eye infection on top of ear infection?!

[SnowyShiloh]

Poor Neddie! There's something wrong with his left eye. The rim is very pink (not the eye itself but the skin around it) and he has a little white discharge on his eyelids. I tried to wipe it off gently with a damp q tip and can tell it's painful for him. To make matters worse, he's itching it with his back foot :shock: So I don't know how much of the redness is from an eye infection or something and how much is from the itching. This morning I noticed he was holding that eye shut a bit more than usual but it was not red or gooey.

This is on top of his ear infection. He's been getting .2 mL injectible Baytril once a day for the past week and a half and a shot of Pen G once a week (got the second dose this morning).

Is it common for bunnies with ear infections to get eye infections too? He's already ON antibiotics, what else can be done?!

I called the vet and his vet will not be in again until Saturday. The only vet that supposedly treats rabbits is the terrible one that killed my baby bird and has misdiagnosed my rabbits 100% of the time. She's going to call me when she gets the chance

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray:

 

[Maureen Las]

I think that the Pen G is probably not enough. I have never heard of it being given on only a weekly basis except penicillin benzathine penicillin (long acting ) which is treated with 3 injections a week apart for syphllis
I will give you a medirabbit chart showing the dosing for bicillin which is a combination of procaine pen G and benzathine pencillin ; it usually is dosed on an every other day basis and is given subqutaneously. Bicillin can be bought in the refrigerated section of any farm store under the trade names Duo-pen, Dura-pen, Twin pen . Each ml should contain 150,000 u of procaine G and 150,000 u of benzathine penicllin.

The vet possibly should do a culture on the exudate in the ear to identify the bacteria and then the antibiotics that would be the most susceptible to the particular bacteria . Penicillin is broad spectrum and if dosed correctly often is very helpful.

Do you feel that your rabbit could have scratched his eye with his nail and created the infection. Be sure and clip the nails on the back feet )I don't know if the 2 are related but the ear and eye infection could be.

Maybe worth it to have a vet take a look at his teeth as teeth issues often affect the eyes. It sounds like there is more to investigate here.

http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Thanks for the info! When the vet prescribed the bicillin, I asked why it was only once a week and she said that with that type of pen G it's only given once a week. She will be in the office on Saturday so I will call and ask then or bring Ned in. He's getting .3 mL injected under the skin once a week so far.

I will definitely ask her to look at his teeth. If it's a tooth problem, would that only affect 1 eye though? The thing about his ears is that 2 vets looked in them and neither saw ANY sign of infection so there isn't anything to culture unless something has changed.

I talked to the bad vet on the phone this afternoon and she prescribed another 2 weeks of Baytril and an eye ointment. We're picking up the ointment in the morning. She said to bring him in on Saturday if it doesn't start to improve because they will dye his eye or something and see if they can find an ulcer or wound.

His eye actually is looking better this evening. It isn't as red and the goobies are gone from his eyelashes and he isn't closing it as much. I'm hoping he just had a bit of irritation somehow. We will be clipping his nails tonight!

 

[Maureen Las]

Your vet may be using benzathine penicllin which is long acting and giving a larger dose at once. I am not familar with the dosing of this.

Find out what kind of penicllin he is using

The medirabbit only deals with bicillin dosing.

http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm

Ibelieve that Pipp's vet uses benzathine penicllin because she cannot get bicillin in Canada. I am sure that you can pm her or track her down on the Rabbitats FB page and /or the Rabbitsonline FB page.

I believe that Pipp's vet has her give injections every other day
but first find out exactly the kind of pencillin that you are using. often vets will call all pencillin. Pen G



There is another option of changing meds . Chloramphenical is a great oral med for rabbits...very powerful

Zithromax is another option but can decrease appetite. Zithromax could be given along with the penicillin (according to Randy) who has had good results with it

At this point the baytril really probally isn't auseful choice.

I had a rabbit with an ulcer in his eye and it was diagnosed by using a stain and then examining it under a certain type of light..at this point the eyedrops are probably fne to give.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Angieluv, the penicillin says ".3 mL penicillin benzathine and penicillin procaine combination". I have another read that is exclusively about his ear infection farther down the page and just made this thread to draw attention to the eye issue.

His regular vet will be in tomorrow and I will call her then to see about changing his medication.

Good news is I'm almost certain Neddie's sore eye was just because he scratched it accidentally or something, which kinda makes sense since his balance is a bit wonky at the moment. His eye looks almost 100% normal now. He's squinting a little sometimes but it isn't red and there isn't any discharge.

 

[Maureen Las]

Probably he should be getting the bicillin ( that is what you have) more frequently..
Would you feel comfortable showing the vet the medirabbit dosing protocol
The dosing in medirabbit is based on a bottle of bicillin which would say 150,000 u of procaine G penicillin and 150,000 u of benzathine G penicllin with a totalof 300,000 u per ml.

here is the same link I placed above yesterday

http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm


a kg =2.2 lbs

 

[SnowyShiloh]

GRRR! I had several things I wanted to get done today but had to stay home and wait for the vet to call. She never did! What a waste of time! We were even going to go to the fair Hopefully the vet is working tomorrow and will call. I want to get the ball rolling on new medicine for Ned. Angieluv, I wish you could have seen Ned's earlier thread so I would have known his amount of Pen G was ineffective, I feel like we've been wasting the past week and a half and giving the bacteria time to strengthen while we periodically toss antibiotics at it