Infected paw

[amysuerains]

Hi,

My name is Amy and I adopted last week a bunny that had been in deplorable conditions. Now that he's been in a clean environment he's been able to clean his front paws.

The front left paw and leg are swollen and infected. i was able to drain some of the infection as he had opened up a pinhole area on the paw. I'm going to take him to a vet but I have to wait two days?

His paw is swollen and hot. Is there anything I can do at home to drain out the infection w/o causing him further harm?

Thanks,

Amyray:

 

[tonyshuman]

I would actually not drain the infection. Rabbit pus, which fills infected tissue, is really thick--more like toothpaste than water. It is difficult to get out of the wound. You can give him some ibuprofen. I would be best to get him in tomorrow if you can. With the infection spread over that large an area of his body, it could become serious (lead to blood poisoning or blood infection (sepsis)) quickly.

I would clean the area around the leg at least twice a day with betadine or diluted betadine. It's a really good antiseptic that's safe for them to lick off and it's not damaging to the tissue like alcohol or peroxide. A bandage probably won't stay on there long because of how bunnies are about that kind of thing. You can also put triple antibiotic ointment (neosporin or similar) on it--make sure NOT to get the kind with pain medicine in it, that is toxic to them.

You can administer penicillin G yourself if you have a farm supply store nearby and you are comfortable giving su-cutaneous shots. If not, I don't recommend doing it without having a vet show you how.

 

[amysuerains]

:biggrin:Wow. Thanks for the help. Yes, I put neosporin on the paw last night. I have clavamox drops in the fridge left over from my cat. Can I give that to him orally?

I will look into the penicillin now.

also, I was thinking about soaking the paw in epsom salts.

What do you think?

 

[tonyshuman]

Clavomox can't be given to bunnies orally. It contains amoxicillin, which, like penicillin, causes fatal GI problems if given orally to rabbits.

You can get penicillin G procaine/benzathine at farm supply stores in the refrigerated livestock medicine section. It should be given injected, mixed in equal volume with a saline solution for injection or distilled water. Most bunnies get 0.5mL penicillin solution/0.5mL liquid, but bunnies over 5lb get twice that amount. The penicillin is sold under a number of brand names, Duo-Pen, Bicillin, etc.

I'm not sure the epsom salts would help... I haven't heard of doing that before for this kind of thing with bunnies.

 

[Violet23]

How is the bunny doing?