Mama Rabbit (AKA Queen Victoria) has an abcess in her cheek

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Aileen

Aileen

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I took her to the vet. Choices are: 1)antibiotics to heal the abcess, but they'll kill the babies or 2)Let it go untreated and the kits will live, but QV will most likely die.

Decision:

Hold off on antibiotics so QV can continue to nurse her 8 kits.
Give her mashed up food that's easy to eat.
Pray to St. Francis of Assisi (it's a Catholic thing)
Research alternatives.

The research begins with you folks. Any ideas?
 
Has the abscess burst? If not, can you lance it and drain it?

I can't see how an abscess would be a death sentence. :? I've dealt with many, many abscesses on cats (dirty tomcat bites) and goats. Lance 'em, drain 'em, rinse 'em out with iodine or peroxide. With the tomcat, I used to give him vit. C. I've never once given antibiotics and they've always healed up just fine.

Actually, I just had a rabbit, recently, with a dewlap abscess. I was going to lance it but it burst on its own. I just rinsed it out with iodine and it's healed up beautifully.
 
I have to second the "abscess is not a death sentence" thing. I raise rabbits for unmedicated meat -- I don't use antibiotics on anyone and I've treated several abscesses by lancing, flushing with peroxide. I had a doe with a dewlap abscess and 2 week old kits on her. I lanced it, flushed with peroxide and it healed up just fine. Four of those kits are currently expecting litters of their own, and no one had any problems.

Sure antibiotics work great, but they aren't the only solution.

If it's a cheek abscess, you do want to check her teeth to make sure nothing is growing crooked/long into the cheek. If so, you need to trim the tooth so it stops rubbing (which could be the root cause of the abscess in the first place).
 
One of the problems with modern medicine (both human and animal) is that doctors are too fast with the prescription pad. Antibiotics have only been with us since 1928... That's only 82 years. Sometimes it helps to look at how things were treated before that time. Certainly anitbiotics have saved millions of lives, but in many cases they are not the only answer.
 
I vote for lance and treat.

Honey can prevent infection from spreading; if you don't have a foster, I would try that route
 
Keep in mind that a lot of times, abcesses can be an indication of a pasteurella infection (snuffles and whatnot). Not always, but it is a symptom.
 
warm compresses can help draw any infection out

i totally agree that it is not a death sentance for anybody
 
CH - if she did have a foster you'd kill mom and foster the babies out?<br /><br />__________ Sat Jun 26, 2010 6:25 am __________<br /><br />CH - if she did have a foster you'd kill mom and foster the babies out?
 
Brody, if there was a foster, I could foster the babies and safely give mama the antibiotics.
To all, thanks for the reassurance. I'll call my regular vet on Monday about lancing and draining the abcess.
In the meanwhile, I'm mushing up her food so she can eat more easily.
 
and do the compresses if you can handle her enough - even a hot wrung out face cloth held to her face for a couple of minutes will really help :)
 
Brody,
Not what I said or inferred.

If you can foster out, it can reduce the does stress and increase options for treatment. An abcess isn't a blanket reason to cull; I would explore all my options first.
 
RRT Harlies":23fg6lmc said:
Keep in mind that a lot of times, abcesses can be an indication of a pasteurella infection (snuffles and whatnot). Not always, but it is a symptom.
Click to expand...
An abcess on the face of a rabbit is bad. If its not caused by pasturella then its a tooth root problem. Keep a close check on her eyes, if they begin watering/getting runny then the tooth roots have begun to protrude into the eye cavity. This can also cause the eyes to "bug out". It looks like the eye will about pop out of its socket.Sorry to sound negative but is that what it usually is. If at all possible get an x-ray of her skull to see whats happening.If its a straight up abcess then i see no reason not to give her antibiotics, it will lessen her suffering.(after the kits are weaned I mean):) I recently went through this with my old dog Zenith, the vet had to put her under, removed a bad tooth and gave us antibiotics and painkillers for her. The next day she was a different dog , acting like a puppy again! She had been suffering in silence for a while till her face swelled and I took her in because of that.I just though she had slowed down a bit being elderly and all.http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Safe_drugs_main.htmHere is a link to some rabbit safe meds.
 
I just met da Queen and her kits :) Aileen has been religiously irrigating the abscess and it's nicely down, mostly gone :) Vet says it may be permanent...<blah>...but at least she's got WONDERFUL kits, all hopping around, being pests :) The doe looks great, eating and drinking well! Probably keeping one of the females to replace QueenV in case things go downhill with that abscess. :(

I also met her other doe with kits. 4 HUGE babies (californians). She also now has a pregnant (I hope) Californian named Calliope who was bred by Peter! (yes, Mamma-san was VERY irate the first few days when Calliope moved in with Peter) Calliope wasn't interested the first couple of days, then she calmed down and stopped planting her butt in the corner :x
 

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