Problem with my rabbits : Pet Rabbits

[melissalauren96 Profile]

Hi,

I have a 9 week old mini lop doe (Darcy) and i need some advice. I collected her when she was 8 week old. The next day I had her I noticed she had a damp nose. I didn't think much of it as she was an indoor rabbit at her previous home & i thought that she may have just got a bit of a cold & not quite adapted to living outdoors just yet. I then moved her into the garage so it would be warmer & to stop any draft getting to her. The next day i saw some dark brown muck where her nose is, not like gunky or mucus just basic muck. I did worry about her so I rang the vets & got her booked in.

The vets said that she has 'pasteurella' and they've given me antibiotics to give her for 10 days. She has been on the course now for 7 days and the muck is still there even when I have cleaned it. I have researched up the symptoms of 'pasteurella' & she has none of them like sneezing, lethargic, loss of appetite, runny eyes etc. She is such a happy bunny and eats loads (she is very small for her age aswell). All she has is brown coloured muck on her nose. I thought with her having antibiotics it would have cleared by now but it hasn’t.

Note: Darcy does have another 8 week old doe (Harley) in her cage with her just to keep her company. I took both of the rabbits to the vets and the vet had noticed a tiny bit of muck on my Harley too (she is a blue colour so it is very hard to see). Which makes me think it is something contagious

Does anybody have any ideas of what this is as I think it may be just an allergy to what hay/shavings I am using or whether they have just been dunking their head into the food dish etc.

Any help is much appreciated!

[SableSteel]

Pastuerella is extremely contagious; but it usually causes white discharge, not brown. It ranges a lot in symptoms though; some rabbits show none, some only sneeze and some are full blown sick acting.

Are her pellets dusty? Does she have good ventilation? What type of bedding is in her cage?

[Dood]

It might no be pasturella, a culture is needed to confirm, it might be a Bacteria not susceptible to the antibiotic the vet gave you or isn't a bacteria at all but a virus or allergies

I'd finish the antibiotics, tell the vet it didn't work and watch and see if your rabbits get worsening symptoms before going back for further testing and/or treatment

[melissalauren96 Profile]

Thank you so much for your help and advise. I currently just bed them on shavings and straw then feed them chudley royale food with a green grass special hay. I have bought some dust free grey shavings to see if this helps. When I got Darcy and I found out she had this problem I did contact the breeder to let her know and she researched it and said she may have irritated her nasal gland by using bleach on their cages which weren’t pet friendly so this may have also caused it.

[alforddm]

Did the vet do a culture before saying it was pasteurella? I'm assuming from the post that he didn't but I wanted to make sure.

[MaggieJ]

Just a thought, but rabbits practice cecotrophy. They produce two kinds of pellets (poop) and the cecal pellets are soft, dark brown and kind of mushy. It is normal and necessary for the rabbit to eat these, but I am wondering if the brown muck you are seeing on its face is the result of particularly soft cecals.

This article discusses cecotrophy at some length, but please read it so you understand the process and can determine if this might possibly be the source of the "problem".
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html

Good luck! Hope it turns out to be nothing serious.

[ladysown]

muck on her nose... fungus perhaps???? if the other is getting it... I'd be thinking fungus.

Do you have pictures??