rabbit eyeball infection,please help!

Question
Hi,contacted you before regarding Timmi the rabbits eye problem.He has been treated for e cuniculi with Panacur(wormer)for 28 days along with a antibiotic(Baytril)and antibiotic eye drops.Hes general health is great,but hes eyes are terrible,it started with a whiteish/pinkish mass in both eyeballs(before he started the treatment)and these masses,continued to grow(the eyes dont weep or matt)I have been back & fourth to the vets worrying,the vet says the masses are infection/pus.I was horrified.I asked to keep him on Baytril(after all other treatment had stopped)Feel like vets given up,Im devastated,tonite he got a large white cloudy circle in one eye also.(getting him to vets tommr)please could you give me ANY recomended treatment I could ask vets to try(theyre open to advice)Am I right in thinking Baytril should be continued after e cuniculi?(Stopped the eye drops as the vets said it wasnt doing any good)I only asked to keep him on Baytril,in the desparate attempt to stop it going to his brain.Please help!kind regards Candi

Answer
Dear Candi,

Don't give up on him.  Even a blind rabbit can live a perfectly happy life, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.  

It's not clear from your information whether the infection is *inside* the eyeball itself, or if it's in the surrounding tissue.  If it's intraocular (inside the eyeball) infection, then this is more difficult, as there are fewer drugs that can cross the tight junctions that protect the eye from the inside.  It's an immunologically privileged site, which means that infections from the body don't readily enter the eyeballs, but once infection *does* get there, it's harder to treat.

One common reason for intraocular abscesses is intrusion of molar roots into the eye orbit from below.  You can read more about this here:

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

and

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

This is not a great situation, and the only way to address it is to treat the infection at the molar root site.  Some vets recommend removing the offending molar, but to do so will require radiographs and close inspection to see which teeth are causing the problem.

If the eyes are already so infected that vision is lost permanently, then enucleation (removal) of the eyes is a sad, but possibly most humane option.  It's better than euthanasia!  But again, I hope the situation isn't that bad at this point.  If you can send a clear picture, that will help me get a better idea of what you're dealing with here.

If this is a molar root/jaw abscess, then a better drug for penetration into the abscess capsule is injectable Penicillin-G Procaine (unfortunately, you can't get dual-acting penicillin injectable in the UK).  But the best preliminary procedure would be culture and sensitivity testing:

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

Finally, if you really think these vets have given up on him, then find a vet who is more positive about Timmi's outcome.  I'm not sure I already recommended Dr. Frances Harcourt-Brown, but she is one of the best rabbit vets in the world.  In a dire case like Timmi's her practice may be worth a long trip:

http://www.any-uk-vet.co.uk/harcourt-brown/

I hope some of this will help Timmi get well!

Dana