Little Mama has Mastitis...

So I went to care for the rabbits a few days ago, and when I reached under her to check her teats (she had that caked mammary gland, remember?) I felt this big lump sticking out. I turn her around and she had a big nasty looking brown lump on her side. I pulled on it and saw the paste-like pus and went UH-OH! She was brought inside and kits were weaned that night.

Here it is...


I pulled off the rest of the protruding part...


Here is what it looked like...


This is the wound before expressing the pus and washing out with peroxide...


Here is the patient all bandaged up...


Poor thing, she was so good the whole time. I actually had to lance some other pockets with a scalpel and express them. She did not struggle much, nor try to bite me. She just laid there and let me do it. Which is good, cuz she is 11 lbs of pure bunny muscle and could shred me if she wanted to...

She has been in the house, getting injections of 1cc Tylan twice daily, Probios paste daily, her pellets and plenty of grass hay. I will keep her in the house for a week while she is getting the shots and then probably give her a month or so before trying to breed her again. If she develops mastitis again, I will have to figure out what to do with her...she is one I would have a hard time putting down or eating.

Egads! That's the first time I've ever seen mastitis up close. I feel bad for your bunny, that looks painful. Is it gross that I find things like this interesting though??

Eww. :x Very interesting though- but then I'm gross like Cait. :lol:

It sounds as if the patient is in good hands. Good luck with her next kindling- I hope it doesn't happen again.

Tell Little Mama that she looks very stylish in her Camo-Corset... and who cares that they went out of fashion a couple hundred years ago- the camo brings a new freshness to the look!

Cattle Cait":19uep1ax said:

Egads! That's the first time I've ever seen mastitis up close. I feel bad for your bunny, that looks painful. Is it gross that I find things like this interesting though??

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Nah, I was a surgical tech for 12 years...gross things fascinate me! I cannot TELL you how much time I spent on YouTube watching BotFly extractions.... :mrgreen:<br /><br />__________ Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:23 pm __________<br /><br />

MamaSheepdog":19uep1ax said:

Eww. :x Very interesting though- but then I'm gross like Cait. :lol:

It sounds as if the patient is in good hands. Good luck with her next kindling- I hope it doesn't happen again.

Tell Little Mama that she looks very stylish in her Camo-Corset... and who cares that they went out of fashion a couple hundred years ago- the camo brings a new freshness to the look!

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Yet another thing we have in common...I know...hard to believe...but true.... :lol:

I am hoping she does not get it again, she is such a sweet girl and she has these MASSIVE loins.

Yeah, she wasn't digging the camo corset to much...it came off in about...oh...4.5 seconds! No, she managed to get it rolled up in about 4 hours and I had to remove it and just put ointment.

I hope she makes a speedy recovery.

How is she doing today, OneAcre? Lucky for her that you have all that experience and a strong stomach for that kind of thing.

They are healing up very nicely and she is eating, drinking and pooping normally. I think there may be one more spot that I need to lance though...I will do it tonight and then once she is healed up she can go back out to the bunny barn.<br /><br />__________ Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:25 am __________<br /><br />They are healing up very nicely and she is eating, drinking and pooping normally. I think there may be one more spot that I need to lance though...I will do it tonight and then once she is healed up she can go back out to the bunny barn.

this is probably pretty obvious, but.....before you take her back out, disinfect every part of her cage, feeder, everything she came in contact with. I disinfected a cage that a mastitis doe had been in, and the next doe in that cage got mastitis as well, so I must have missed some,...so be very thorough. Especially the sides that neighbour another rabbit (does with mastitis sometimes rub their teats or sides against the sides of the cage). One of my does with mastitis survived (penicilin and milking her daily)...and her next litter turned out great and she didn't get it again. So there's hope. I was going to cull her, but decided to keep her, because if she was that strong to get through it (when all of the other mastitis does died), then maybe her kits would be good strong kits too.

