One of my does has a swelling under her eye about the size of a ping pong ball. It appeared sometime yesterday, The eye is a bit weepy this morning. It doesn't look like she has a cold in her eye, and I can't find anything like an entry wound there. I also can't find anything about rabbit troubles like this in my references. Any ideas? Do rabbits get abcesses? She is in a cage all her own, but do you think I should move her completely away from my other bunnies? Thanks for any help!

-- Dreen (animalwaitress@yshoo.com), July 19, 2001

Answers

Doreen, Try going here:

http://helios.insnet.com/~hrs/abscessfr.html

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), July 19, 2001.

Aw nuts. Thanks for the link, Lenette. Not looking good for Psycho Bunny. There is no way i can be using antibiotics on a rabbit for months. Thanks again.

-- Dreen (bisquit@here.com), July 19, 2001.

Don't give up hope, Doreen. When I was into raising rabbits I had a friend with a very nice buck who got a huge abscess on his cheek. My friend decided it was probably not curable and was going to cull the buck. I bought the buck for next to nothing, drained the abscess and gave him (if I remember correctly) penicillin. The abcess went away and never returned and I got a lot of nice babies from that buck. :)

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), July 19, 2001.

Doreen -

If she's in a cage by herself, she can't infect anybody, so just keep a close eye on it. I've never seen anything like that in a rabbit before, either, but stranger things have happened, lol!

If the rest of the eye is fine, and she isn't fussing over it, it could be she got some dust or something in it, and is fighting it off... sort of like a heavy-duty sty. If all else is well with her, don't let it bother you too much.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), July 19, 2001.

HAVE A RABBIT STEW IVAN

-- ivan (jdkuz813@cs.com), September 26, 2002.