# Looking for one eyed rabbits



## kmaben (Dec 2, 2012)

A little back story
Shya is a spayed 3 year old Britannia petite. She is a very hearty little bugger and has never had any issues other than eye trauma. She's very....outgoing? I hate the word aggressive but she doesn't take crap from anyone. To include the cats and 80 pound dog. In September she received a puncture wound to her eye and has been under an ophthalmologists care since. She has lost vision in the eye and will never regain it back. She has two more visits one on tuesday and one in two more weeks. I told the doc that at 200 dollars a visit I can't afford to drag this out too much longer. I understand he wants to wait as long as possible because rabbits dont do well under anesthesia and removing the eye is major surgery. It looks like the viability of the eye is deteriorating and the eye will have to be removed. I'm preparing for it but miracles do happen. My mom keeps bringing up just having her put to sleep. Is is fair to her and will it affect the quality of her life. 

My question is to those out there that have gone through this how is your rabbit doing?

Shya's personality has changed. She's insecure in her surroundings and she's not such a hell raiser anymore. She is bonded to an 11 pound German Giant. She still likes to cuddle with him and even though they were separated for about a month they picked up like nothing happened. She puts Kai on her bad eye and still wanders through the house and still enjoys her nightly massages. She eats, she poops, and she has no other health issues. I can see her bouncing back pretty well once she adjusts to only one eye.

I know the eye is bothering her but she doesn't sit and tooth grind or get aggressive when it's time to giver her 3 different medications twice a day. She runs like hell from you and I know she's getting tired of it.

I dont want to be selfish about this and I'm definitely slanted in my decision. But I just cant see destroying a life I see as still pretty full.


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## JBun (Dec 2, 2012)

I don't have personal experience with this, but I've read other peoples stories of their rabbits that have lost an eye, and they live happy lives after. She won't be in pain after it's gone, and she'll adapt to not having it anymore, plus she'll have her big buddy to help watch over her  Initially she may be more unsure of herself and her surroundings, but I would bet, as she gets used to it, that she'll be back to the old hell-raiser we all know and love. And we still need more Shya stories!


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## missyscove (Dec 2, 2012)

I'm not sure I've ever met a one eyed rabbit, but we do have a member on here who has a blind bunny. I've met plenty of other animals who are either blind or have undergone the enucleation surgery to remove the eye. If you can afford the surgery, I would do it. Sure she might be more cautious on that side but I'm pretty sure by buns hear me coming before they can see me anyway. It's great that she's bonded to somebun who can help her out too.


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## qtipthebun (Dec 2, 2012)

I don't have any experience with this either, but I had a friend who has a blind tripod rescue bun who lost his vision a little later in life. He is bonded, and his bunwife immediately took over acting as his eyes when his went.

Shya is a resilient little creature. I can't see bad depth perception really bothering her....especially if she's got Kai to help her rouse up trouble.


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## woahlookitsme (Dec 2, 2012)

I don't have a one eyed rabbit but I do have a one eyed dog. He was pathetic the night right after the surgery but he bounced back and got used to his eye flawlessly. He plays at the dog park and zooms in between the trees and other dogs just as if he had two. He is a very happy dog and I think once it is gone shya will be back to her old self


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## Geoff (Dec 2, 2012)

I have removed the eyes on close to 100 rabbits by now and so far 100% success rate... not sure who told you rabbits do not do well under anesthesia- I certainly have not found that to be the case. I must have anesthetized well over 1000 rabbits by now and only lost 4 (one thanks to a technician resting his arm on a chest while holding a leg for me... that one was frustrating!).. one had pregnancy toxemia and was not really expected to survive, and two were small rabbits that I was spaying at a shelter (which is why I no longer like to anesthetize super young rabbits, or rabbits under 3 lbs, unless they are mature). But all the other hundreds have done extremely well and with very few surgical complications either. Enucleations in rabbits are far easier than in dogs and cats since they eye is so exposed, surgery is rather straightforward. However, if there is pus in the eye, do not wait, as the brain is only a few centimeters away and pus can easily spread to it... and then it's too late. 

One eye'd rabbits do very well in captivity, though I certainly would not recommend releasing one into the wild (extreme disadvantage not being able to see 360 degrees anymore). I have done a few rabbits that ended up with no eyes, and though that is a lot more worrisome, these have done pretty well in captivity, too... just have to have the right owners who are willing to keep the environment safe for a blind pet and have all food and water very accessible.


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## kmaben (Dec 2, 2012)

Thank you all for the advice. For Omar and I it seemed pretty straight forward. I dont think having one eye will be an issue for her. She's pretty feisty. (what got her into trouble in the first place) 
Getting a quote tomorrow on what it'll cost me to remove the eye. The guys an ophthalmologist so of course it will be twice as expensive. _I _may need medical attention afterwards but we shall see. Again thank you all for the input.

Geoff- I think I would have beat the crap out of that tech!


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## Imbrium (Dec 2, 2012)

if she's already lost her vision in that eye and seems to be happy and functioning well, I don't see how it would make any difference to her to have the eye removed. rabbits are resilient little creatures, and having a bonded companion makes it even easier for them to cope with something like this (it also supposedly aids in the recovery process after surgery).

best of luck to Shya (and your wallet)!


