thanks for the responses

my vet has not flushed her tear ducts… so i will definitely ask about that & have it done if possible.  thanks sarita.  she did show me how to express the tear ducts by gently placing a finger under her eye & rolling it upwards.  i do this when i give her face wash and it seems to only randomly express fluid. 

hopefully her inner bits all feel normal to the vet tomorrow.  i’m looking out for any puddles tonight to collect a urine sample from just incase it’s needed.  off i go to look for puddles… lol

okay… so we’re back from the vet visit.  and its a good news / bad news situation.  because there’s more good news i’ll share the bad news first… she has blood in her urine & so the vet is concerned (as i was) that she has developed uterine cancer.  BUT, now for the good news, as of right now her inside bits feel fine to the vet from her physical exam… she felt no discernable ‘funny spots’ in that area.  also, her belly is still lump-free.  yay!  (i’ve been checking but i’m really terrible at it… more than once i’ve thought i felt a lump and then realized it’s her ribs.)

other good news… her temp is normal, her breathing and heart sound normal.  the skin around her ‘area’ and around her leaky eyes is not red & inflamed which is good.  she was scoped and her teeth are all good.  she doesn’t have any cloudiness in her eyes and her pupils look good.  the vet does not suspect that her tear ducts are clogged… she explained why but i forget now what she said.  she mentioned flushing them however does not recommend that as a first course of action since baby would likely need to be sedated before they probed in her tear ducts.  do other vets recommend this?  i’m sure baby is not the only bun who tries to flee the scene during a physical exam.  and my vet is so very good at handling buns… i can tell she has a lot of confidence when doing so… so i wonder if she’s just very conservative?  anyways, i am to continue with her daily warm face washes and to throw in a gentle ‘tear duct’ massage… the area between the nose & eye… which may help a bit.

anyways… the course of treatment… baytril for the hope that it’ll clear up the blood in the urine which could possibly also be due to a bladder infection.  5 to 7 days after she finishes the baytril i’ll go back with another urine sample to see if there’s a change.  keep your fingers crossed that it works!  for the leaky eyes, the vet is putting her on gentocin since the baytril from her post-op care did not seem to help.  she has to special order in the gentocin since it’s not a med thats commonly used (not used for dogs or cats).  has anyone heard of this being used?  i’m going to look it up to see how commonly it’s used for buns.  i’m to go in next week & pick it up.

so thats that.  baby grunted & cried during her exam but immediately settled down in her carry case after and began digging furiously at the blankie, munched on some hay and then flopped while they explained her treatment.  she put on a grandiose foot flicking show upon returning home and then promptly gave me the butt right after her first dose of baytril (strawberry flavored).  she is now composing herself on the upper deck of her rabbitat and is due to forgive me by about 3pm. 

thanks sarita!  she was able to do a urinalysis with the sample i brought in with me  to determine the blood presence while i waited.  which was great.  only prob is i didn’t refridgerate the sample & it was from last night  

she said it’d still give them an idea.  when the test was done it came back a +2 (out of either +1, +2 or +3)… i think thats how she put it.  so a fair amount of blood.  actually… last night she happened to pee on a paper bag i put out in the hall for her to play with.  it’s right by pinky’s room and so she tends to mark there.  i looked at the fresh puddle & it was yellowy but with a swirl of orange which i thought was suspicious.   i guess its a good thing she’s leaving puddles… i’d never notice color if it was just in the yesterdays news pellets.

so we have started with the gentocin eye drops yesterday.  i have been giving her face washes with a nice warm wet facecloth & gently massaging her tear ducts – which she loooves – and so i find it pretty easy to sneak in an eye drop in each eye while i’m doing this.  since it’s only day 2 of 10 i haven’t noticed a difference of course.

i have noticed a difference in her pee tho!  she has been on .6 cc of baytril  2x per day for 10 days (of 15) and her pee is pale pale yellow now.  no orange!  i really really have all crossables crossed (as lion lop would put it ) that this means we are clearing up a bladder infection instead of dealing with the onset of uterine cancer.  the blood presence in the urine *seems* to have diminished.   i’m supposed to wait 5 or 6 days after she finished the baytril & then go back in for another urinalysis.  wish us luck!

hmmm… is it too soon to be true?  the hair around her eyes was not wet before her face wash / eye drop treatment last night or this morning!   just some fur that was stuck together in chunks, presumably was dried together from either the leaky eyes or the eye drops.  a nice warm wet facecloth loosened it up.   she’s had leaky eyes for so long now i can hardly believe they weren’t wet!

