14 week old rabbit with a teary eye?

[FurryFiasco]

Here are the pictures...sorry for the poor quality, she wouldn't sit still! Yesterday, I wiped the fur around the eye with a warm wet rag, so it doesn't look quite so bad as it did before. I'd love to hear any thoughts!

 

[Bunnylady]

Well, most horse people use shavings rather than straw as bedding because straw does a very poor job of absorbing moisture. I think the reason straw got used traditionally as animal bedding is because it wasn't good for much else, so it was cheap. Hay, on the other hand, is food.

Just to clarify: dust and/or mold spores don't cause disease, they are just irritants. They may make you cough and sneeze, but that's not disease; those are just symptoms of tissue irritation. Disease requires an organism like a bacterium or virus that lives and grows in the tissue (OK, so there are fungal infections, but they aren't caused by the same fungi as those that grow on plant material like hay). Allergies happen when your body overreacts to an irritant; treating an allergy usually involves the two-pronged approach of reducing exposure to the irritant/allergen and knocking down the body's response to it.

An allergic response should happen on both sides, since it's basically the body's immune system going haywire. Any time you see something happening only on one side, you have to think there is some kind of localized trauma or infection behind it. She might just have a blocked tear duct, but with the runny nose preceding it, I dunno.

And not knowing what exactly is behind it, I'd think hard about this animal's future as a breeder, if that is your intent. If there's anything funny going on with her immune system, what's to stop her passing that tendency on to her offspring?

 

[FurryFiasco]

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate your help.

If I can't figure out what is causing her problems, then you're right...she'll probably be pet-only. That would be okay with me too, but either way I'd really like to figure out what's up with her eye.

So, it sounds like it's probably not allergies if it's just one side? Then the other options seem to be an infection or a blocked tear duct...is there any way that I can diagnose which it might be?

I should have mentioned this before, but in the last couple of days, I've noticed a couple of new things...it could just be because I'm keeping such an eagle eye on her and overreacting, but it's worth mentioning! Her behavior is normal, she's curious and hungry, and active, sniffing my hand and giving me kisses...all the usual with that. But there are three new symptoms. One, she has been drinking a lot of water, although this might be normal as she gets older. Two, today I noticed that some of her pee which missed the litter box was sort of 'milky'...hard to describe, but more of an opaque yellow than a clear color like apple juice. I don't know if that's normal for rabbits? And third, when she gets over-excited (like when I pick her up and she's not in the mood), she's been making these odd little whimpery noises. They seem to come in breaths, lasting for 20 seconds or so after I put her down before they disappear. With all of these new symptoms, I'm starting to worry that it could be rather serious...but I don't know how to tell if they're even related! I'm trying to give you as much information as possible, as I know trying to figure this out long-distance is not easy!

Of course, I could take her to the vet, but I honestly value your opinions more than theirs...so often when I've dealt with them, it's all wild guesses and they have no previous experience to guide them. I'll take her in as a last resort, but hopefully we can solve this!

 

[Spokeless Wheel]

Is it possibly pink eye?