mochi has dry mouth

[mochi_ball]

Hi everyone -

Not sure if Iam justoverly paranoidbut recently i've noticed that the area around her nose/mouth looks really dry, skin looks flaky and the fur around that area seems to be coming off. I do notice that she scratches herself a lot near the mouth area, and severaltimes I noticed scabs on her mouththat form and fall off periodically.sometimes she has it but most of the time after the scab falls off it looks normal. Wetrim her nails every 2-3 months. She drinks water out of a bowl that is changed 3x a day.

We live in SoCal and the weather is getting pretty cold & dry; we don't have a humidifier but we boil water to create humidity in our apt. Do u guys think its the weather that's causing her to get dry flaky skin or some sort of infection that needs treatment? Other than the scabs and exposed skin near her nose, she is perfectly healthy. No discharge coming from the nose either.

Below is a picture to show u what her nose looks like.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I'd have it checked. Someone recently had a bunny who had rabbit syphillis. It's relatively easy to treat but catching it now would be the best.

Has she been around other rabbits at all?

 

[Pipp]

Yikes, I thought I replied to this a couple hours ago. :shock:

Have you checked her girl bits to make sure the same thing isn't happening down there? It's not all that common, but there are rabbit venereal diseases that she could have been carrying around forever (literally since she was born) and the stress of her molt is causing it torear it's head now. If that's the case it's treatable with antibiotics.

Are you sure there's no sign of 'dandruff' anywhere? I think sometime mites (very very hard to spot)can irritate that area.

No toys or favorite spots that might be 'midnight projects'? Pipp will spend hours in the middle of the night trying to squeeze her nose into aspot in the wall.

Really, though, it's best to get it checked out.

Hope it's nothing!



sas :clover:

EDIT: LOL! Bo beat me to it.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

:highfive: We're on it! and that's the important thing! We also both have the same thoughts about this. I was thinking mites possibly but wondered why they would only be on the face?

Those midnight projects? can we say bunny OCD? LOL! They get things in their little heads and just HAVE to do them.

 

[mochi_ball]

Hey everyone - just came back from the vet and we are so glad that finally the vet was able to diagnose whatMochi has with a skin scraping. She does have syphillus! I suppose she got it from birth because she hasn't been around other bunnies. So the vet put her on penicillin and we should be bringing her back next week to see if she needs another dose of Pen-G.

Here are some pics from the exam room! we were put in the "bunny room", i thought that was pretty neat.

Here's mochi looking confused/scared.

 

[mochi_ball]

An update on Mochi's syphillis. I think it has come back....

The first time we took her to the vet, the vet gave her a shot of penicillin.After a few days we could see the scabsentirely gone and fur was growing back on herpink bare nose.

The following week, she was given another shot and vet said she needed a total of 3 shots so we brought her inagain andshe got her 3rd shot.

Its been about a week later after her 3rd shot and I'm beginning to see the same type of scabs formingat the same areas (nose/mouth).

Is it a common occurance for the syphillis to come back or was the vet too easy on the antibiotic regimen? What is the usual treatment for rabbit syphillis and how long?

 

[Pipp]

Did you read the links in the Library?

Vent Disease (Rabbit Syphilis)

You might find some info there.

Here's one reference:

Treatment: A regimen of procaine penicillin, 40,000 IU IM s.i.d. for 3 to 5 days is curative. Once the spirochete is eliminated, serum antibody drops gradually to undetectable levels.



sas :goodluck