so after my last post i did see an orange-tinged puddle from baby last night.  but then this morning another pale yellow one!  yipeee!

okay… another update:  watching her pee color has been a rollercoaster… yellow once, orangish the next.  if it’s still back & forth like this next week i’ll have to try to collect a sample of each to bring into the vet.  her diet is consistantly the same hay, pellets & 3 greens.  but great news… her eyes have really cleared up!  yay!  last night i carried her downstairs with me while i watched tv in the basement & folded laundry.  it’s all carpeted down there & boy did she have fun tearing around and teasing the dog.  it was very cute.  regardless of whats going on with the blood in her urine, i’m so glad she’s a happy bun

great news!!!  i just spoke with my vet and baby’s 2nd urinalysis came back normal (blood-free)!  yay!!!  so it looks like the baytril cleared up whatever was causing blood in her urine and we don’t have to worry about uterine cancer right now.  phew. 

the only thing was that she’s not drinking quite enough water so i’m going to try offering distilled water to see if she likes it better.  also i’m going to split her greens & serve half in the morning & half at dinner time instead of all at once.  i serve greens soaked in water so if i spread it out a little more she may stay a little more hydrated all day.

also her eyes are still runny.  gees louise.  i told the vet tech who called me & she’s going to mention it to dr. buhrows. we’ll see what they recommend next.  they seemed to improve when i started the gentocin drops but never quite cleared & after the treatment we’re back to where we were before.  when i give her the daily face washes & tear duct massages every 2 or 3 days there’s also a bit of white goop (like sleep) that is expressed.  at least she still likes the face washes.  it’s sort of become our special cuddle time which is sweet but i’m concerned that the skin around her eyes is going to start to get irritated.  right now it’s normal looking.

i’m bonding her & pinky now… i’m assuming that whatever is wrong is not bacterial or transferable or else the gentocin drops would have cleared it up.  i hope that pinky will be okay.   hmm… maybe i should be asking my vet this.  i’ll bring it up when i hear back from the vet tech.

i was thinking this too.  i’ve been feeling along her jaw line for abnormalities and to see if she’s wet with drool but haven’t come across anything yet.  she has also been scoped so xrays are the next step.  unfortunately i’ll have to wait until a few more cheques come in as i’m flat broke from pinky’s spay, bogarts heartworm & baby’s last course of meds.  plus may brings 3 family b-days and mothers day.  oi.  gifts will be a little stingey this year i’m afraid.  speaking of money… better get back to work!

it’s like she knew i had just been thinking about her runny eyes.  this aft i looked over at her & from across the room i could see a big white piece of what i thought was a shred of paper on her face.  it was a whole lot of white goo.  ick.  my poor baby girl.  i gave her a face wash & for the first time she was sensitive about me touching her eye.  right side only.  the sensitive part is the back 1/4 of her eye and in the space right behind the eye (between the eye and base of her ear.)

a couple of hours later i checked on her and her right eye was full of goo again.  surrounding her whole eye.  so i’ve basically been giving her gentle face washes every 2 or 3 hours.  i use luke warm water & a soft face cloth – no soap.  the skin around her eye is miraculously still normal looking but the inside of her lid looks inflamed compared to her left eye.  i have some gentocin drops left so i gave her 3 drops spaced out today.  the last time i was at the vet the tech said if the prescribed course of drops were done sometimes leaving it for a few days & then giving more drops can help kick it.  i really think there’s an underlying tooth problem now but when i first gave her gentocin drops her eyes cleared up a bit so i was hoping to help calm down the goop.

anyways… it’s not an emergency but i do want to be in touch with my vet asap tomorrow so i left them a voice mail to call me in the mornng. 

strange… i’ve left 2 messages at my vet’s office & haven’t heard back.  i wonder if dr buhrows is away (she often goes to conferences out of town)?  anyways… i can use some time to get some more cheques in since i’m going to ask for an xray next to check for tooth probs.  in the meantime i have been giving more frequent face washes & the goop seems to be slowing down now.  i’m using up the last of the genticin drops too which i thinks helps manage the symptoms a bit.  the inside of her right eyelid has been quite inflamed since the heavy goop started & is now calming a bit. 

and she’s still being really really cooperative with me about the face washes – my sweetie pie