How do I know if I’m putting eye drops in correctly?

[Jess]

I’m supposed to be putting eye drops in my bunny’s eyes once a day because she has cateracts. Everytime I put them in, my bunny holds her eyes shut so it’s difficult to get them in. Usually when they go in it looks like the drops drop out right away, so I do it twice. Is she getting enough of the drop even though it hits her eye then drips out when she blinks? She doesn’t really like to be picked up so I’m not sure how else to apply the drops.

[JackRabbit]

The easiest we’ve found is to do them when the bunny is eating so they are a little distracted. We gently push the upper eyelid back and do the drop from above. Once the drop is in, the bunny will close her eye. You may see dampness but you shouldn’t see the drop roll off. Ideally, you’d like to put the drop in via the bottom lid pocket, but we have yet to be able to do that and we’ve done alot of eye drops and eye ointment!

It does take getting used to. Might be worth a vet tech appoinment to get a little hands on practice. I’d check with your vet about doing a 2nd drop if you’re not sure how much got in. A 2nd Cipro drop won’t hurt anything but I don’t know about cateract drops.

[LBJ10]

I would always tilt Wooly’s head a little bit to the side and push is upper eyelid up at the same time. Like JR, the drop goes in from above, he never sees it coming. The drop spreads out over his eye and I let go. He blinks and the drop is spread around even more. You might see a little bit of moisture around the corners of the eye, but that’s it.

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