Red, swollen eye

Question
I have two female bunnies, about 4 months old, that are mini...somethings. No one knows.  I came home from being gone for a day (my parents took care of them) and found that Delilah has an eye that is red and swollen. It is red around the rim, and the fur looks like it has a little bit of dried discharge.  She can open the eye all the way, but prefers to keep it partially closed.  She's acting fine.

I noticed both bunnies will occasionally get a damp nose, but I think this might be from their open water dish - they don't like the water bottle, but they do get fresh water throughout the day.  Delilah has also started occasionally snorting or perhaps having a tiny sneeze.  She's the grumpier one of the two, so I'm not sure if she's snorting cause she's mad at life, or if she's sneezing, and if this is related to the eye.

I can't really afford to take her to the vet, but if I have to I will.

Answer
Hi,

you will have to take her to the vet.  Go to a good rabbit vet so you get the best care and most for your money.  Look here first:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

Also to prevent money problems in the future, set aside a small amount of money each paycheck to your 'rabbit fund' for preventative care or emergencies.  Look at current expenses and see if you can't trim off some things or maybe do without some things you really aren't using much or maybe aren't necessary in the grand scheme of things, compared to being able to provide for your pets' health issues.  

You need to get to the vet because there's something wrong in her sinuses, from what you are stating.  She's probably got a respiratory infection (sneezing, runny eyes, runny nose).  That means bacteria, which means she needs an antibiotic.  The vet needs to determine what the bacteria really is and do a test to make sure that what he gives you, to give to her, will really kill off the bacteria.  They need to do a culture and sensitivity test to match up the most effective medicine to the bacteria.  This way you will not pay for medicine that doesn't get her better and have to come back and pay again.

A good rabbit vet will recommend doing a culture and sensitivity test rather than just throwing any old antibiotic at you.  They may give you a small amount of a general antibiotic to use while waiting for the test results.  You will probably wind up with an oral antibiotic for her to drink, and probably topical antibiotic drops for the eye to deal with any infection setting in there.  I woudl ask for metacam also to help reduce pain and swelling.

Also the problem could be a tooth related issue, with a tooth root being a problem, or a cracked tooth that's gotten infected with the infection getting into the sinuses and tear ducts.  Her grumpiness (which is not normal) is indicative she could be in a little pain and definitely that she is not feeling her normal good self.  Anytime they are not normal you need to start looking at it as a medical problem.  Make sure she keeps eating and drinking in the meantime.  Watch what she eats, if she has a tooth problem she will avoid having to chew harder stuff like hay, and lean more towards softer items.

But please get her in right away, especially because it's affecting her eye area.  You don't want anything to jeopardize losing the eye, and even rabbit vets don't like having to do anything surgical around a rabbits' eye because there is a large blood supply line to the eye and the risk of losing too much blood is a serious one.  Pressure from infection in the small head cavities can cause pain and put pressure on nerves and so this is really something you need to take seriously and get her in for, it is not something that will just go away.

You also need to know what it is and know if it's contagious to protect your other rabbit from getting it, and the vet may want to put him on antibiotics as a precautionary/preventative step, especially if they share common items and can groom and be around each other.  You don't want to have two sick rabbits if you can avoid it, so she needs to go in, they need to determine what it is and provide you the best antibiotic the very first time to knock it out hard and early.  Get the culture and sensitivity test. Also ask for some metacam (drug: meloxicam) for your rabbit to help reduce any pain the infection is causing in her head, and also it helps reduce swelling of inflamed tissues, so this is a doubly effective item to have in this case.