Polyp on rabbits face close to eye*

Question
Hi,
We live in Victoria, Australia my daughter has a beautiful six year old female rabbit (not spayed/fixed) who apart from a polyp located on her face close to her right eye is happy and healthy.  We have taken her to a veterinarian who deals closely with rabbits - she recommended surgery to remove the polyp (however, she indicated it may re-grow again) or just to leave it.  My concern is that it continues to grow and at times the rabbit when cleaning her face knocks the polyp which in turn bleeds for a short time.  (Not nice for her at all) My question is have you come across any successful treatments (topical cream (??) for polyps that will contain and reduce the size of the polyp apart from surgery. We are happy to treat it daily and ongoing as required.  Thank you Claire

Answer
Dear Claire,

The person to ask about safe topical anti-inflammatory agents would be the vet.  She is the one who can see the lesion and determine whether any topical meds would be safe that close to the eye.

While it's possible the polyp could re-grow, it's really not a bad idea to have it removed so the vet can send it off for biopsy to determine whether it's something that should be more aggressively removed (i.e., with "clean" margins), so that it has a lower chance of recurring.

Papillomas are generally not harmful, but a squamous cell carcinoma could be.

I hope this helps.

Dana