My new bunny and her sneezing...

[mtnbossmare]

Hi, My name is Dawn and I got a female lionhead the other day from a breeder... now that she's home, she is sneezing. I noticed when I got her that her nose seemed swollen on both sides of it and had some crusties on the outer edges, but being a novice, I assumed that she had been rubbing it against the metal of her previous owner's cage. Well... she started sneezing the night that we got her, but we also "upgraded" her food to a premium brand diet that she devours and she's given a bowl full of Kale greens twice daily, along with some crackers and other veggie tidbits... also which she loves. She's definately eating and drinking well, and the next day after we got her, her nose was no where near as swollen and had no crusties around her nose... some some on her furr, but even that has decreased. Her nose now looks good, but she's still sneezing, just not as "hard." Her previous owner had been keeping her outside and with us she is indoors. Since she appears to be getting better on a daily basis, I'm thinking that this may resolve itself, but the other part of me is needing some reassurance that this may be the case. She has a litter box that she is using (for the most part, I think she's gotten the idea as there is less poo to clean up every day in her cage.) Her cage is a double decker that we built and it has wire around it but wooden floors... she is residing on the top part as we have another rabbit (he was supposed to have been a lionhead to, but he looks different than she, so we must have been lied to about his breed. Anyway, they are separated for the most part and he does not have any signs of getting sick. We let them out to play every day (supervised of course) and they seem to get along rather well, but she is "supposed" to be bred and having a litter within the next week or so... so we do not keep them together in their cages as I read somewhere that the male rabbit will kill the babies... Is that true? I was a vet tech for 18 years, but we didn't see many bunnies. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[tolstoibunny]

Is there any discharge from her nose or eyes? Discharge from nose can get stuck under the nose if it's thick. Fungal infections, mites and a few other things can also make skin crusty in nasal area. Sometimes bunnies start sneezing when they are moved from outdoors to indoors. It's because the air is so much more moist outdoors. Anyway, I'd still take her to see a good vet.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Two options: Call the breeder up and tell them she's been sick from the get-go. Request a new bunny. Not a pretty option, but may end up better than forever having and treating a chronically pasturella or snuffley bunny

OR, get her to the vet asap and see if they can put her on an antibiotic.


In my experience, snuffles just doesn't get better on its own unless maybe there're allergies going on. Most times though, it is not allergies, rather an infection. One way to help tell if its allergies or not is the color and type of nasal discharge. Clear is sometimes allergies or irritation. Thickend, white or green is an infection. However I had one who had clear discharge for a while from the time I got her and later got white gunk. She was on antibiotics for the longest time and didn't respond. I ended up (very sadly) having to call the breeder up, and they were very nice to bring Charlie back to their place and giving me my current guy, Ripley.

 

[missyscove]

Welcome to RO!

It's possible that it's allergies, but more likely that it's an upper respiratory infection known as "snuffles." For a long time all snuffles cases were assumed to be caused by Pasteurella, but Pasteurella can also be present as a commensal bacteria so even if it's there it might not be causing the problems and it's very hard to get rid of. My first rabbit, Fiona, sneezed her entire life. My current rabbits, Watson and Cricket, are both dealing with bouts of sneezing. It started with Cricket and then a few weeks later (even with antibiotics for her), Watson joined in. He's now symptom-free but she's still on antibiotics several months later so we're looking at long term treatments.
They both had cultures and sensitivities run which came back with moraxella and bordatella spp. but no pasteurella. The good news is that while there was some resistance to the Baytril they were on initially, they're all sensitive to the doxycycline we're using now (and it tastes like delicious raspberries).

In summary, she should see a vet and I would run a culture and sensitivity test. It's not a good business practice to sell a sick rabbit, so you could look into the option of returning her, but do know that won't guarantee her any treatment.