What pains me is it's my favorite buck, I drove over an hour and a half to pick him up and raised him for the past 4 months and I don't usually get attached to my rabbits but every time I walked by his cage he would stand up and paw at the cage until I opened it and pet him. It even came down to where I would put him on the grass while I was picking grass for the rabbits and he would follow me around. He's a Continental Giant so they're hard to find, and he's Harlequin color. Luckily I have a harlequin Continental mix female which I bred with him a month ago before he had this abscess and she just had babies yesterday!!!!! Which I'm very happy about. I was able to get my hands on some Peng and syringes which it has to be injected inter muscularly... I did it for about a week with no change I finally was able to feel the side of his cheek and it goes halfway into his mouth and I noticed he only eats bread that I give him so it makes me feel bad cuz I know he's losing condition.. I was able to stick my finger in his mouth and the swollen part goes halfway into his mouth. I also noticed his front teeth were not aligned but there were not overgrown so I clipped the parts that were a little bit longer in the front but I have no clue what's going on in the teeth in the back since he won't let me check that far down. He lets me feel around the lump and push around the sides I'm guessing if it was the teeth he would flinch but he doesn't. I really want to Lance it myself but I don't want to cause them any pain, I would bring them to a vet but I know they would charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars and really he's my breeding buck, and I don't really want to spend that type of money. I'm so tempted to just Lance it myself and squish out what's in there but then I'm worried what if it's some kind of hard Mass but it's grown over a month so I'm guessing it's some kind of thick pus. And giving him the injections aren't doing anything so I stopped after a week. Has anybody ever dealt with this problem or lanced it themselves? I tried poking it with the tip of the needle after sterilizing it and taking it off of the syringe but nothing comes out cuz I think the hole is too small, I don't know if there's anything I can give him to kind of knock them out while I do it? Or should I just cull him... I've noticed his front teeth were not aligned a little over a month ago but there is no bulge on the side of his mouth until they moved him to a separate cage temporarily so I don't know if he was bit by a mouse or what!! I feel so guilty inside every time I see him and he wants me to pet him. Any suggestions!! ???
Thank u
Al
I've only had two rabbits with abscesses and I treated them differently, but both were ultimately successful. I've also worked with another person who had a rabbit with an abscess, and that was less successful.
One of my white Satin does had a big abscess on the inside of her hind leg. It kept getting bigger and was soft, so I cut it open to drain it. Simply lancing wasn't going to do it, since it was about 1-1/2" x 1/2" and I was fairly certain that I wouldn't be able to clean it out thoroughly. I cut off all of the skin all the way to the edge of the abscess, then used lots of q-tips and saline solution to clean it gently but very thoroughly (it was packed tightly with a big coil of semi-solid white pus), right to the edge of the healthy tissue. Interestingly, she did not object to any of this; she just lay on her back on my lap. I suspect that it may have been kind of numb. I filled the wound with Neosporin even though I figured she'd immediately work at licking it all off, which she did. That's all I did and she lived many productive years after that with no more problems; she didn't even have a noticeable scar. I suspect that it was so successful because while the abscess was fairly large, it was not particularly deep.
The other doe, a red Satin, had what I'm assuming was a tooth abscess, but I was young and new and didn't really know what to do, so I did nothing except wait. It was on her right cheek, and went so far as to push at her eye and make it bulge outward. She also ate very little for a while, so I gave her very leafy hay and fresh grass (fortunately it was summertime) and she ate the soft parts. I hadn't discovered Critical Care at that point; in fact it might not have been around yet. But after less than two weeks the swelling disappeared, and was never a problem again. I assume it burst by itself, since it went away almost overnight. She never got horribly skinny or looked like she was in pain; I would have put her down if she had been failing. So anyway, there's another option.
The other person's rabbit did not do as well, but I've concluded that it was because she was not willing to aggressively open and clean the wound (I admit it is difficult to make yourself do it, and it is quite gross!). She lanced it with a needle and squeezed, but the abscess reappeared within a week or two, and seemed to grow even faster. I don't know how the rabbit would have done if she'd tried again, because at that point she put it down.
Even before this episode, I was not a fan of lancing for abscesses per se. I know people use the approach, but it really seems to depend on how big you make the opening, and whether the shape of the abscess inclines it to drain well. Using a needle makes a puncture wound that can let other nasties in but doesn't allow you to be sure you've gotten all the problematic stuff out. That was kind of confirmed for me with the last rabbit described, although it is a sample of one.
@Lil Acorn Acres Farm describes a similar situation, although from the description it sounds like a thorough flushing was possible, and the aperture was large enough to let a splinter out.
Whichever way you go, one of the biggest issues will be to keep him eating; Critical Care is often good for that. Sometimes rabbits take a while to recognize it as food - smear it in their mouths a few times to see if they'll come around - but most of them like it. Some prefer it more wet or more thick/dry, so you can play around with the consistency.
As far as malocclusion, if it has just appeared along with the abscess I would give him the benefit of the doubt, especially after seeing how deformed my red doe's face was for a while due to the pressure. If his teeth are not yet overgrown, that would suggest to me that he did
not have a misalignment problem before the abscess, in which case it may not be genetic. But as
@eco2pia implies, the abscess could be because of malocclusion, rather than the other way around.
And I agree with
@eco2pia that malocclusion is
not a thing to mess around with in your breeding program; it's heartbreaking to have to put down otherwise beautiful, sweet bunnies, a situation we're currently dealing with in both our Polish and our Holland Lops.
So I would pay very close attention to his offspring as they grow. The frustrating thing is that sometimes - as is the case with our Polish - the malocclusion does not show up till about the age of 6 months, so it is very hard to track bunnies you've sold thinking they're correct. It's also terrible to think you've sold people a rabbit that will eventually have a serious health issue. If your buck makes it through, it will be important to see that his teeth realign themselves. Otherwise, I would not take the chance with breeding him again.
.... But I had ivermectin... And Frontline Plus I ended up going with the front line as I heard it works better for everything... Here I go down the proverbial rabbit hole lol .... He's a nice guy Harlequin color I'm suspecting he's half Harlequin half Flemish Giant.
