watery eyes in my white rabbit

Question
Hello Dana,

Thanks for allowing me to ask questions about my rabbit.

My rabbit is 7 years old. In the last three weeks, we noticed patches of fur in front of the eyes were always wet, in the right more so than the left. We took our rabbit to the vet two weeks ago, and was given chloramphenicol eye drop and meloxicam by mouth. Our rabbit had meloxicam one week and  the eye drop for two weeks by now, the eyes are still watery. The eyes themselves seem fine, and the rabbit is otherwise acting like his usual self in terms of eating and grooming.

Could you give us some advice? The skin under the wet fur seem rather uncomfortable, may be due to constant irritation?

Alice

Answer
Dear Alice

I have written a pretty exhausting article about just this problem, which is very common in older rabbits.  Believe it or not, it's usually a dental problem.  Please read:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/weepy.pdf

I hope it helps.

Dana