Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum DIET & CARE Cataract in bunny..what to do?

Viewing 7 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • LionNPumpkin
      Participant
      20 posts Send Private Message

        Hello! 

        I have a 9 year old Lionhead rabbit (perhaps even 10 years…I don’t know his exact age) that lately I have been noticing a bit of swelling around his eye, and my mom has informed me today that its a cataract. I can share a picture in a moment if you guys want one, but I trust her judgement and am guessing that’s whats going on. 

        If so, I don’t want to put my grump through surgery, and I wanted to ask people’s opinions on if it’ll bother him or not, or if there are things that I can do to make it easier for him. Lion (the bun) hasn’t had drastic eyesight loss, from what I can tell, and his other eye is fine. There’s only a tinyyyy bit of clouding, but you have to see it in the right light. This has been going on for at least a week? 

        But since Lion is getting old, I feel like that not only a surgery would be dangerous, but he’s a tough lil guy that would probably be very stressed in that situation. 

        Maybe it isn’t a cataract, but as I said, I don’t know. I want to be prepared to help him through this if it is, without having to alternate to surgery. 

        I’ll be looking up things online about it in the meanwhile. (And getting those pics uploaded) Thanks for reading!


      • Dface
        Participant
        1084 posts Send Private Message

          This is probably somethng worth getting checked out in a vet clinic-just in case. Personally I would agree that surgery at his age is probably not the best option.
          If it is a cataract your bunny will slowly lose the ability to see. However a lot of blind rabbits do remarkably well. One of my rabbits has really bad eyesight, and the main thing is to try and keep his environment consistent. That is, don’t move stuff too often, keep important stuff in the same places, dont place things in the places he likes to run around etc.

          The rescue I got one of my rabbits from actually had two very happy and very capable cataract buns, so surgery is not always the only option at all.
          However I would encourage you to first get it checked by the vet in case it is some kind of infection or internal bleed causing the clouding in his eye


        • LittlePuffyTail
          Moderator
          18092 posts Send Private Message

            I suggest you take the bunny to a vet for a diagnosis. While it may look like a cataract, there are other possibilities like glaucoma (which can sometime look similar), symptoms of E. Cuniculi or even cancer. You really need a vet to diagnos before you start thinking about treatment options.

            My sadly recently passed, 11 year old boy, Bindi, developed cloudiness in one eye, then the other. There was partial and then complete vision loss. I suspected cataracts but my vet confirmed they were not. She also did a pressure test to determine if there was increased eye pressure as this can be painful and would need treatment. We never determined what the cause was, sadly.


          • LionNPumpkin
            Participant
            20 posts Send Private Message

              @Dface
              Thank you for the advice! I’ve attached a picture below of both of his eyes for further judgement on what he might have.


              @LittlePuffyTail

              Thank you for the advice, I wasn’t thinking of checking out about other eye deseases, since his eye hasn’t been looking that bad. Below I’m attaching some pictures of both his eyes to show what’s going on.
              I’ll defenitely look into what you’ve said, and do further research.

              Edit: I got up and decided to share the pictures thru the computer…So much easier lol. 

              This is the right eye, which is the one with the possible cataract. 

              Right eye again: Does that even count as cloudy? The faint blueish tint is what I was talking about when referring to ‘cloudy.’ 

              And here’s his left eye. 


            • Gordo and Janice
              Participant
              703 posts Send Private Message

                To be honest I can’t tell what is in the eye or a reflection from the background. Vet check for sure. Our little girl had cataracts. One eye first then the other eye a year or two later. Our vet confirmed cataracts. And everything was just like Dface said. She got around fine because she knew the layout of the land. We didn’t change anything around on her. She did however learn to slow down after running into my ankles and sometimes the wall. I think she learned to use memory, very limited, if any sight, and her whiskers as feelers to get around. She seemed perfectly happy regardless.


              • LBJ10
                Moderator
                17026 posts Send Private Message

                  It’s hard to see in the picture, but it looks similar to the normal cloudiness that can develop with age. Leopold is starting to get a touch of that and the vet said it was age-related. Since it’s only in one eye though, I would have a vet check it out. There are other, more serious things that can cause cloudiness as well.


                • Azerane
                  Moderator
                  4689 posts Send Private Message

                    I can’t really tell in the photos either but I agree that it’s worth getting checked out. Cloudy spots in eyes can be a symptom of E.c and its important to treat for E.c as early as possible. Even if it is a cataract that doesn’t mean you need to do surgery. I probably wouldn’t for an 11 year old who still had good vision in the other eye. But I do agree that you should have it checked out by a vet. At least with a vet diagnosis of cataract you can have some peace of mind.


                  • LittlePuffyTail
                    Moderator
                    18092 posts Send Private Message

                      Ditto the others. Really can’t tell from a picture. Too much glare. You need a vet to check her eyes with a light.

                  Viewing 7 reply threads
                  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                  Forum DIET & CARE Cataract in bunny..what to do?