Bunny had Ulcer after dental U/D post 35 - pseudomonas aeruginosa

[FireRose]

Hey all,
I am just looking for some advice/reassurance and basically just someone to help cause I’m so tired with how much this is taking out of me due to no sleep.

On 30th October, Willow went for a dental - now this was as a “preventative measure” it was picked up she had a tiny spur and was booked in to stop it getting worse.

We’ve been told that her tooth’s and teeth are perfect and actually the vet couldn’t believe how healthy her teeth were (roots and stuff wise)

Anyway after the operation Willows eyes were runny - now bare in mind she had NO symptoms before the dental, eating fine, drinking fine, and active as much as you’d expect from an 8 yr old bunny.

So we called the vets next day saying we was concerned, basically got told not concerned if still the same call back Monday, so we did. Now there was a LOT of hassle with this and it ended up vets basically let the ball drop with seeing her so it ended up being 6 days for an appointment


She was diagnosed with superficial ulcers in both eyes, got given chloramphenical drops and pain relief.

She’s seen the vet since (last Wednesday)

Now her eyes have been improving the gunk went, but this past couple days her eyes have gone back to being red, swollen and gunky.

One more worse than the other.

Now I’ve noticed today it’s very white/cloudy. She’s barely opening it and it’s proving difficult to get drops in.

She’s on the Remend corneal drops as often as possible and then the chloramphenical drops 3 daily.

I am just so worried, obviously we are now at the weekend so any vets will be emergency (which is fine I’ve no qualms) however it’s not going to be a usual vet for her.

I am just wondering if anyone has had this, what was the outcome can she wait till Monday?

I’m so worried, I’m so sleep deprived as well she’s my priority and thankfully insured but I just want some help cause ringing the vets today I couldn’t get through at all (limited opening times)

Willow is 8 - she’s on metacam for arthritis anyway so she’s been on metacam since her operation. (Normally she’d do a week or so on and then off for as long as possible) she had NO other issues before this.

Today she seems more in pain, her poo’s are smaller and she’s not showing interest in food, so I’ve been feeding recovery

I am honestly just lost because before this operation she was probably the best we’d seen in a while as finally on top of her arthritis pain. I feel awful.

 

[bunny momma]

I am sorry you are dealing with this after her dental.
Her third eyelid is very inflamed and with it being painful I would not wait until Monday if you can get her to OOH vet Sunday.
The vet could determine if this is a reaction to the drops, if a different antibiotic would be better, and to give additional pain meds.
I hope someone with more knowledge can offer you more useful information.

 

[FireRose]

I am sorry you are dealing with this after her dental.
Her third eyelid is very inflamed and with it being painful I would not wait until Monday if you can get her to OOH vet Sunday.
The vet could determine if this is a reaction to the drops, if a different antibiotic would be better, and to give additional pain meds.
I hope someone with more knowledge can offer you more useful information.

Hey!
Sadly we could only get her on the Monday appointment, as she is still eating/drinking. Albeit with aid and recovery they wouldn’t see us sooner.

I’ve lost a bit of faith of the vets for sure during this, I know issues can occur from dentals, but to see her before and after it’s honestly heartbreaking

I am so concerned she is going to loose her vision especially now with that eye being all white? Would the inflammation be causing this also?

Thank you for replying I’ve just re read my post last night and perhaps I should’ve waited until I had calmed down slightly before writing

 

[FireRose]

These were taken just before the dental so it honestly upsets me even more that this dental was done as a preventative treatment and now we are going through all this when she was perfectly fine

The guilt is honestly eating me alive.

 

[bunny momma]

Hey!
Sadly we could only get her on the Monday appointment, as she is still eating/drinking. Albeit with aid and recovery they wouldn’t see us sooner.

I’ve lost a bit of faith of the vets for sure during this, I know issues can occur from dentals, but to see her before and after it’s honestly heartbreaking

I am so concerned she is going to loose her vision especially now with that eye being all white? Would the inflammation be causing this also?

