It begins again...

[naturestee]

Jazzy's second litter is 16 days old now. And this morning we found that the smallest one, one of the black rexes, has swollen genitals. Yay syphilis. That's sarcasm by the way. I wasn't 100% convinced that Zappa's problem was syphilis but now it appears the vet was right, and his fecal impaction was probably secondary.

I called the vet, Dr. Bixler will be in this afternoon for surgery and will call us back and let us know when we can bring the little booger in. Good thing James has Tuesdays off. I'll see if she can give all the info to the shelter vet and have him do everything for the other buns, especially to see if syphilis can be treated before symptoms show. And if Jazzy can get treated while nursing, as I'd really like to introduce her to Fey but I don't want to risk her getting ill.

BTW, I've named the little tyke Tango.

 

[Maureen Las]

That'stoo bad. you'd think they all would have it wouldn't you?

 

[naturestee]

They probably all have it but it can go without symptoms. Jazzy doesn't show anything. The other buns she was brought in with probably all have it too, especially the male she was accidentally housed with. Dr. Bixler did say that other times she's seen it in babies the mothers often don't show any signs.

So that's a total of 16 rabbits...

 

[TreasuredFriend]

And your Jazzy and the boy she was kept with came from a backyard breeder, and so? How sad, and to think the malady may never be treated by the other rabbits from breeder origination?

Angela, you sure are an angel :bunnyheart:boxingand everyone in your care is Extremely Fortunate you take them to a vet. Ugggh. backyard breeding...

The poor innocent lives that never asked to be born, yet carry extra afflications.
Tango and everybun are d*mn lucky you and James are there to care,

 

[seniorcats]

Holy Cow! What a mess to sort out and $$$. I hope all are ok.

 

[naturestee]

Actually the money isn't too bad. With Zappa we were only charged $5 per shot, 1 shot per week, with no charges for office visits/physical examinations after the first one. Tango should be the same. Penicilllin is cheap so the shelter should have no problem treating all the rest. I'll have to check up on them and make sure they're getting treated because notes get lost, etc.and the doc is always either not in or in surgery when I'm there.

Problem is that 2, possibly 3 rabbits that came in withJazzy have been adopted out. Someone remembered a black rex coming in with them and getting adopted really quickly so many of the other workers didn't even see it. So they have to figure out which ones those were and get in contact with the owners. I did let the office girl know how little the treatment actually causes (to pass on to the owners) and told her to recommend a rabbit vet (aka my clinic which they send most people to anyway) because penicillin can be dangerous for rabbits if done wrong. Like orally, which I know one local vet has done recently.

Who knows how many other rabbits were sold off by the breeder and their owners don't look at their genitals or know better.:grumpy:

 

[HoneyPot]

naturestee wrote:

With Zappa we were only charged $5 per shot, 1 shot per week, with no charges for office visits/physical examinations after the first one.

I need to come to your vet. Mine charged me $62 for every shot.

 

[naturestee]

That... would be very bad. I'd be so in debt! My bill for a molar grind is less than that!

The note for the vet must have gotten lost yesterday as she never called. James called later in the afternoon and got an appointment for Tango today. 1 pm actually and since it's 3 pm and I havn't gotten a call or email from the hubby then there shouldn't be any unusual problems. I hope he got my list of questions answered! I need to know when I can start Jazzy's treatment.

 

[TinysMom]

I am not a vet - but I would be very concerned about giving Jazzy shots before the babies are weaned. First of all - it can and will dry up her milk. Secondly - it can mess up the babies' digestive systems.

If they were in my house - I'd maybe give the little one the shots but wait until all the rabbits are weaned and give both babies and mama shots then....once their digestive track is a bit more settled.

I've been told by fellow breeders that this should be treated aggressively - with a shot every other day for 30 days. I know of some top breeders that took time off to make sure every rabbit in their herd got treated for a full month like this - to eradicate any of this - and when a new rabbit comes into their herd - it is treated for a full month with the shots every other day. I don't believe a one-time shot or shots for less than 20-30 days will really get rid of this.....

But once again - I'm not a vet.

