Luck with Snuffles Treatments?

[murph72]

My Holland Lop Reuben came to me with Snuffles. The vet treated him with Baytril for a cycle and it went away for a bit. Now it's back.

I've read about different "home cures" for snuffles including vitamin water and spinach. I tried these on Reuben (with the idea that extra vitamins sure wouldn't hurt) but they seem to not have had an effect. He is active and acts as normal, but he sneezes and has a white discharge from his nose.

Has anyone had luck getting rid of Snuffles? If so, what was used to cure it? My local vets aren't the most "rabbit savy" and the closest rabbit savy vet is further than I'd really like to transport a rabbit due to the stress. I'd like to have a course of action to recommend to the vet when I take Reuben in again.

 

[Flashy]

Snuffles is quite a wide term, used to describe various types of infections (although commonly pastuerella, I believe). Baytril is mostly ineffective now against most infections, so that is probably why it never cleared the problem up, just controlled it slightly.

How far away is your rabbit savvy vet? Sometimes a slightly longer journey can prove better in the long run (i.e. the longer Rueben has 'Snuffles', the more stress it puts on him). Have you had the bacteria cultured?

What country are you in? Different countries have different anti biotics they can use, but I know both US and UK can use Zithromax which I believe has been very useful for some cases of respiratory infections. Also, in the US maybe Bicillin and Pen G? Not sure what they use over here in the UK though, probably Zithromax for those knowledgable enough, and something lesser if not.

 

[murph72]

My closest rabbit savy vet is over two hours (one way) away from me. Reuben doesn't like the half hour drive to the current vet, so I felt this would be extremely taxing on him to do a four hour round trip. I know the snuffles is a problem, but I certainly don't want to weaken him with the stress from such a long drive. I know my local "pocket pet" vet will be open to suggestions as I had a sickly rabbit in the past and he was always open to seeing the research that I acquired concerning the illness. I'd just rather walk in there this time with an idea of what might work so that I know if he suggests something (like Baytril) that is known not to work that I can discuss it further with him.

I'm located in a very rural area of Pennsylvania. The vet did not take a culture during the first visit. I am not surprised as most people in my area do not take their rabbits to the vet (in my experience)...I think the vet just figures they'll try to treat the problems as inexpensively as possible so that they don't scare off bunny owners from visiting again.

 

[Flashy]

Ah, yeh, I can completely see why you would be reluctant to travel for 2 hours (!)because that's a long way! I often forget how wide spread everything over there is.

Maybe an option might be for your regular vet and the rabbit savvy one to liaise with each other? That might be worth a shot.

 

[tonyshuman]

It's very important that your vet do a culture and check for antibacterial sensitivity. In this test, they plate the bacteria swabbed from your bunny's nose on a petri dish and grow colonies. They then take the colonies and put them on other petri dishes with different kinds of antibiotics on them. The antibiotic that is able to kill the bacteria is the one they should use. Some other ones to use besides Baytril are Bicillin, Zithromax, and Pen G. I don't know about how all of these are dosed, but I'm sure someone like Randy will chime in. There may be other possibile antibiotics but not all are "labeled" for use in rabbits.

This is important to do because rabbits often harbor bacteria that are resistant to many different kinds of antibiotics. Also, they have very sensitive "good" bacteria in their intestines that can suffer from overtreatment with antibiotics. I would try to get your vet to do a culture and sensitivity test (I know they do it for people, and I assume they do it on dogs and cats too, so I hope he would have experience with it). Consulting with the rabbit-savvy vet is also a good idea. The local vet may learn that he gets more business from being seen as a rabbit-savvy vet than he would lose from people who don't want to spend money on their rabbits. After all, from a purely economic standpoint, the people who don't want to spend money on their pet aren't a good source of income for a vet business anyway; the people for whom the rabbit is an integral part of the family that they don't mind spending a little money on are a better source of income.

 

[Maureen Las]

If you send a private message (pm) to ra7751 (Randy) he is very good about talking directly to vets who are willing to listen. he is extremely knowledgeable re. the effective drugs used on the rabbits in his rescue.
Everything said above is correct now it just needs to be implemented.

 

[murph72]

Thanks for all your help. I'm calling tomorrow morning to set up an appointment for Reuben to revisit the vet for this problem. I hope to go armed now with more information so that I know they're heading down the right path to cure his sneezing issues.

Angie, thanks for the advice. I'll send Randy a pm and ask for his guidance.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

tonyshuman wrote:

It's very important that your vet do a culture and check for antibacterial sensitivity. In this test, they plate the bacteria swabbed from your bunny's nose on a petri dish and grow colonies. They then take the colonies and put them on other petri dishes with different kinds of antibiotics on them. The antibiotic that is able to kill the bacteria is the one they should use. Some other ones to use besides Baytril are Bicillin, Zithromax, and Pen G. I don't know about how all of these are dosed, but I'm sure someone like Randy will chime in. There may be other possibile antibiotics but not all are "labeled" for use in rabbits.

This is important to do because rabbits often harbor bacteria that are resistant to many different kinds of antibiotics. Also, they have very sensitive "good" bacteria in their intestines that can suffer from overtreatment with antibiotics. I would try to get your vet to do a culture and sensitivity test (I know they do it for people, and I assume they do it on dogs and cats too, so I hope he would have experience with it). Consulting with the rabbit-savvy vet is also a good idea. The local vet may learn that he gets more business from being seen as a rabbit-savvy vet than he would lose from people who don't want to spend money on their rabbits. After all, from a purely economic standpoint, the people who don't want to spend money on their pet aren't a good source of income for a vet business anyway; the people for whom the rabbit is an integral part of the family that they don't mind spending a little money on are a better source of income.

I agree with all this. Make sure a swab is done. Figure out the rest as you go.

I'd also like to add:

Murph, I wish you the best of luck.

If I were you, I'd ask for Zithromax (as mentioned above), which Randy would agree with and recommend as well. (Especially, if Baytril didn't work the first go.)

Let us know how it goes at the vet!