Looks like Pasturella is coming back!

[Maureen Las]

I have a 3 yr old mini-Rex , who I have had since he was about 3 months. Right after adoption I noted infrequent , sporadic sneezing but he continued to be very active with no other issues, no discharge etc. By the time he was about 9-10 months he began to have sneezing fits and although he still had no discharge it seemed to interfere with his activities, including playing.
Vet diagnosed him with pasturella and We treated him with a long course of oral baytril and injectable bicillin and it cleared up altogether until last May.
‘Last May I noted that he was not as active as usual for a few weeks which led to sneezing with what sounded like some congestion in throat. This alarmed me and although the vet said case was “mild” we put him back on oral baytril and injectable penicillin.
‘I had noted to the vet that the expiration date on the penicillin was one month away but she assured me that it would be fine ( it is not easy to get bicillin from farm stores anymore so I had bought the bicillin from vet clinic)
He had difficulty with the compounded baytril as a new pharmacist had used almond oil as flavoring so the drug did not need refrigeration. Ian lost his appetite and because of this I had to take him off the meds until I figured out what was going on. (Taking him off these drugs , I realize , is wrong due to growth of bacterial resistance to drugs….but his cessation of eating was extreme and alarming !)
I finally, after thinking on this, had the pharmacist redo the baytril in the original formula. Ian’s appetite returned and we resumed meds.
‘He improved but not as rapidly as I had expected . I finally began to suspect the penicillin so went out to farm store and bought procaine g which has to be given more often. The change in his behavior on procaine was drastic. he perked up. I continued both baytril and pen g for at least 1.5 months
He has been off drugs for 6 weeks and I see the lethargy setting in, suspect that sneezing will begin soon.
He is just 3 yrs old and the idea of keeping him on an antibiotic regime constantly for his entire life makes me sad.
I have a lot of knowledge on mainstream rabbit medicine but none on alternative treatments like echinacea..I know that we might have to do another antibiotic like chloramphenicol, azithromycin or trimethoprim sulfa but I am asking for suggestions on both alternative (herbal ) and mainstream meds. I do not have an exotic alternative vet in my area.
I apologize for the length of this post.

 

[JBun]

I have a rabbit with this problem too. Last abx I used was azithromycin, and it worked really well. It has good tissue and bone penetration. It's kept the infection from reemerging for several months(was maybe Jan. or Feb. when I gave it), but I did have to give it for an extended period, like a month. I was able to just pick up a prescription for it at walmart, and it was less expensive than baytril. Though with azithromycin, rarely some rabbits will have a severe digestive reaction to it. Mine did have some initial stomach cramping, but it settled down a few hours after giving the med.

Other meds that can help are meloxicam(anti inflammatory) and bisolvon(mucolytic to help thin the mucous), but this isn't available in the US.

I know some rabbit owners with URI buns, will use echinacea to help boost their immune system, but it's not something I've ever tried with mine.

 

[Maureen Las]

I will ask my vet about azithromycin. I don’t think that she generally uses it but she does listen to me. I am somewhat apprehensive about loss of appetite from this particular drug but would try it. Do you know how your vet dosed it?
Also wondering if you gave it alone or with penicillin?
I also ordered some echinacea drops for infants but really need to try to find out how to dose it.
I also saw that Small Pet Select sells echinacea root and also dried leaves and flowers. I would order that but I am not Sure if he would touch it. I already wasted so much food when he would not eat due to the almond oil in baytril. I just bought everything trying to get him to eat something
Nice to come back on RO , Jen , glad that you are still here ! Thanks for the suggestion !

 

[JBun]

Same dose as recommended in the medirabbit link(50mg/kg once a day). A lower dose(30mg/kg) for 3 weeks was tried initially, but the infection came back, so next time the higher dose for longer was used. No pen g, just the azithromycin.

Medirabbit: respiratory issues in rabbits

I had bacterial infections of different sorts, spread through this group of bonded rabbits(4 at different times), starting with the mom who first got an eye infection, then eye removal, then abscessed. First tried baytril and the infection returned. Then switched to the azithromycin. On the higher dose for longer, it cleared up the mom's abscess completely, her son's tear duct infection, another in the group with a URI all cleared up, and her son with the respiratory infection is still doing good so far, who was the last to have an issue.

And so several were on azithromycin for these different bacterial infections, and only one really had the temporary cramping issue. But even then he still got excited for med time, like crawling over each other to get to the syringe(I guess this med tastes good). If you think you want to try it but are still worried about it, I would start with maybe half dose the first day to gauge the reaction to it(that's what I did), and go up to full dose the next day if all seems fine. It didn't cause any runny poop for my rabbits, just the temporary stomach cramping for the one.

I don't know about the echinacea drops, but the plant itself seems to be well liked by rabbits, from the accounts I've read. If you have a health food store near you, they will sometimes carry chopped echinacea plant. I think it can be ordered on amazon too.

It's good to see you back. If you decide to go ahead and try the azithromycin, hopefully it'll work as well for your rabbit as it did for mine. I think the bottles I got at walmart pharmacy were 200mg/5ml 30ml bottles for around $23.

 

[Maureen Las]

Thanks for your great suggestions. I will keep you updated. The fact that you have had experience using azithromycin assures me !