rabbit eye problem

Question
A year or so ago, my lop rabbit got a scratch in his eye from a fight with another rabbit. We used fucidic eye cream and the infection cleared up but he was left with a hole in the middle of his clear eye lens. He could see fine and there was no problem until recently when two weeks ago he escaped and came into contact with the other rabbit for a couple of minutes. Somehow during that time, something happened to his eye, we don't know what, but we think he had a scratch on his head just above his eye. His eye got gunky and watery, so we used the fucilthalmic viscous eye drops again and polysporin on the skin above his eye (not in his eye). We used the fucidic viscous eye drops for a week, but when we stopped the eye drops it got watery again a couple of days later. His eye seems to be only half open most of the time, although it is not gunky or watery  now it is cloudy white around the hole in his eye lens that happened last year. The cloudy white is about the size of a very small lentil. The gunk and water cleared up and the skin got better. He still has vision in that eye, and we have continued the eye drops. Is there anything we can do besides going to a vet? We are afraid the vet will just give us the same eye drops again and it will be a waste of time and money. There are no vets near us that have good knowledge of rabbits.

Answer
Dear Mimi,

You don't need just a vet.  You need a veterinary ophthalmologist who can properly diagnose and treat this problem, which sounds like an infeciton.  The eye is an immunologically "privileged" site, and infections in the eye need to be treated topically.  

I would guess that a good treatment would be ciprofloxacin ophthalmic drops, but I would NOT use ointments if the cornea is patent and actually has an open ulcer.  Creams and ointments can actually damage things if that is the case.

Please ask a local vet for referral to a veterinary ophthalmologist.  The only thing such a vet might need to know is that oral penicillins or lincosamine antibiotics of any kind can be fatal.  Fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides are safe, and are usually the drugs of first choice for ophthalmological infections, anyway.

Unfortunately, there is really nothing you can do with home remedies in a situation this serious.

I hope this helps.  


Dana