pastuerella or coincidental illnesses; update sepsis

[akane]

I suffered tonsillitis and left the bunnies in my mom's care for 5 days straight. Usually she calls me about stuff but when I got there I had a buck in a cage with a doe who had already had an accidental litter, 1 junior locked in the tackroom, 1 junior running around a stall full of junk, and then Amako...

Mom noticed a sore above her tail 4 or 5 days ago followed by a head tilt. The infection is severe with white puss leaking out. If it was any of the meat rabbits I would have tried out my new gun but this was my first rabbit and little mini rex pet my husband got me when I was having a bad day. She was in colony and we have had head tilts due to parasites from birds living over the colony before. She also got in a fight and all bit up. She doesn't live peacefully in colonies which is why I caged her as soon as I had an open cage but I feel bite marks all down her sides. She hasn't lost condition yet. No snotty nose or crusty eyes. So pasteruerella or head tilt parasite combined with infection from bite wound?

 

[ladysown]

infection. with head tilt. I'd be medicating since she's a pet bun.

 

[akane]

What can I use as an oral antibiotic? I think the pen g injectable says not to use orally due to something in the mix.

 

[MaggieJ]

Could be wrong, but aren't oral antibiotics more likely to cause digestive upsets in rabbits than injectable?

Sorry Amako is ill, Akane. It's worse when the rabbit is a pet.

 

[akane]

I'm not going to inject her twice a day for weeks or a month. She already has a little attitude from being spoiled. I'd be a little irritated getting injections twice a day and I can understand the purpose for it. I also just don't like trying to hit the right spot every time.

 

[MaggieJ]

I certainly wouldn't want to give injections twice a day for weeks or months either. Would it be necessary to do so?

My only experience with rabbits and antibiotics was a doe with an abscess. We were quite sure it was NOT pasteurella-related, so we chose to treat rather than cull. We used an injectable Pen G with Procaine once a day SQ for less than a week. We also cleaned out the abscess and applied a topical antibiotic ointment. Alice made a very good recovery.

 

[akane]

If the head tilt is bacterial caused I was told it could take 28 days of pen g use which is usually twice a day. I'm hoping it's parasitic like the ones we've had in the past and I can just use panacur and then keep it under control with monthly ivermectin.

We have a vet appointment late afternoon so I will get a culture and oral antibiotics if it isn't too expensive. We also might have to lance the abscess so we could get to all of it since it's spread sideways and then we can rinse it.

 

[MaggieJ]

Vet appointment sounds like a good idea. I hope all goes well.

It's quite possible that we did not do the right thing with Alice and just got lucky about her recovery. I had never heard of such a long course of antibiotics, but then it was hard to find specific information about what to do, so we just did the best we could at the time.

 

[akane]

She went septic from the infected bite wounds. Amako never did well in large colonies. She was doing fine with one other doe and a buck plus her offspring but then we moved things around and does that got along stopped getting along. He gave her a 14 day antibiotic injection so we don't have to. We just have to get food and water down her which I always keep critical care on hand whenever I have several herbivores. http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/vets/p ... tical_care<br /><br />__________ Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:01 pm __________<br /><br />Well her temp is up, it measured a little low at the vet, but now her ears are much warmer than my skin. I didn't get much food in her but we decided to let her rest. She spent the whole 30min wait at the vet trying to hold herself upright, got poked around, and then spent 45mins in my truck trying to stay upright. She's laying flat out now. You can see her breathing and every now and then she sneezes but otherwise she looks like a dead rabbit. I'll try to feed her again before bed.

 

[DogCatMom]

I hope she pulls through for you. Watching an animal suffer is very hard, but they *can* often come through. ::fingers crossed::

 

[MaggieJ]

So sorry, Akane, that you and Amako are going through this.

