Seen a vet on numerous occasions, but rabbits eye continues to be small and runny and cheek is swollen

Question
I'm basically going to list all the eye problems and treatments my rabbit has had and hope that you can help me, because I'm really starting to doubt if our vets know what they're doing!

I've had my rabbit for almost 5 years now, and he is generally healthy and happy; he loves his food and is free to run around all day. Last year he had a weeping eye, vet said it was conjunctivitis and a gel/cream cleared it up in a week or so.

A few months ago, his eye was in a similar state. So we just asked the vet for the cream/gel again. We were given a different one this time, but assumed it was okay since the vet prescribed it. We cleaned the eye and applied the gel regularly but it wouldn't clear up.

So, we took him back to the vets. This time we were given the first gel again and some medicine to squirt in his mouth as the vet thought he had a blocked tearduct. While we were there we asked him to check our rabbit's teeth as I'd read that they can sometimes cause a runny eye. He assured us that they were fine.

Unfortunately, the eye still didn't clear up completely. It would vary from day to day, sometimes looking fine and sometimes quite small and red. We didn't go back to the vets as the eye wasn't that bad, we'd just clean it when needs be, but he did seem very twitchy when we did; we assumed it was just because we were dabbing at his eye.

One day (a month-ish ago) his cheek under the eye was swollen with a big, hard lump and his eye was red and small. We took him to the vets straight away (different vet this time) and she told us that his teeth were loose and the swelling was some sort of abscess due to this. He had an operation to remove his teeth on that side, the swelling went down and we thought 'finally, it's sorted'.

But although the swelling had gone (cause for the pain when cleaning the eye before) there were still some days where the eye would be small and runny. But since it didn't bother him, we left it. Again, cleaning it when needs be.

Anyway, today his cheek is very swollen again and his eye is practically closed and looks very tender. But it doesn't seem to cause him pain as he doesn't twitch when we touch it and he can eat fine. We're going to take him back to the vets tomorrow morning, but I really don't know if I trust them anymore as they've failed to treat him properly in the past.

IMPORTANT - his eating habits have never been affected, he has  a good diet and always eats fine. So I'm wondering if there actually was anything wrong with the teeth like the vet said?

I would be very grateful for any advice!

Answer
Dear Heledd,

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably...a duck.

Everything you have described is consistent with a dental abscess, and having the teeth removed can help, though it may not always completely resolve the problem.

You don't mention whether your bunny was ever given antibiotics for this problem.  If not, let's just say I'm...amazed and dismayed.  For dental abscesses, the best treatment for rabbits is often injections every 48 hours of dual-acting Penicillin G Procaine/Benzathine.  However, this is not available in the UK.  So the next best thing might be just Penicillin-G Procaine every 24 hours, though it will lack the "hang time" of the long-acting Benzathine salt of penicillin that really seems to do the trick.  If your vet can get the two separately, ask about using them both together.

Another antibiotic with both good "hang time" and abscess penetration is marbofloxacin (zeniquin).  We have used this together with dual-acting Pen with excellent results for jaw abscesses.  

For more complete information, please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/jawabscess.html

and

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

I hope this helps you get your bunny on the track to full recovery.

Happy holidays!

Dana