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## luvthempigs (Dec 3, 2012)

I don't know that this helps but I have a blind dog and he does pretty well without his sight. I help him out by guiding him with my voice or trying to keep things in the house the same so he doesn't get confused. I would think a rabbit would be the same.

If it were my rabbit I would proceed with surgery. Of course it's your call though. Please keep is posted.


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## MiniLopHop (Dec 4, 2012)

Indiana Bunns was given to a local rescue because the people got bored with him and he had "a little eye infection". Well, it turns out it was left long enough to go into abcesses. He had to have his left eye removed and the right eye was not functional either. The abcess also distroyed his hearing. The poor boy was labeled as agressive because he would box when you tried to pet or give him food. I took him in and put him with my other special lop, Becky. It was wonderful because she would help him find his way around and let him know he was safe. I figured out that if I gently tapped him on the forehead before putting food to his lips he stopped boxing. He wasn't aggressive at all! He could smell food but was trying to find it since he couldn't see! As long as I didn't move things around and kept to the same schedule he did really well. Unfortunately the abcesses did eventually take him from us, but at least he knew love.

Indy loved to sleep with his little butt up in the air.


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## Revverress (Dec 5, 2012)

I have a spayed one-eyed mini lop who I adopted a few years ago. I'm not 100% sure on her back story, but her right eye was removed and her left eye is only partially functional and receives drops eye drops daily (does not produce tears naturally). I adopted her from a high-school level veterinary science class as she was very stressed in the loud environment, and extremely cage aggressive, but seemed much happier when staying with me over one of the school breaks.

Since her adoption, her cage aggression has calmed dramatically, and she doesn't seem near as stressed. However, she is a timid, skittish rabbit; she's very nippy, especially with anyone besides me, and she refuses to come out of her cage and exercise (will run right back in unless I close the cage door). I do believe her lack of vision is tied in with her unsureness about her world, and is a big part of her insecurity in any place outside of her cage.

What I've found is that keeping things constant and on schedule really help keep her calm and happy. When things are switched up (feeding at a different time, cage gets vacuumed out, etc), she gets irritable and nippy. Most days, though, she is content to spend all day snuggling with her boyfriend (who has permanent head tilt and is handicapped as well), and her quality of life is good. It took some trial and error to find the best situation for her to be living in, but she has adapted well to her situation, and I wouldn't consider euthanasia as any sort of possibility for her.

Not exactly on topic, but my last foster dog was a pit bull puppy who was born blind. It took some time to figure out how to do stairs, but otherwise she functioned relatively normally; most people had no idea she was blind until I told them. It's amazing what animals will adapt to!


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## zookeeper (Dec 7, 2012)

I have a one eyed rabbit. We had an implant put in so it looks like she has an eye but it doesn't work. Cost was north of $800. You would never know she has only one eye. Hasn't slowed her down a bit. She's been this way for about 3 years now.


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## MiniLopHop (Dec 7, 2012)

zookeeper said:


> I have a one eyed rabbit. We had an implant put in so it looks like she has an eye but it doesn't work. Cost was north of $800. You would never know she has only one eye. Hasn't slowed her down a bit. She's been this way for about 3 years now.


 
I'm curious why you had the implant put in?

With Indy I felt it added to his charm. Since the fur was black over his missing eye it looked like he was wearing an eye patch. I couldn't resist a few pirate jokes, but he didn't mind. AARRRGGG!


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## dinah.ayre (Dec 7, 2012)

My rabbit Benny get a scratch on his eye about a year ago. I didn't actually see him get the wound, so when I saw his eye was swelling I originally thought it might be an eye infection When I took him the the vet though, we found out it was actually a puncture wound in the eye. Now, Benny was lucky, and the eye was not damaged enough that it had to be removed - we had to use some sort of cream on if and in time the swelling went down and it stopped hurting him. He did go completely blind in that eye though, and it is now white and dead, but since it doesn't seem to cause him and pain the vet thought it would be best to just leave it where it is. Benny is a very healthy little bunny otherwise. He was quite cautious for a while after the accident, but I think that was probably just him getting used to seeing differently. Now he is very energetic and playful, loves being petted. 
Hope this helps a bit, best of luck to you and your Shya.


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## zookeeper (Jan 7, 2013)

I had an implant because the price wasn't much more than having it removed and she looks like a normal 2 eyed rabbit. Unless you were told about the implant you probably wouldn't notice anything wrong.


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## tonyshuman (Jan 7, 2013)

I agree, a one-eyed or blind rabbit can get around fine. There was a bunny at the shelter that had to have an eye removed. It will take the bunny a little bit to get used to it, and you'll have to be careful about spooking her if you come toward her on the side with no eye. Rabbits use a lot of other senses, especially vibrations in the whiskers and sound, to figure out what's going on around them. I read a story about two bunnies that were in a shelter, both recovering from enucleation surgeries on the opposite eyes. The staff put them together and they became a bonded pair that would sit together with their eye-sides out and the eyeless sides in--so that between the two of them, they had the whole area covered.


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## kmaben (Jan 7, 2013)

Thankfully she has a really large bond mate. She puts her bad eye on him and her good eye out. She's scheduled for the 18th now to have it removed. Finally made that decision. I think she'll be ok as she's too mean to die. Should I worry about her pen as she still has one ok eye or treat her more like a blind rabbit and keep everything the same? She's quieter now but the eye hurts her. She's pretty spunky usually.


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