Is Tiacil safe for a snuffly rabbit?

Question
I had an 8-week old female rabbit with a respiratory infection - she was being treated with oral Baytril and seemed to be making a good recovery - the infection seemed to be entirely in her nose and the vet was happy with the sound of her chest. On her most recent visit to the vet, she was also given Tiacil eyedrops for a sore eye. Soon after being given the eyedrops she became incredibly poorly (running around and eating in the morning, then struggling for every breath a few hours later). She went back to the vet as an emergency case, but they could not do anything for her as she was so small, and she died a few hours later. Only afterwards did I become aware that the eyedrops were quite thick, and that if any ran into her nose it could cause further congestion and make it harder for her to breath. I wondered if it would have been better to wait until after the infection was completely clear before worrying about treating the eye (the Baytril and salt water bathing had already improved the eye's condition a lot). It's not that I want to take any action against the vet, just that if it did have an adverse effect on the congestion in her nose, the vet ought to know that the eyedrops contributed to the problem and maybe someone else will not suffer the same rapid deterioration in the condition of their rabbit. Many thanks for any advice.

Answer
Hi,

I am sorry to hear about your bunny passing.

It seems tiacil is considered one of several standard topical antibiotics for rabbits for eyes and ears.

Does that mean there will never be a rabbit that has issues with a particular antibiotic? No.

To be fair, I have not had personal experience with tiacil.

You may want to check that you were not accidentally given Tiacil for use inside the ear, rather than the eye.  Tiacil can be used topically on both, but they may not be the same strength or viscosity.

I do believe it is common to treat eye infections at the same time of nasal infections, because the infections can get to each other via the tear ducts or finding a way between tissues.  They fear the infections traveling into another area.  They particularly worry aobut eye infections because of the large artery behind the eye and things like a hemmorhage or sepsis (blood infection) or losing the eye.

I also would discuss this with the vet, to determine what happened and why the sudden deterioration after the tiacil was administered.  That is why I am thinking perhaps the wrong strength solution was used, or perhaps this rabbit was allergic to the tiacil (gentamycin).