Oliver my lop is sick

[lajore3]

I have a rabbit that is 10 weeks old. It was healthy when I brought it home. About a week later Oliver started sneezing and had a discharge of yellow in color. I took him to the vet the next week and it had cleared up, I had been giving him rabbitRx. then a few days later it started again so I took him back to the vet. The vet thought it was snuffles and began daily shots of Baytril for 5 days. Again it cleared for a few days. The vet at this point thinks it's allergies from the hay. So I took all the hay out of his cage removed the newspaper pellet bedding and replaced them with paper towels and fresh kale, parsley and pellet food. I tried the copressed hay cubes but he still had sneezing attacks. I started giving him rescon dm 1x per day to get the allergy under control but it gets better than worse. What am I doing WRONG?? I don't want him to die but I cant continue to guess and spend money not knowing what it is... I also shampooed my carpets and have 2 cats. He acts normal otherwise. He eats and plays.... The main ingredient int he pellets is alfalfa hay... could that be it or does he need more antibiotics?

 

[JBun]

I would think a URI is more likely, if you are seeing a thickened discharge and also the fact that it started to clear up after the antibiotics. It would be best to do a culture and sensitivity, to find out the exact bacteria, and what antibiotics it is sensitive to. There may be more than one bacteria involved, that wasn't sensitive to the baytril. Or, it may have been sensitive to the baytril, but the vet didn't treat it long enough to get it under control. 5 days really isn't long enough. It needs to be treated for several weeks. Plus if it's not a hay allergy, it's really important that your rabbit have hay.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sneezing.html

If your vet isn't very experienced with rabbits, you may be able to find one on these lists.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f28/finding-vet-13366/
http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

 

[tonyshuman]

I had a long, better worded reply but it got lost. Please forgive if this is terse. First, I moved the thread. Second, stop using those products. the RabbitRx seems like a bogus quasi-medical product that isn't going to help, really. I can't find anything that lists its ingredients. The Rescon-DM should not be given to rabbits. I haven't heard of anyone doing that, or giving any one of its components to rabbits--those are chlorpheniramine, dextromethorphan, and pseudoephedrine. Granted they have probably been given to rabbits at one point but this product is meant to treat human colds, which are very different from rabbit colds. Your bunny needs a longer course of antibiotics. Baytril can also be given orally so that may make it easier for you to give to him. It should be at least a 14-day course of antibiotics. I would find a different vet, especially if the vet was the one that recommended RabbitRx and Rescon-DM. It's not allergies, it's an upper respiratory infection that needs antibiotics. I agree with the stuff JBun said.

 

[tonyshuman]

I found the ingredients of RabbitRx. Basically it's Vicks vapor rub. It's only going to irritate his nose more.

 

[minmelethuireb]

I agree, if the discharge is yellow that points to an infection. Allergies from hay would cause a clear discharge. Your vet should probably consider doing a culture to find out exactly what bacteria is making your pet sick, if one antibiotic hasn't worked.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

I agree with the above^^.

Clear discharge is usually allergy related. Yellow, Green, Thickend or anything of that sort is likely infection.
Let me point out rabbit URI's can be pretty tough to kick. Some bunnies don't even respond well to Baytril and if they do, sometimes they still get snuffles back later on. It's worth trying a several week course of Baytril and seeing if that helps. Some bunnies need to be on it even longer to really fight the infection. Though this may or may not totally cure the snuffles, some bunnies can live with it their whole lives and as long as it isn't getting worse progressivly, be ok. It would be a good idea to have it cultured because this will tell what bacteria is involved and therefore what antibiotic will treat it most effectively.

 

[missyscove]

Hi there and welcome to RO!

I absolutely agree that a culture and sensitivity is necessary. Snuffles can require literally months of antibiotics to clear up and withot a culture and sensitivity you don't know if the antibiotics you're using are actually effective against the organism(s) you're dealing with.
When my rabbit started sneezing, we started with Baytril which was running me $85/week but after the $120 culture and sensitivity we were able to switch her to Doxycycline which is only costing me $53/month.

Rabbits can suffer from allergies, but an infection is more likely (and at the least needs to be ruled out).