Thank you for replying I’ve just re read my post last night and perhaps I should’ve waited until I had calmed down slightly before writing

It is upsetting to deal with such an unexpected health issue In an otherwise healthy bunny, and you have every right to be annoyed that your vet could not address this sooner.
Do not blame yourself. You were right to take care of the dental spur before it resulted in mouth sores or her not eating and stasis.
My vet puts ointment in my bunny’s eyes for GA’s.
If she is in pain the vet should not make you wait until Monday. Can you ask if she is already on max dosage of medicam?
if she is rubbing it you Will need to use a soft coller or other means to protect her eye.

 

[FireRose]

It is upsetting to deal with such an unexpected health issue In an otherwise healthy bunny, and you have every right to be annoyed that your vet could not address this sooner.
Do not blame yourself. You were right to take care of the dental spur before it resulted in mouth sores or her not eating and stasis.
My vet puts ointment in my bunny’s eyes for GA’s.
If she is in pain the vet should not make you wait until Monday. Can you ask if she is already on max dosage of medicam?
if she is rubbing it you Will need to use a soft coller or other means to protect her eye.

She is on the maximum dose of metacam for her weight for her arthritis she is on 0.8ml twice daily and thats for her weighing around 2.7kg ish (her weight has been fluctuating during this time)

I asked about paracetamol last time I went and I was shut down immediately told she doesn’t like to prescribe it, it would be gabapentin (yeah it knocked me for six too why you would just jump straight immediately to that rather than be on something a bit gentler and then still have room to go higher if needed)

My concern is the operation was the 30th October, so instead of being on metacam for a week or so then being of for 2-3 weeks she’s been on it consistently. (We are just at the start of our arthritis journey with Willow so lucky in that aspect)

Willow has been tolerating being on/off the metacam and her pain/movement has been fine.

It is now a month of being on it full time; with her being 8 this month I do worry about other things (I do realise the priority are her eyes right now)

She’s not bothering with it too much tbh, just keeping her eyes closed mostly. Which again is a sign of pain *sigh*

I am honestly just so over whelmed with it right now, lack of sleep doesn’t help when caring for poorly buns and I know vets are busy and have other patients but you just want your pet to be a priority when needed.

 

[bunny momma]

I do not live in UK, yet my vet did not want to prescribe paracetamol with Metacam for a bunny with cancer, so he added gabapentine. I do not recall his reason for not adding paracetamol, yet it made sense at the time. Gabapentine works differently.

Many bunnies on the forum are on medicam long term/daily for arthritis, though I do not know if they are on max dosages. So I do not know the reason your vet has Willow getting it on and off for arthritis. Someone else may know.
Yet, like you said her comfort is the priority and tomorrow you have the vet. Sending vibes for you both.

 

[Cinnabun14]

I'm so sorry, poor Willow. I can't offer any advice, but I'll leave my vibes and hugs for both of you. I hope Willow gets better and I hope you and the vet can find a cure for her.

 

[FireRose]

I haven’t slept all night.

I rung the OOH vet again yesterday as her other eye has gone the same way, started with a small cloudy area in her eye and has now just covered the entire eye.

Sadly I feel willow has lost her vision, reading about this it is possible to be urevitis cataracts, the corneal ulcer worsening or she’s lost her vision.

The OOH vets yesterday recommended to stop the chlorampenical drops but that as no rabbit savvy vet was there we’d be better to keep our Monday appointment.

Stick with pain relief and keep her comfortable try not to irritate her eyes. And it looks like an ophthalmologist appointment is not to far in the distant future!

Willow is seeming to be moving around nervously, not her sure fire self, so her vision is either gone or reduced severely.

Whether this is permanent or not I will find out today.

This is her other eye, it started out as such a small area and by the time night fell it was completely covered just like her other eye.

I am honestly being eaten alive by the guilt of putting her through this procedure, her bonded friend is also suffering because obviously willow is getting more attention right now, he doesn’t realise why, she’s not as playful, and it just breaks my heart.