Please keep us updated. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and she will rally. :good-luck:

 

[Miss M]

I'm so sorry, Akane! I hope she pulls through okay! :clover:

 

[akane]

Well she ate most of 2 syringe fulls and was fighting me more. When I put her back her head was all over sniffing so I gave a radish top and piece of cilantro with the others. By the time I got done feeding everyone she had eaten all of it and is laying flat again.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

So sorry to hear. Hope she pulls through with a 100% recovery

 

[akane]

Well she made it through the night and ate another radish last night. I also have cilantro and a red bell pepper. I'm going to try to get her to eat the critical care on her own instead of it being forced down her and squirting out everywhere if I don't get the syringe aimed down her throat properly. Hopefully the head tilt and ulcer in her eye go away completely.

__________ Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:40 am __________

She's grooming! I think she will make it but we are having food issues. When she smells something good she tries to raise her head to eat it but the head tilt causes her to fall over instead. I tried critical care on a spoon but she just flayed about trying to straighten to eat it. She managed to side ways eat a bunch of cilantro and so I gave her a pile of hay. Trying to get fiber in to get her gut moving or she'll be back in trouble again.<br /><br />__________ Thu Nov 14, 2013 3:43 pm __________<br /><br />Need a little help. The vet said the head tilt was from the infection either reaching the ear or the brain. First I gave her some aspirin 2 hrs ago and then fed her nearly all the critical care the chart says she should eat in 24hrs. She groomed herself and laid down. Now all of a sudden she's rolling around smashing in to the cage sides scratching her ear and shaking her head. I can hear squishing sounds from her ear. Is there something otc I can put in her ear(s) to give her relief?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Poor Amako!

I'm just throwing ideas out here... but why not warm up some oil and mix some Orajel in it and put that in the ear? The generic brands are fine, and don't be fooled by the "extra strength" nonsense- look at the percentage of benzocaine in it and make your decision based on the one with the highest concentration. Once you have it in her ear, pinch the base of the ear closed and hold her for a few minutes so she doesn't simply shake it all out.

If you can't get out to buy that, you could crush an aspirin and do the same thing with the oil. Aspirin is sometimes applied as a paste to insect stings.

 

[akane]

I gave her a higher dose of aspirin. I was thinking some type of oil might help I'm just cautious about putting anything in her ears because the infection is coming from so deep that if there's a reaction it could break the ear drum from pressure.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Eardrums do heal. From http://www.emedicinehealth.com/perforat ... ge6_em.htm :

Because most perforated eardrum injuries heal on their own within two months, treatment may include analgesics to alleviate pain and antibiotics to prevent infection.

I would try the oil to loosen the gunk. It in itself may be causing pressure on the eardrum if the infection is unable to drain past it.

 

[Bad Habit]

Maybe use some polysporin ear drops?

 

[akane]

Amako ate a radish and a bunch of hay last night. Then she ate half her critical care this morning. I'm kind of worried her head tilt is not going away. She's not grunting in pain and attacking her ear though. I decided not to give her aspirin at this point. This afternoon we are moving her to one of our 30x30" hedgehog cages since I doubt she will hop over or chew on 1' sides.<br /><br />__________ Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:13 pm __________<br /><br />I finally convinced my husband after he saw her throwing herself around the cage that we needed to call the vet about her ear.

She's inhaling critical care and I probably only have 1 day left but her head hasn't straightened any to eat solid foods well. She has to kind of run in to it or you lay her head on it and she starts eating. She's got oatmeal scattered everywhere. So I'm going to make a moistened food supplement with pellets as the base softened with blueberry Naked Juice (equivalent to odwalla if you live in other areas of the country) to make it more attractive and it adds B vitamins. Then I was wondering how well giving her half a banana a day for potassium would work or would it upset her digestive tract or make her too full? I can try to find potassium salt instead and put it in the mix but she'd probably prefer a banana. Finally I was going to use good unfiltered, live ACV but I'm not sure how much. She eats a small mug of critical care a day. Maybe 1 tbsp and hope she doesn't dislike the taste? She goes absolute nuts for apple banana critical care once you get her started eating it and her head positioned right.