Tofu Tuesday: Down the stairs
Tofu the bunny might be blind, but he’s certainly not disabled. He hops down the stairs to the garden every single day. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.
All posts tagged: blind
Tofu Tuesday: Have I got any food on my face?
Tofu the bunny has enjoyed supervised outdoor time 3 days in a row. We let him out before the 2 weeks of restricted time was up because he’s been healing really well and outdoor time adds so much to his quality of life. Mental health is just as important as physical health!
Tofu Tuesday: 10 tips for looking after a blind rabbit
Uh oh, another surgery So…last week, Tofu’s corneal ulcer went from completely healed to a brand new corneal ulcer followed by a very bad infection. A corneal ulcer is just a fancy word for a scratch on the surface of the eye. With a blind eye that is constantly open, it is prone to things poking in there and scratching the surface which can quickly lead to infection. By quickly, I mean quickly! On Thursday it was decided by the vet he must have his eye removed (enucleation).
Tofu Tuesday: Off meds, weight up
We went back to the vet for a re-visit on Saturday. Tofu has gained a whopping 100 grams in just one week so we are pleased he is eating normally and gaining weight. If he keeps this weight on it will be good. Tofu is now off all his meds so this is great news for his post-operative healing. Tofu has jumped onto our bed once since surgery and come begging for food in the kitchen a couple of times. He also jumped onto the couch last week and again last night for snuggles. I wish you could see him jump up onto the couch. Being completely blind, he gives it everything he’s got, sailing above the couch (and above me), but landing softly on the blankets on the couch. We’re not at the stage where he’s spending all day free range outside (with weather and fencing issues) but he can have some supervised time in the yard. The Koala hopes to let Tofu be roam free again, but I’m not quite comfortable with that yet so yesterday after work, I …
Tofu Tuesday: The grass beneath his paws
Thank you for your wishes, Tofu is doing as well after surgery. Today was his final dose of pain meds though he still has another week of antibiotics to go. For the first 2 days after surgery, Tofu stayed in his area of the house, dozing and eating, eating and dozing. He wasn’t eating a lot at the start but his appetite gets stronger each day. Over the last couple of days he did a few extra things that showed he was starting to feel better: He started hanging out in the lounge with us again He jumped up onto the couch for snuggles He enjoyed some time in the backyard He came into the kitchen (at the other end of the house) to beg for treats Tofu hates medicine time and gets feisty as hell but forgives us soon after. The Koala and I are just glad we don’t have to do any more injections. The medicine was thick so the needle was fat. I realised I have had heaps of needles in me, but never poked a needle into …
Tofu Tuesday: Bye Bye Left Eye
Yesterday Tofu had his left eye removed. On Friday evening, I noticed Tofu’s left eye was sealed shut. I freaked out and called the vet immediately and we spent a big chunk of Saturday on standby at the vet clinic. Problems with rabbits escalate very quickly so if you have a pet rabbit and you have any concerns, do not hesitate to see your vet. The clinic was really busy with a bunch of emergencies, but we were also considered urgent by the vet and able to get a diagnosis. Tofu had a corneal ulcer which became severely infected within 24 hours. He probably scratched it or a piece of hay may have poked him in the eye. He already had cataracts in both eyes, so sight wasn’t an issue, but infection is bad news. We were given antibiotics and a follow up visit for Monday. He was super hungry over the weekend and got plenty of snuggles. It was traumatic having force open his red, pus-ridden eye four times a day to administer Chlorsig drops and ointment for infection. He didn’t like us …
Tofu Tuesday: Blindness diary. Week 4
Week 4 Even with his blindness, Tofu still spends 12 hours a day outside in the garden. He is eager to go outside in the mornings and runs to the back door to be let out. He sometimes comes inside on his own in the evenings, and equally, sometimes needs to be fetched. Tofu is jumping up onto our bed and couch and continues to move around the house like he owns the place. He still doesn’t sleep on our bed like he used to, but that’s no biggie. He prefers to sleep on the floor next to our bed. One time he went to jump onto the couch, but underestimated the height and fully bailed. I swear he looked embarrassed. Failing to reach the couch could happen due to his blindness or could just be something that happens. We once had a bunny named Sharmi and a couple of times, she bailed when jumping up onto things. One time Sharmi was walking along the top of the couch and fell off the back. She was …
Tofu Tuesday: Blindness diary. Week 3
Week 3 Tofu is starting to jump up onto the couch and up to our bed on his own. Either he is getting very confident with his blindness or he has learned how to use what little sight he has. He runs to the back door most mornings now, eager to be let outside. Our feijoa tree is in full fruit so it’s possible he’s been dreaming of feijoas all night and is eager to see if any more fruit has dropped. It’s really hard for me to find feijoas in our backyard as our grass is long and the feijoa are green. But Tofu manages to find them fine as they smell wonderfully perfumy and sweet. Tofu has come back inside on his own a few times in the evenings, but usually he needs to be fetched. When we bring him inside, it takes him a little while to figure out where in the house he has been put down. But once that has been figured out, he’s pretty much good to go. Check out …
Tofu Tuesday: Blindness diary. Week 2
Week 2 Before blindness, when Tofu was offered a grape or a piece of carrot, he took it firmly between his bunny teeth and ran away with it to somewhere he deemed “safe”. His instinct tells him the treat is too much of a good thing and he doesn’t trust us enough to eat his treat near us. Now that he cannot see, this impulse is a bit messed up. He recognises the treat, lunges for it, misses, takes off, realises he hasn’t got the treat, frantically returns for the treat, while still ready to flee. If he could just calm down and look for the carrot methodically, he’d find it. It’s a concerning how hysterical he gets over a piece of carrot. When there is just the three of us home, it is familiar. The sounds of the the house are regular and objects are where they should be, Tofu gets around fine. When there are lots of people in the house, random feet and bags in unusual places, Tofu gets disorientated. He can’t …
Tofu Tuesday: Blindness diary. Week 1
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 …
Tofu Tuesday: Blindness diary – Intro
“Love was kind, for a time Now just aches, and it makes me blind This mirrors haunts, by eyes too bright That I can’t see the others in my life” – MUMFORD & SONS, Lover’s Eyes In January this year, we noticed a cloudy white cataract appear in one of Tofu’s eyes and few months later, another cataract formed in his other eye. We took him to the vet were given eye drops. Eye drops neither cured it or harmed it, but helped the weepiness some. Now that Tofu is blind in not one, but both eyes, things are a little different in his world. The cause Cataracts (also known in bunnies as moon eyes) cause vision to become cloudy and can result in blindness. Since the size of Tofu’s cataracts fluctuate, his eyes are still searching for light which means he may see light, but the picture is severely impaired. Cataracts can appear with age and Tofu is 4 years old. While rabbits can live over 10 years, it’s hard to say how old the average …
Tofu Tuesday: Nothing to see here
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed a white spot over one of Tofu’s eyes. It looked like a cataract and dilated at different times of the day. When we visited the vet, she said the damage could be permanent and supplied some eye drops. Dilating means that he is getting some light in there and the pupil is reacting. That’s promising. Tofu doesn’t seem bothered by the lack of sight in one eye. He’s his usual happy self and if anything, it makes it easier to wrangle him up at night. I don’t think he misses his full sight, he’s just adapted to function without. Being blind in one side is bad for a wild rabbit, but for rabbit that runs the entire backyard as his own domain, it’s not a problem. So no image this week. In honour of Tofu’s blind side. Check out previous Tofu Tuesday posts here.
Bunny Eats Design 