Bunnys water eyes

Question
Hi there,
My 9 year old male dutch lop's eyes have been watering for over a month.  I took him to the vet in San Francisco for a full check up.  He got a clean bill of health and the vet prescribed "Neomycin %26 Polymxin B Sulfates %26 Dexsmethason Ophthalmic Suspension" eye drops thinking it would help and she sent me to an ophthalmologist where he had a full series of eye exams (check for bacteria, glaucoma, blocked tear duct) and again, nothing.  The drops the first vet prescribed seemed to stop the watering for about a week and I still give them to him, but they do not seem to be working. After $500 spent on 2 vets and series of tests to tell me my bunny is very healthy, I'm stumped.  Is there anything you can suggest?  We moved to Tampa after we were in SF for the vet visit's...I don't know if you can recommend someone here, but I hate to spend more money to be told my bunny is healthy...

Answer
Hi,

well, the problem you may be ahving is just finding a good rabbit vet.  It shouldn't have to be that expensive to either find nothing or miss the diagnosis.  That's why in the end, while you will still have to pay a good rabbit vet, they will save you money in the long run by doing things better and right a lot sooner than others will.

Has anyone considered that the environment your rabbit is in may have irritants that are bugging him?  Dust, pollens, poor circulation in the room, strong aerosol cleaners being used, any cleaning chemicals used regularly?  Also during the winter the humidity goes way down and the rooms just get drier, perhaps a humidifier might help keep the eyes more moist.  Irritants, allergies, dryness, and chemicals are the things that you need to consider if a medical issue can't be found.

The drops you were given are an antibiotic.  If the vet gave them to you it would seem they were believing he had some kind of infection.  But if the bloodwork came back (a CBC test) and didn't show an elevated white blood cell count, there would be no added evidence he had an infection the body was gearing up to fight off.  Further your other series of specific eye tests didn't show bacteria being identified as a cause.  If the drops are not working and the eyes are still watering either if he has an infection it isn't strong enough, or he doesn't have an infection and the drops wouldn't do anything except maybe give extra lubrication for awhile.

Yes, the key is finding a good rabbit vet where you are.  they will do the necessary tests and also they will not "think zebra" when they hear hoofbeats, they will "think horse", because they will have a very good and solid background in rabbits and seeing them very regularly.  Go to:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.  If they don't have HRS listings they may have independent rabbit group vet recommendations linked here.  If there are none, call you local vets and animal shelters and ask them all where they'd go with a difficult rabbit case.  Most often you'll hear a lot of them saying the same one or two places.

I'll pray for your guy.  Best things you can do for him in the meantime is a) if his room is dry, try the humidifier (helps everyone really), b) watch the aerosols and strong chemical cleaners around him, maybe even get some Visine-A (allergies) and see if a few drops a day give him relief.  Doing this in the meantime waiting to see a good rabbit vet down in your new home area.