Jessykah":4bbhujzv said:

this is probably pretty obvious, but.....before you take her back out, disinfect every part of her cage, feeder, everything she came in contact with. I disinfected a cage that a mastitis doe had been in, and the next doe in that cage got mastitis as well, so I must have missed some,...so be very thorough. Especially the sides that neighbour another rabbit (does with mastitis sometimes rub their teats or sides against the sides of the cage). One of my does with mastitis survived (penicilin and milking her daily)...and her next litter turned out great and she didn't get it again. So there's hope. I was going to cull her, but decided to keep her, because if she was that strong to get through it (when all of the other mastitis does died), then maybe her kits would be good strong kits too.

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I plan too, but thanks for the reminder. I removed her from the cage, but her kits are still in there. I am moving them this weekend and will thoroughly disinfect that cage before putting anyone else in there....I am glad to hear that yours did so well. I lost three kits from that litter, they got horrible mouth sores...I am assuming that was from the mastitis affected teat. The rest are all fine and doing well.

ewww. but thats very interesting. i've never treated mastitis like that, i'm usually pretty hands off, just giving penicillin injections. i didn't even have to milk. how long do you think she had mastitis before you weaned the kits? i had a doe that, in retrospect, must have had the infection for about 4 days before i picked up on it, but the kits never suffered any ill effects. they had to be weaned at 3 weeks but they grew up nice and look great right now. i'll be breeding them this fall.

SterlingSatin":1lxnwfes said:

ewww. but thats very interesting. i've never treated mastitis like that, i'm usually pretty hands off, just giving penicillin injections. i didn't even have to milk. how long do you think she had mastitis before you weaned the kits? i had a doe that, in retrospect, must have had the infection for about 4 days before i picked up on it, but the kits never suffered any ill effects. they had to be weaned at 3 weeks but they grew up nice and look great right now. i'll be breeding them this fall.

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In retrospect, she likely had it for 3 weeks or so. I thought initially it was a caked gland since it was not hot or red or anything else.

OneAcreFarm":2r6x67cu said:

it was not hot or red or anything else.

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That was the case with with Floyd's abscess. I hate to bring up the dreaded "P" word, but are you certain it's mastitis? I thought that the teats became hot and inflamed, and tender to the touch.

MamaSheepdog":39i35nvy said:

OneAcreFarm":39i35nvy said:

it was not hot or red or anything else.

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That was the case with with Floyd's abscess. I hate to bring up the dreaded "P" word, but are you certain it's mastitis? I thought that the teats became hot and inflamed, and tender to the touch.

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Well, what I *think* happened is that when I originally thought it was just a caked teat, I expressed as much as I could but there was still caked milk in there. It seemed to be getting smaller, so I got lazy and have not been checking her teats since then, because the kits had already weaned themselves. I was picking her up to move her when I felt that and at *that* time...it felt hot and swollen too.

OneAcreFarm":2ggv7rhg said:

I lost three kits from that litter, they got horrible mouth sores...I am assuming that was from the mastitis affected teat. The rest are all fine and doing well.

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Mouth sores? I have never heard of this. Could you see them at a glance, or did you have to look in the mouth to see them? Did the kits lose weight/seem like they weren't eating? Did you notice the sores before, or after they died? I will look out for this if one of my does ever gets mastitis again (and with my luck.....).

Jessykah":1h0xfs29 said:

OneAcreFarm":1h0xfs29 said:

I lost three kits from that litter, they got horrible mouth sores...I am assuming that was from the mastitis affected teat. The rest are all fine and doing well.

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Mouth sores? I have never heard of this. Could you see them at a glance, or did you have to look in the mouth to see them? Did the kits lose weight/seem like they weren't eating? Did you notice the sores before, or after they died? I will look out for this if one of my does ever gets mastitis again (and with my luck.....).

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It was like their whole lower lip was crusted over, it looked like the brownish part of that abcess that was sticking out...I think I have a picture somewhere...

That is just nasty! I hope I never have to deal with that!! What a great patient she seems to be though. Poor little thing, it looks painful!