These two were not an easy bond and although they dote on eachother now, it took a LONG time to get here.

Neither do well in the care, the vets are an hour away, I suspect I will be recovery feeding them both by tonight for their stress meanwhile operating on no sleep and a dry bit of toast myself lol.

 

[FireRose]

I'm so sorry, poor Willow. I can't offer any advice, but I'll leave my vibes and hugs for both of you. I hope Willow gets better and I hope you and the vet can find a cure for her.

Thank you so much! It’s been such a long and stressful month.

Guilt is eating me alive seeings as we did this to prevent these types of issues. I know Willow is the older side of rabbits being 8 this month but she was so happy, binkying and moving fine, eating fine etc etc and now we’ve had a month of her being in pain and now this vision loss…

I am at a complete loss.

Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot

 

[joey&boo]

Sending lots of vibes for your bun & you. Go easy on yourself ...you followed vet advice. My Boo hasduveitis, she went blind & coped pretty well. Her eyes looked weird but didn't ulcerate. Boo's came on with an EC episode - mentioning in case it could be relevant for your buns. Years ago, 2008 I had an already blind (in one eye, from a pre rescue injury) - that went badly ulcerated & needed removing. Noodle coped really well but it was just one eye. I hope your bunny vet can find a way forward

 

[bunny momma]

I am so sorry Willow's other eye is worse. I hope her Monday appointment gave you some answers and a way to move forward.
You need to take care of yourself too, though it can be difficult to sleep and eat when you are stressed from all the care and worry. It is not your fault. My bridge bunny Raven had many dentals and never got eye ulcers, so this could not have been predicted. I hope you do not have to wait too long for an appointment with the ophthalmologist, if necessary.
Sending vibes to you all.

 

[bunny momma]

I am sending more vibes and hoping Willow is doing better.

 

[FireRose]

She has a bacterial infection in her eye!

The ophthalmologist isn’t sure what’s caused it and the fact it is in both eyes has flummoxed them!

She is currently on antibiotics (Marbofloxacin)
An eye serum, which is dogs blood which is then spun down with something else to promote healing of the eyes/cornea (pretty cool)

And also different eye drops (Exocin) we’ve have these in the past for an ulcer so I’m happy to be on these.

They’ve taken a swab of the eye to see what bacteria it is. But for now they do suspect what is is (Sadly I can’t remember the name)

Sadly she isn’t out of the woods and for now she gets to keep her eyes but we’re still not sure on her sight returning. It’s going to be a long road to recovery sadly and sadly we still don’t know if her eyes/sight can be saved.

She’s having drops every 3 hours, the serum 4x daily, pain twice daily, and antibiotics once daily.

She seems fine within herself, obviously still struggling to get around, recovery is on and off (which is understandable)

We’ve had two appointments with the ophthalmologist (went again on Thursday) they seem happy with the progress but it is going to be a waiting game.

One of her eyes is now swelling out, they think it could be an abscess, again hopefully the antibiotics will tackle that.

I am just so heartbroken for willow that all this come about as a preventive operation to stop all these eye issues/stasis and now she has them anyway.

Guilt is horrendous

 

[FireRose]

So TW FOR photo’s of eyes.

So this is her Left eye. This is the one that’s bulging a bit, it’s obviously still very red/sore.

The white stuff isn’t as free on this side either, though you can see it clumping, it’s not yet loosened up.

 

[FireRose]

This is her right eye….

It’s clearing a lot better/quicker of the white stuff, it doesn’t seem as red, but it is still.

I’m finding if I raise my hands in front of this one she is closing her eye now, though I’m not sure if that is her whiskers/eyelashes doing the job, BUT she is also starting to blink again now when drops go in it…I am not trying to get my hopes up too much as we all know how quick things turn with rabbits.

But this does seem like the better eye.

I have tried to slowly coax that glob off, but it isn’t shifting (I won’t force it)

But as you can see the white infection is coming off better in this eye than the other.

My only concern now is her face does seem to be wet a lot with all the drops and god knows what. I’ve been cleaning with warm water and then drying down her face/nose area.

