
We have had cataract surgery on one of our buns (lens replacement surgery)
He had very rapid onset cataracts, initially just in one eye which made little difference but when the second cataract developed (from no cataract to "complete" cataract/completely blind within ~48hrs) it had a huge impact on his quality of life, he became very withdrawn, reluctant to eat etc (he was about 5 at the time). Most buns adapt very well to the gradual loss of eyesight, if its not having any significant effect on her I would agree with the other responses and not go ahead with the surgery.
Click to expand...

They actually replaced the lense in a rabbit? I am a bit surprised, I didn't think they did that.

What was the outcome of the operation long term? Did it make things better for him?
 
Stator said:
They actually replaced the lense in a rabbit? I am a bit surprised, I didn't think they did that.

What was the outcome of the operation long term? Did it make things better for him?
Click to expand...

Its not common, we had to go to London (from Scotland) to the RVC for it and the lenses were brought in from Germany. It made a huge difference for MJ, he was more or less back to his old self once he had recovered. Long term, he's on eye drops for the rest of his life and has 6monthly check ups with the ophthalmologist at the D1ck vet in Edin to monitor his eye pressures.

Here is my thread about it:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?443078-Bunny-Cataracts-advice-on-options

It was on this forum i had first read about the surgery, this is Charlies thread
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...arlie-at-RVC-UD-Done-can-see-in-one-eye-again!!
 
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