Week 1
First week of blindness in both eyes, we all had to adapt.
I admit, the first few times I saw him run into things, it was a funny sight but now it breaks my heart. However, blindness doesn’t stop Tofu from running at full speed. What a brave wee soul.
A common collision is when he’s running at full speed down our hallway and we have a clothes horse set up. Even with perfect vision, a bunny would have trouble seeing the skinny legs of a clothes horse and the problem is that the clothes horse is not always up. It’s not in his memory so he forgets to put it in his mind’s eye. If we can find a new place to put the clothes horse, we could eliminate this problem.
Tofu’s “raisins” can be found littered around outside his hutch. We keep his litter tray inside his hutch and most time he goes to the toilet in there. It’s hard to say if it’s blindness or if he is marking out his territory. The area of the house that his hutch is in is largely a thoroughfare and I wouldn’t be surprised if he feels the need to assert that it is “Tofu Space” now that he cannot see. Anyway, its nothing that the dust buster β that is kept close at hand β can’t handle.
Because of his blindness, Tofu doesn’t sprint around the yard, or jump up onto our bed, but once he’s on the bed or couch, he can hop off on his own, or stay for cuddles. I suspect a lot of it is muscle memory, as in 5 hops to the door, 2 hops to the food bowel, 5 steps leading down to the garden etc.
During the first week, to be safe, we mostly kept Tofu inside during the day, letting him out into the garden in the late afternoons. Tofu no longer comes inside on his own in the evenings. The darkening evenings may be too hard for him to make out shapes to find his way up the stairs and inside. It is now easy for us to bring him inside at night if we need to. Before, if he didn’t want to come inside, he would run away from us. He doesn’t run away anymore. I make sure I don’t give him a shock so I always talk to him while approaching and pat him before picking him up.
Bunny Eats Design 
Poor bunny! How old is Tofu now? Is it common for rabbits to become blind? The only rabbits I know of are the ones my granny used to keep, and they weren’t pets… π¦
Tofu will be 5 this August. There is a little info out there on blind rabbits. Hard to say if it is common or not. In any case, this is the first time I have had a blind rabbit.
Oh Tofu π¦ that breaks my heart. I think Flatpac gets a real kick out of seeing our reaction to things that she destroys. They just made an advance in mechanical vision. Maybe it will be next for animals. Hopefully π
Mechanical vision sounds very futuristic. Maybe some steam punk goggles will fix Tofu? At the very least, he will look cool.
Oh, poor Tofu! It’s so hard to see your animals get older. I hope that he is coping well.
He is and thanks you for your thoughts.
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