Can a rabbit get a stye?

You know where you get a blocked pore like a spot in your eye lid but because the pours are so small there it can't get out on surface so it gets a little infected and swollen.
Takhisis of Darkness has a very sore eye.

He has it shut alot. This started just before last weekend. He can open it but not as wide as healthy eye. When it is open i can see no abnormalities with the actual eye itself but it started out he just wouldn't open his eye randomly one day now the eye lids seem rather pink and a bit swollen. still when i get him to open eye the eye itself seems ok ...i think. very hard to tell.

Now this has not affected him in any way. Eating habbits not changed he is still a living vaccum. He seems very happy and playful as always. Even more playful since we bought him new tunnel he loves to hide in it then charge at me and lick my face when i peek in at him.

still the eye thing has not gone and seems redder yet he is opening it more than when it started and the lids looked less bad sooo odd.

Is this anything sinister? what you recommend?

I will not take him to vet as the only vets near us are dumb about rabbits they said he was dying two years ago and was doomed to die within months but turned out to be his diet we find out online. they are bad vets and takhisis hates being in the car.

The reason i think it is a stye is because I had one age 9. my pets and i must share a similar immune system as well as needyness because it looks almost exactly how my eye looked. Except he doesn't seem to be in much pain where as mine hurt alot. Perhaps he is just brave and thats why he shuts sometimes as hurts to hold open. Mine got so bad my swelled shut and bled and i had to have an operation. takhisis' doesn't seem that bad. I have been applying hot water to it as that helped mine. he seems able to open his eye more after i do this but it makes it pinker. I am also doing this to prevent spread of infection if it is infected.

I am worried Pierre (My cat) will catch or that i might. Takhisis and I touch faces alot and i don't want to reject him but if i catch another stye in same eye i cannot have another operation or i will go blind and i wear contacts as it is which increase likely hood of infection.

So what do you think? is this a stye? something worse? why is it not affected his behaviour? this mean it will improve or he just brave.

I will say he is most unbrave about other illness we think he is dying everytime he has belly ache as he is very dramatic.

Hes a very interactive awake bunny you see so everytime he lays down we think hes dying. Had him seven and a half years and never seen him asleep and we spend alot of time together.

Hi, Carissa, thank you so much for sharing your precious Takhisis with us. Our forum friend, Cheryl83, is a veteran bunny mom, and I think she may have some suggestions for you. She, too, lives in England, and may be able to point you in the direction of qualified veterinary assistance. You may want to "personal message" her with your questions. She's back at uni classes now, so she may respond quicker if you send her a personal message.

I am so sorry your precious Takhisis is having problems with his eye, and hope Cheryl will be able to give you some encouragement. Here in the United States rabbits are classified as "exotic" pets, and not all vets will will treat "exotic" classified pets. This may be the situation you have encountered with the vet you took your precious Takhisis to previously.

I hope everything works out okay. Please know you and your precious Takhisis are in my thoughts and prayers, Carissa, and please do let us know how things go.

Peace and blessings,
moon_beam

Hi Carissa,

Sorry to hear that Takhisis has a sore eye. Could there possibly be a foreign body irritating it, such as a bit of his bedding, etc.? If so, you could try irrigating the eye with saline irrigation solution (available in sachets from chemists or drug stores).

It also sounds like it could possibly be conjunctivitis, which is fairly common in rabbits. If this is the case, antibiotic drops will be needed. In the meantime, if he will let you, you could try to bath it with a cotton-wool pad soaked in lukewarm water, and this might provide some relief.

Another possibility is that it could be a dental issue. But you say that his eating habits haven't changed so this does not seem likely. If you notice that he starts to drop his food, or has trouble chewing, or starts to drool, then you will need to get his teeth checked.

If the condition worsens, you will need to get him to a Vet. I'm sorry that you haven't had much luck with your current Vets. You should check in the yellow pages or online for other vets in your area. It usually specifies whether or not they're experienced with bunnies, or you could just give them a quick phone call and ask. Remember, bunnies do not obviously show pain, so even if he seems like he's not in any pain, he still might be. They're very good at hiding pain and illnesses.

If you have any more questions, just ask, and I'll do my best to answer.

Please let us know how Takhisis gets on, and I hope his eye is all better very soon

Cheryl x

Hi everyone. I know I didn't reply. I have been through most awful two weeks of my life.

Takhisis of Darkness became very ill and was dying during my week my third year university essays are due it was awful. I had to make some very tough decisions based on random guessing as its so hard to work out what is wrong with rabbits.

Eventually my decisions actually saved his life. I will tell you about it in another post. thanks for your support.

Oh the eye by the way was not related to his illness.

I did make the decision to take him to the vets while he was sick and obviously at first we thought it was the eye so they looked at that.

turns out there was in fact a very large ulcer on his eye ttaking up most of the eye but you can only see it if you put dye in their eyes.

He lets us do anything to his eyes so he allowed that. It was amazing he had this eye problem for a month and never reacted to pain hes very brave.

The ulcer was caused by external damage they say by the looks of it. he probably banged it hence the weird eye lid thing too. We recon he banged it jumped off roof of his hutch and may have lept too far and hit the metal on the side of big pen, silly thing.

He may have lost some or alot of sight in his eye but he doesn't seem to care much. His eye has improved alot with strong anti biotics although he has scratched the fur off his eye again as its itchy so he looks silly.