darn it... its mastitis

ok, so if you read my post about my doe with the enlarged abcess growth thing around her groin, i said it wasn't mastitis. Well, it was. I took her to the vet, (i'm WAY to softhearted for this business). it didn't really cost that much though, which was good. still more than she was worth... anyway, she has mastitis on one teat, the swelling was the lymph nodes, they were swollen b/c they are trying to fight of the infection in her breast. the infected teat is higher up, i didn't even feel it b/c the infection is not very far along. anyway, i thought they would prescribe injectable Penicillin. they didn't. they prescribed Meloxicam and (of course) Baytril. Honestly, vets these days prescribe Baytril for anything and everything. anyway, so i went and got some slow acting Pen, which I looked up and its the same thing as Pen G apperantly, as well as some syringes and needles and stuff. I heard that i should inject her once a day for three days with 20,000 to 40,000 IU per lb of body weight. i've heard Pen G is the best treatment from 3 different books, 2 breeders, and 100s of sources online. i have never heard of Meloxicam as a treatment. i am tempted to go with the pen G. what do you think would be best? the vets suggestion or Pen G? also, with Pen G, i've never injected before... its intramuscular right? how deep would that be exactly. I don't want to shove the needle in too deep or do something equally stupid. how do i know when to stop? and should i inject straight into the breast?

also, they told me i have to give the kits KMR (kitten milk replacer) until they are 8 weeks old. the kits are 4 weeks old now and they are on pellets, hay, water, and oats and they are eating and pooping normally. do i really need the KMR? there are 9 of them and hand feeding all of them is going to be crazy.

I think I detect the influence of the house rabbit folks. :roll:

I have little experience with antibiotics and rabbits, but this summer past our best doe, Alice, developed an abscess on her side when her kits were a little less than three weeks old. We lanced it and treated with topical antibiotic ointment and subcutaneous injections of Pen G with Procaine for about five days. She recovered beautifully. We also gave her mint, sage and yarrow to help dry up her milk. Her litter was effectively weaned that week and they did just fine. Just our experience... and maybe we were just lucky.

8 week old kits do not need to be nursing-- if they are, it is simply because Momma Rabbit does not mind the fact that they are! At 4 weeks, your kits are on a full diet of 'adult' food, and most likely nursing out of habit or convenience. So, remove the mother, and increase the amounts of fresh water and food that is available to the kits.

I agree with Maggie- the vet is HRS/AR influenced.

maggie: what dosage did you use? what kind of pen G? and did you have to dilute it? also, did you inject into the breast or into her shoulder skin?<br /><br />__________ Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:35 pm __________<br /><br />i asked about dilution b/c the pen G procaine i bought has to be heavily diluted for dosing rabbits (its concentrated for pigs, cows, and sheep) and i have NO idea what to dilute it with b/c i can't get saline (its a monitored product, prescription only). how and where did you get your pen?

The Pen G with Procaine we got did not have to be diluted. We used 22 gauge needles and a 3 cc. syringe. Injected it under the skin of the neck. Dosage range advised by some knowledgeable folks on the forums was .25 - .50 cc per 4 pounds of rabbit. I think we split the difference and gave about .3 cc... Alice weighed about 6 pounds, 6 ounces at the time. Unfortunately I did not make a note of the dosage. There is always some risk with antibiotics, but it worked wonders for Alice and I would not hesitate to use it again in future. it must be stored in the refrigerator and shaken really well before use.

I
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Okay, back with the box in hand. The brand name we bought is Penpro and it cost $8.99 for 100 ml. It is a "sterile Penicillin G Procaine aqueous suspension" and the active ingredient is "Penicillin G Procaine 300,000 I.U. per ml." It is recommended for horses, goats pigs and cattle.... so it's off-label for rabbits, but most things you can buy over the counter are off-label for rabbits so we did not let that worry us too much.

Good luck! Hope this helps and please remember that I am not dispensing veterinary advice but simply sharing how we successfully treated our doe, Alice.

thanks. i looked at my bottle, it was concentrated at 300,000 IU's per mL, which works out to about 1/4 of a mL of pen G for my bunny(at 20,000 IU's per KG, reccomended minimum dosage). 1/4 of a mL is pretty hard to inject, so i was going to dilute it, but i can't get saline. is there anything on your package that says how many IUs per mL?<br /><br />__________ Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:22 pm __________<br /><br />sounds like you used the same concentration as i am using. my rabbit is 8 lbs, so i would give .5 cc's/mL. i also have 3 mL syringes and 22 gauge needles.

Sounds right to me... And well within the dosage guidelines I was given. Of course, Alice's problem turned out to be an abscess, not mastitis, but with any luck the Pen G will help your doe as well. We did not dilute ours... The syringe has calibrations and we were just very careful.

i gave her an injection in the nape of the neck. i'm hoping the medication will still target the infection in her breast. maybe i should inject into the infection?

SterlingSatin":10v2ecfx said:

i gave her an injection in the nape of the neck. i'm hoping the medication will still target the infection in her breast. maybe i should inject into the infection?

Click to expand...

No, the better spot will be the skin over her hindquarters, and switch sides each time. Just pull up the skin and insert the needle and inject. Penicillin is systemic, so it will go thru her bloodstream to reach the infection. Also, just an FYI...drawing up the medication dulls the needle so it will hurt a bit going in...I always buy 18g needles to draw with and 22g to inject, but that is probably the medical professional in me coming out....

__________ Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:01 pm __________

Meloxicam is a painkiller, not an antibiotic...just fyi....

and I forgot to say that I am glad you found out what it was and I am hoping for a speedy recovery for your doe!

Hope all gets better soon.

When giving very small doses of medication, use a 1cc syringe-- the size used for tuberculin and insulin injections-- that way, you can measure out the really small increments. Heck, I buy them by the box of 100!

Look up other posts on here about mastitis. This past year I had 3 does die from mastitis. It is highly contagious. I sanitized the cages, but must have missed a spot, because another doe I have got mastitis. I left the babies with her to hopefully suck out some of the milk from the infected teat (works wonders with cows, etc). Every morning I put the doe on her back on my lap (difficult to do with this New Zealand) and I milked out all the chunky milk in the infected teat until no more would come. I wiped with a paper towel. Then I put her back and sanitized my hands. I could only do it once a day, but twice may be better if it's not too traumatic for the rabbit. I milked her until only clear milk came out, then she dried up. I gave her penicillin as well (I don't remember the dosage). I just had to wait then and expected her to die as well, but she got really bad and then recovered. I read that if a doe recovers then they will get it again with the next litter. I had to decide whether to cull her or breed her. I bred her and she had a large litter with no mastitis. I will keep her now, as this shows me she is strong, and maybe her offspring will be as well.
Be very careful to not spread it to other rabbits.
Good luck. Keep us updated