scrape near eye

Question
This morning I found that my rabbit had a small scrape on her face near her eye. It is bleeding a little. I put antibiotic ointment on it. There is a rusty nail in her cage which she could have scraped it on. She has not had a Tetanus vaccine. Is Tetanus something we should worry about and what should we do?

Answer
Dear Patty,

First, be sure there are no other sharp objects in her cage or environment on which she could injure herself.  

Tetanus is caused by a bacterium, common in the environment, named Clostridium tetani.  In general, it will not reproduce in a shallow wound, but a puncture wound with an anaerobic environment can be very dangerous.  I would get your bunny to a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

to see if the vet thinks it might be wise to put your bunny on appropriate antibiotics (bicillin injections will halt the development of the Clostridium spores into a population of growing bacteria), or whether simply cleaning the wound will suffice.

For now, wash the wound with clean gauze and dilute povidone iodine solution (Betadine or generic brand can be bought at any supermarket or pharmacy), dry well and keep an eye on it for any sign of inflammation.  

I hope your bunny will be just fine, and you'll have no worries.

Take care,
Dana