This three year old Netherland dwarf rabbit was presented with this non-painful but blinding ocular condition. What is occuring in this eye and what possible treatments might be used to emliorate the disease?
The dense white mass lesion in the iris with vascularisation is virtually pathognomonic for a lens-induced uveitis associated with Encephalitozoan cuniculi infection. The pathogenesis appears to be that the parasite enters the lens in utero and exits later sometimes giving cataract and sometimes a lens-induced inflammation, characteristically appearing as a variably vascularised white mass. Treatment can be by phacoemulsification of the lens, but a medical therapy if surgery is not possible, involves anti-inflammatory medication with topical steroid or NSAID and anti-parasitic systemic medication such as oral albendazole.