my baby rabbits injured eye

Question
My husband and I rescued 3 baby rabbits living in a hole in our yard. There were 4 until a neighborhood cat got a hold of one of them. One of the babies apparently was attacked in the hole by the cat as her eye was closed shut and nose was injured. her nose has since healed but her eye has began to ooze. We applied a warm compress. Is there an antibiotic ointment I can use?

Answer
Hi Lisa,

thanks for caring enough to take care of these little guys.

His eye is infected, and it could actually be because of a sinus/nasal infection from his nose injury.  

You will not have anything over the counter that can really heal this properly.  You will actually need to get to a vet and get prescription-strength ointments to deal with the infection.  Glossing over the details, rabbit pus is really thick, and if the eye is really damaged it may need to be removed otherwise the dead tissue in there will kill the poor little guy.

If you can, get her to the vet as soon as you can.  You can put neosporin on it (NOT NEOSPORIN PLUS!!!!) but just REGULAR neosporin until you get to the vet - but it probably will not fix the problem.  The compresses are helpful but they won't fix the problem.  

If you can't take the medical bills that may arise from this, you could check around in your area for shelters and rescue groups that rehabilitate wild animals.  I do know in some places they have ordinances and laws that people are not supposed to raise wild animals, and this could be one way you could go while they would still have people caring for them until they are old enough.  Normally I would say put the two that are not injured back in their hole (because mom would find them) but with the cat in the area, it's not a good solution.

Thanks again for caring for these guys.  And check out www.rabbit.org for articles on rabbit care.  Just do searches off the main page for topics like 'diet', 'neutering', etc.  Lee