cataract

[Aki]

So, Aki has been acting strange for three weeks now and I only just pinpointed what was wrong (to my defense, the vet couldn’t find anything either): the problem is her eyes. She’s clearly as blind as a bat. I took a look at her eyes yesterday and it looks just like the pictures of cataract I’ve seen.

Of course, she’s going back to the vet next week but I’d appreciate some infos. I’m especially worried about e cuniculi. Is there any way to differenciate between a “normal” cataract and one caused by e cuniculi? Does it attack the same things in the same way? 

Aki doesn’t have any other symptoms. She had GI stasis  cured almost 2 weeks ago (I think she had trouble eating the hay from the hayrack and the suspended ball I put it in before because she couldn’t see it) and she’s not as active or eating as much as before (but she eats from everything, just more slowly and she’s a lot less skillful than before which makes her drop things and then having a hard time looking for them), but she moves and eats and poops still. Living with a hyperactive rabbit, she seems to have learnt to “duck and cover” when he jumps around her (but I still think that the presence of another rabbit is a good thing for her, as it encourages her to move around and prevents her being too bored).

Both her eyes have pupils which looks uniformely greyish (not white). The iris and white parts of the eyes look normal, no bulging either, no signs of pain.

Does someone have any insight? Aki has really poor genes, coming from a pretty terrible place, so I always knew problems might occur but I didn’t see that one coming at all and I’m really at a loss. I read all the articles I’ve found about eyes’ problems but they were pretty vague and the things about surgically removing the eyes scared me.

Thanks!

[jerseygirl]

Very glad to read she is eating better and over the stasis.

Due to her age and you noticing it in both eyes, I would guess at these changes you’re seeing being age related. My rabbit Rumball had a bit of vision loss around this age also. He lost confidence intially, but then he adjusted within a few weeks and was back to himself.

Most times, lens rupture and cataracts due to EC effects young rabbits. I’m also just learning that the cataracts due to EC doesn’t actually affect their vision!
If you are worried though, you could have the blood titer test done. If that indicates exposure or infection, you could then have tissue sample taken from the lens to confirm EC.
EC affecting the eye doesn’t always result in eye removal.

[Aki]

OK, thank you so much for answering. I’m a bit less frantic now that I got a bit more infos (I’ll admit I had a bit of a “Oh my god, e cuniculi, she’s going to end up dying of seizure and paralysis” panic attack when I noticed the cataract yesterday and read tons of alarming articles).

From what you said and other things I’ve read, the cataract might indeed be just the result of poor genes (I also read that REW could be predisposed towards cataract and her mother was a REW – Aki’s eyes were always a strange purple with a red tint depending on the light).
I hope that’s the case as I think she can adjust to not seeing much or at all and still be a happy bunny – most people testimonies regarding life with a blind rabbit sounded pretty reassuring on that front. It will probably take some time, as Aki is terribly skittish, very headstrong and set against change – she’s the kind of rabbit who won’t touch a new vegetable / fruit before her husbunny has eaten it FOUR separate times and who NEVER came out of the rabbits’ room even though the door is opened in the one year and a half we’ve been living here (sometimes she was stopping in front and the door and went like “nah, don’t know this place” before hopping away ^^)

Anyway, finger crossed that it’s nothing serious. She’s the greatest meanest Nethie ever and I really hope I still have some years with her. In the mean time, I’m trying to make everything as easy as possible for her (she can’t hop three times without ending in front of a hay pile, this room looks like a barn and I’m so happy my mother lives too far away to see my house right now XD).

[jerseygirl]

Lol. I’ve stopped apologising to people that come into my house now.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Me too LOL !!! There are often random poops found over the place having been kicked from the kitchen area (they do roll ever so well on tiles !!)

But don’t forget buns (usually) have an excellent sense of smell – so just so long as their aren’t obstacles in her way… she should find the food….

[Bam]

To much exposure to bright sunlight can cause cataracts. That’s nor just in buns but in people too – but probablty more so in buns since they are crepuscular and aren’t really “made” to be out in bright sunshine a lot.

Medirabbit says this about cataracts in buns:
“The appearance of cataract is generally related to age. Further contributing factors are heredity, nutrition, medication, exposure to sun light, presence of the protozoal parasite Encephalitozoon cuniculi, head-trauma, or a diet poor in caretonoids. The incidence and the causes of cataract in rabbit is not well known. On the contrary to other animals, cataract development is not related to diabetes, a metabolic disorder that is very rare seen in rabbit.” http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Eye_diseases/Disorder/Cat/Cat_en.htm

[Aki]

So, we went to see the vet yesterday. He looked at Aki’s eyes and said they were in perfect condition (no uveitis, cataract, infection…) except that they don’t react to light anymore. He said it was just the optic nerve which didn’t seem to relay the infos anymore but that there was nothing wrong with her per say.
He’s not really a rabbit specialist, so I did a bit of research and found a mention of it being quite common in older rabbits. Hope it’s true… Finger crossed it’s really just a case of her getting old and that it will stay the way it is from now on.
For now, she avoids me like the plague even though I took her husbunny with her to the vet, hoping to make her feel less panicky about the whole thing (they both got their shots while we were there).
I really hope that was my last time seeing the vet this year ^^’

[Bam]

I’m glad to hear she’s fine except for this, probably age-related, condition.
You can perhaps bribe her to forgive you sooner with a treat or two. They tend to take vet-visits as a personal insult

[Aki]

Yes, I’m bribing lots ^^. Aki had small poops again after going to the vet, but she’s eating well and moving around quite normally again so I’m mainly leaving her alone – I think she’s a lot more sensitive to stress now that she doesn’t see anymore (I had to have her vaccinated too, and I know that it sometimes slow the guts a bit… at least, it’s done until next year, now…).
Tybalt is 100% fine but it clearly will take more than some measly offerings from the garden to make him forgive me. He takes food from me but everytime I try to pet him he retreats looking at me like ‘Don’t think I forgot what you did, you MONSTER! Someone jabbed me with a NEEDLE and looked at my TEETH!’ XD

[Bam]

That is EXACTLY how a bun will look at you after a vet-visit! “You TRAITOR! Like you’ll get to pet me any time soon!”
It’s reasonable if Aki’s more sensitive to stress now when she can’t see, in the wild, buns are very dependant on their eye-sight – of course. Domestic buns do tend to learn to cope pretty quickly. It’s obviously important that you don’t rearrange her area a lot.

All vaccinations challenge the immune-system, which is what they’re supposed to do, but that can give some temporary symptoms like tummy upset or even a light fever. That’s the same for all animals and humans that gets vaccinated, and it’s not a sign of sth wrong.

[Author]

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