Bunny Allergy - Tearing eye

Question
Hello, I'm Anneta and I have a pet bunny in the house. Everything's ok with him (appetite, behaviour, liveliness) apart from his left eye that's been wet and sheding tears for more than a month. As a resault his left cheek is also wet all day long. I've done no changes in my house nor his environment (he's a male bunny) and at first used eye drops with no cortyzone (Septobore), trying to relief it. My vet suggested me using Tobrex (eye drops with cortyzone) 3 times a day for a week, but since it's been a crazy month at my school (doing my PostGrad) I couldn't keep up to the scheduled drops, reducing them to 1 or 2 per day. The week's passed, the eye keeps tearing and my vet is not bunny specialised (I'm from Greece so there are no vets specialised in pet bunnies at my city) and I don't know what to do and how can this affect my pet longterm. I don't know if this has any anything to do with his allergy, but when he was 6 months old (now he's almost 4 years old) he had his teeth broken and we pay regular visits to the vet (once every 2 weeks) to cut them. He's shown these symptoms before (every spring time) but they never lasted this long.. Any advice is more than welcome.. Thank you for your time..

Answer
Hi Anneta,

Weeping eyes can be a sign of many things....upper respiratory infection, ocular infection, abscess, general infection, dental problems, allergies, something like a piece of hay stuck in a nostril....all sorts of things.

Without having a rabbit savvy vet, this might be a bit difficult.  But, see if they will do a cytology on any discharge from the eye.  This is like a mini-culture.  If it's an infection, it won't show exactly what the pathogen is, but it will tell us if there is a bacteria infection.  If it is bacteria, a full culture should be considered.  In bacterial infections, it would most likely be pasteurella.  That is a common infection in rabbits...but there is a small chance that it could be something else.  Pasteurella is most effectively treated by either Zithromax, Penicillin G or Chloramphenicol.  It is vitally important to know exactly how to dose and administer these drugs since they can be fatal if used incorrectly.

I am concerned about the possibility of a dental issue since you mentioned a broken tooth.  It is possible to develop a jaw abscess which can be very serious.  Usually you will see a lump on the jaw...in this case the left side but that is not always the case.  It is also possible that either an upper arcade molar root has overgrown and entered the "sinus" cavity (rabbits don't technically have a sinus but I use the term because everyone is familiar with the general terminolgy) or it's possible that a lower arcade molar has developed a "spur" and is intruding into the roof of the mouth.  Most of the time this requires x-rays for diagnosis.  And it's entirely possible that it is an infection in the tear duct.  I would use extreme caution in using any product with a steroid in a rabbit.  It is not kind to the immune system.

And allergies are also possible.  We have some buns that get runny eyes (but it's usually both) from dust in the hay or pellets.

If your vet has the capability of checking the pressure inside the eye...this can also be an early indicator of glaucoma.

See if they can do a cytology on the discharge and see if there is bacteria in there....that will tell us the direction we need to go.

Randy