 

[naturestee]

My vet says it's ok to treat Jazzy while she's nursing. And of course if she's not treated but the little babies are she'll just reinfect them anyway. They're super busy so I couldn't get them in any earlier than Tango's appointment next week. Blah.

Also, I just had a minor showdown with the shelter vet. He didn't want to treat the remaining adults that came in with Jazzy because they don't show any symptoms and he didn't believe me. So I had to thoroughly explain exactly how Dr. Bixler knows this is syphilis and every rabbit in contact with Jazzy is most likely infected whether they show it now or not and is capable of infecting other rabbits. So now he has to, especially since everyone else in the shelter knows it including the vet tech who promised me the rabbits would get treated now.

Maybe that vet will start listening to me a little better now? No, probably not.

 

[Maureen Las]

Geez it's hard to believe the shelter vet wouldn't believe you Angela

sounds like you're in la crosse

 

[naturestee]

LOL! He's one of those old-school male vets (who knows nothing about rabbits beyond spay/neuter). Where nothing a young woman like me says could possibly be true if he doesn't see it himself. It's funny, everyone at the shelter listens to me and calls me for rabbit advice except for him. I think he's just jealous that I know more than he does. Like when I pulled Luna out of the shelter after he claimed she was healthy, took her to my vet who found gut stasis, molar spurs, and thoughtLuna looked so bad visually that she ran a full blood panel to rule out organ failure or massive infections!

Luckily, according to Dr. Bixler he usually hands off rabbit stuff to her anyway. Must be hard acknowledging one young female is better than you with rabbits, let alone two!

 

[Maureen Las]

LOL you said it...

when I used to talk about zithromax and bicillin to the vet that I HAD to take Babette to he used to start talking louder and just cut me off mid sentence :X

talked right over me....

 

[naturestee]

Well, wish us luck. I was really seesawing over treating Jazzy because I'm still scared of the penicillin poisoning her milk, especially after talking to Goinbacktocali last night. But this morning one of Tango's siblings turned up sick with genital swelling and a nasty fecal impaction ala Zappa. James should be at the vet with the whole crew right now. We can't risk not treating them all. I'm worried that the younger batch might be weaker because they were developing while Jazzy was nursing the older ones.

The older babies are going back to the shelter tomorrow instead of next Thursday on their 8 week birthday. I don't want the younger babies possibly getting reinfected from them as they sniff each other through the cage bars. The older ones will be treated by the shelter vet, I just don't trust him with tiny 2.5 week old babies.

 

[Maureen Las]

To be honest I would be worried becuase peg said the same thing earlier in the thread but I really don't know anything about this.

 

[mouse_chalk]

Oh no, poor Tango, and Jazzy... and poor babies!

How stressful that you have to go through this with all of them.... I'm thinking of them and hope that they all get treated and recover quickly....

:hug: for you and all the bunnies!

Jen xx

 

[naturestee]

I'm hoping that Goinbacktocali's problems are more related to genetic penicillin sensitivity, because she did say that any time she used penicillin in a baby under 6 weeks it it got diarrhea and usually died. But Zappa did just fine, my vet has done it a number of times, and Randy apparently does it all the time with cottontails. My guess (and hope) is that because Zin linebreeds (as do most breeders of most animals), her rabbits allhave inherited penicillin sensitivity.

I have to trust Dr. Bixler on this one because I just can't have any more babies get sick.

 

[naturestee]

I just thought I'd do a quick update. Everybody is fine. Jazzy has actually been more patient and even loving with her babies while out. She used to run away every time one came near, now she lets them playnear and even on top of her and I even saw her grooming Tango a couple of times! She must have been too worn out from battling the infection (despite no visible symptoms) to want to deal with the babies.

The babies are all good, Tango's genitals aren't quite as swollen and Salsa- the brown one who got sick on Friday- hardly has any swelling now.

 

[Maureen Las]

That 's great.
I'm glad they arebetter
you couldn't just foster a litter with cool names
you had to foster little cool named babies with syphylis
not all rabbit people would be up to that task..
but you came through this splendidly

 

[mouse_chalk]

Aww, I'm really glad to hear that they're all doing well

And I agree, they do have the coolest names! Tango and Salsa- I love it!