My rabbit is sneezing. Does that mean it's stuck with an incurable disease?

[mjthekidd]

Hi All,

I purchased a young lion-head from a pet store and noticed he started sneezing when I got him home. He was fine at first but then started letting out a quick "achoo" about once every few hours. The next morning he went into a 10 second sneezing fit. --He kept sneezing over and over for about 10 seconds and did this about 2 or 3 times total. His eyes were clear and he looked healthy but his nose appeared to be a little wet however, there was no white snot or any discharge present.

I called the pet store I purchased him from and they told me to bring him back to them for treatment (which is where he currently is).

I've been reading online about rabbit sneezing but everything keeps claiming it's the catch-all "snuffles" and that it's incurable.

My question is:
If a bunny is sneezing and it's not allergy related, is it always because of some incurable "snuffles" type disease? It just seems like everything i've read about a rabbit sneezing led to the conclusion of it being due to an incurable disease but how can that be? Can't rabbits get curable nasal infections / sickness?

My specific concern:
When purchasing my rabbit, I noticed the store had pulled and quarantined another rabbit from the same bin because it was sneezing. At the time, I didn't think much of it, but now I'm guessing that sneezing rabbit had some kind of sickness and spread it to mine. Also, in the rabbit bin I thought I noticed a yellow-white liquid mixed in with the hay in an area. It briefly caught my attention because I thought rabbit urine would look more like human (transparent watery yellow) but this liquid looked more like a thicker milky yellow. (my rabbit didn't release anything like this -- his urine has been normal looking but I thought I'd mention everything I saw)

Knowing all this, any idea what my rabbit might have and if its realistically curable? (Wondering what his chances are coming back ok from the pet store)

 

[JimD]

Without a proper diagnosis from a good vet, I wouldn't want to take a guess.

There's lots of reasons that a bun might sneeze.

I'm not sure that I would depend on a pet store to treat, or properly diagnose, an issue with a bun.
If there was another rabbit from the same bin quarantined because it was sneezing, I wouldn't buy a rabbit from them.

Have you thought about getting a rabbit from a rescue.
Your location is listed as NJ....there's LOTS of rescues in NJ.
If you're looking for a specific breed....like a lionhead....I'm sure there's one available.

 

[Pipp]

There are many strains of Pasturella. One may be a mild infection that goes away with good holistic care or one round of antibiotics, but more rarely there are also bad strains that will keep coming back whenever you stop antibiotics, but with treatment they are rarely fatal.

Breeders (and pet stores) often put their rabbits down because they don't want their whole herds infected nor do they want to treat them aggressively, they don't have the time or incentive. Sneezing rabbits can neither be shown nor sold.

Pet store purchases are NEVER a good idea. The sexes are often wrong, they're often sick and they are often taken away from their families too soon and have compromised immune systems.

At least shelters and rescue rabbits have much better health, eduction and support systems.

sas :clover:

 

[mjthekidd]

Well technically I can't "return" the bunny to this store as their policy is to either cure the sick rabbit or give replacement but even if I could, I don't want to as this guy has all the characteristics I like in terms of looks and personality. Out of curiosity though, do you think most rabbit shelters around offer young and friendly rabbits? The reason I ask "friendly" is because I am currently taking care of two abused chinchillas I adopted from a shelter and as much as I love them, they're not exactly the most friendly to say the least. I'm fine with adopting special needs animals but my two chins already give me quite a run in that department so I'd prefer to not deal with as much craziness for our bunny.

Anywho, back on the subject, I'm thinking about telling the pet store I want to take the bunny to a vet but before I go I'm trying to learn about all the possible conditions that could be causing his ailment. In the past (for sick chinchillas at the time), I've gone to so called "expert" small animal vets and found their knowledge not to be as good as what I've obtained from people online. I find doing some research before hand can go a long way with sort of double checking the vet to make sure theyre doing the right thing which is why I'm asking for feedback from everyone here. Thanks so far for the help, but curious if you had any more information about what the cause could be and what the chances of complete cure or reoccurance would be? I'm curious to know if its always pasteurella that causes the sneezing or are there other less (or more) nasty bacteria out there that could be causing it and if its always something the rabbit is stuck with?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You may want to read up from the "infirmary" here, but without a good rabbit savvy vet it's a shot in the dark as to what is going on. Also, I wouldn't trust a pet store to really do anything helpful for the poor little bunny--none have a good record when it comes to getting vet treatment, they won't spend the money. All ours are rescues, and some were a bit of a handful at first but rabbits are very smart and social, so once you've gained their trust you'll see their personality blossom.