I noticed yesterday the bridge of her nose seems a tiny bit red, but obviously that’s in your much of an accessible spot for sudocrem… So I’m not sure how to keep that from being sore.

We should be hearing back from the bacterial swabs any day now (was suppose to be yesterday, I’m not sure if labs work on weekends so we shall see)

 

[FireRose]

Sending lots of vibes for your bun & you. Go easy on yourself ...you followed vet advice. My Boo hasduveitis, she went blind & coped pretty well. Her eyes looked weird but didn't ulcerate. Boo's came on with an EC episode - mentioning in case it could be relevant for your buns. Years ago, 2008 I had an already blind (in one eye, from a pre rescue injury) - that went badly ulcerated & needed removing. Noodle coped really well but it was just one eye. I hope your bunny vet can find a way forward

We did mention EC. They don’t think it’s that. They have swabbed the eyes though and sent it off.
I’m hoping we don’t loose her eyes, but I can only imagine the pain she is in, so if they have to be removed, then I bet the relief from the pain will be worth it.

Even if she can keep one eye bless her.

Her left eye looks very dry to me, very swollen, very dry, very red so I will not be surprised if they can’t fix that one…But if she could at least keep one.

She’s moving around okay, she’s not very sure footed AT ALL. Moving so very slowly, and walking in to things a lot. I know it’ll take time but it’s hard to watch.

Basically we are in a race we was told as to who wins first the anti bitocs or the infection. So not out the woods yet but we are under very good care with the ophthalmologist I think.

What sort of things did you have to change with your bunny? She has a friend but he’s a bit of a livewire lol. Our home pretty much stays the same. I’m looking at changing the hay storage boxes to lower ones - We currently use under bed storage boxes so looking at the potting tray ones….

I’m not sure what else we can do to help her?

 

[joey&boo]

When Boo went blind she was with her long term partner Joey & he was pretty chill...though not always nice as he'd steal food from her.Later when Joey left we bonded her to a much younger & livelier Eddy.

Things I changed: Put the mattress on the floor as she;d always joined us on the bed. When she first went blind she'd jump from memory, overshot the mattress & I fear hurt her wrists. She seemed fine at the time but had bad arthritis there later. I kept her spaces really tidy (for a rabbit area) so she could run without running into enrichment stuff. She bimbled rather than ran. She would have never passed as a seeing bun but she did fine..

I also mentally sectioned the room to let her be guided by scent...so litter tray in the usual corner, dirty washing hamper in another & lavender at the foot of the bed. Something like that. I couldn't risk feeding tangly or thorny forage, put woolly socks on bed legs etc. Initially we used big dog beds as litter trays but went to just puppy pads on lino ...but that was more down to arthritis

Hoping for a good outcome for her. Remember scent is a biggy for rabbits, they generally manage sight loss ok. My poor Boo was deaf too so I was permanently vigilant for respiratory health, there were no issues but to lose that sense too would have been too much

 

[Cinnabun14]

Sending vibes for Willow to heal quickly. I'm glad you at least have a starting point for treatment, and hopefully she can keep both her eyes. I don't know how easy it is for rabbits to get those, so please take this with a grain of salt, but I'm wondering if it's an environmental factor that gave her the infection...it seems very strange to me that she got sick so quickly after her procedure. I'm NOT saying it's the vet's fault, not at all, I don't know your vet, don't know how they operate so please don't hear me say that! But maybe there's a clue in what happened that day and the days after that as to why she got the infection and ulcers.

I've heard of lots of animals that get on just fine being blind. Even birds. I'm not very sure about rabbits, but animals are crazy good at adapting to losing their sense of hearing or sight. I think j&b has a lot of good advice there.

 

[bunny momma]

It is good to read she saw the specialist. I am pleased to read/see that Willow's right eye is doing much better. The white in the center is healing and getting smaller. I would not try to remove the goop. I hope her left eye will soon be responding to treatment.
Sending you and Willow lots of positive vibes.