preventative antibiotics after a bunny died from pneumonia

[LakeCondo]

It's not being bad when you know most people disagree with what they the vets are saying. MDs have stopped doing the "preventative" anti-biotics route [with a few exceptions, maybe], but dentists & vets are lagging. Plus, vets' training included [I assume] animals raised for food, & most of those animals are given antibiotics in their feed routinely.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Though I do feel a twinge of guilt, I am disregarding the vet's advice and not giving the antibiotics. Maybe that's the wrong choice but it's the one I feel is right. If anyone starts acting sick, we can jump in with meds and stuff. I'm monitoring them very carefully, they're probably wondering why Mommy is up in their faces all day long!

 

[ZRabbits]

LakeCondo wrote:

It's not being bad when you know most people disagree with what they the vets are saying. MDs have stopped doing the "preventative" anti-biotics route [with a few exceptions, maybe], but dentists & vets are lagging. Plus, vets' training included [I assume] animals raised for food, & most of those animals are given antibiotics in their feed routinely.

Government standard. What are you going to do. You can't do a thing. But people raising them for their own, know what's there. Nobody knows what's in the meat or where it comes from in a supermarket. And just think it's your milk. Look what they do to milk producing cows. And with the way the laws are changing, they the government don't have to tell you.

More and more people are raising their own food. Not just vegetables. There is livestock too.

And who controls the Doctors, Vets, and Dentists through licenses? Federal Government. It's just the way it is.

K

 

[ZRabbits]

SnowyShiloh wrote:

Though I do feel a twinge of guilt, I am disregarding the vet's advice and not giving the antibiotics. Maybe that's the wrong choice but it's the one I feel is right. If anyone starts acting sick, we can jump in with meds and stuff. I'm monitoring them very carefully, they're probably wondering why Mommy is up in their faces all day long!

Don't feel guilty. I wouldn't give antibiotics to a healthy animal. Just as a precaution. Nah, keep doing what you are doing. You know your bunnies.

K

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Darn it, it's 92 degrees in our house right now because the thermostat is broken and the furnace is cranking out the heat. It's the warmest day we've had so far this year at 46 degrees right now but the furnace is acting like it's -40. The landlord freaks out if any windows are left open (yesterday we got an angry note on our door about it). I have fans running. ALL the buns are sprawled out on their tummies because they're hot. Not exactly conducive to warding off illness :X Let's hope the fans bring down the temp!

 

[Samara]

Try throwing some water bottles (drinking ones) in the freezer then tossing them in a pillow case for the buns to lay against. We always have bottled water on hand...we buy it in the 24 packs usually when we grocery shop. I keep 3 in the freezer just in case.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

HOLY MOLY. Vet just called and the lab is still working on the sample of Nomi's lungs, but so far they have found E.coli! The vet said she has never heard of an animal with E.coli in the lungs. She said maybe Nomi aspirated a cecal or something. How in the world?! Like I said, my bunnies' cages are kept very clean and Nomi was an exceptionally tidy rabbit. The lab also found THREE other bacteria but they're still figuring out what they were. The vet suspects Nomi came to us with these bad things in her.

E. coli? 3 other types of bacteria? HUH?

Please don't let my other buns get sick with all these terrible things!

 

[Samara]

What the heck?? I am speechless.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

ME TOO! Sorry about the caps. I'm just flabbergasted. E. coli? Lungs? Wha? I did some Googling and apparently animals (dogs usually) sometimes get pneumonia from E. coli but it's rare. People can get it in their lungs too but also rare.

I'm not freaking out or showing signs of fear to my bun buns but internally my anxiety has quadrupled. The urge to start squirting antibiotics down everyone's throat is very strong. I really, really hope we get the results on the other bacteria tomorrow and go from there.

Tomorrow I also have an extremely important interview (culmination of 4 years of college and a ton of other stuff rides on the interview) so I am a wreck. Don't care what I feel like of course, just want my babies to be okay!

 

[Samara]

I will do some googling of my own and let you know what I come up with! I'll keep you and your buns in my thoughts till you have some answers! Holy poop!

 

[LakeCondo]

E coli is unexpected, but other bacteria can be present in an animal's or person's body & not do any damage until something happens to the immune system & they cause harm. Or they could just have been there & not done any harm. I'd be giving probiotics, myself. The thing with medicine, it's part art as well as science.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I'm feeling a tiny bit less worried. I'm 27 years old but I called my mom and cried to her and she reassured me that the bun buns will probably be fine and I feel a little bit better.

We got a whole bunch of fans blowing, Paul blocked the heat vents, and we have our inner door (to our entryway, it's not open to the outside but it's a little cooler in the entryway) wide open so it's much more tolerable in here now. I don't really care if we're making the furnace go into over drive right now, I don't want my bunnies at risk and the repair man will be here tomorrow.

 

[LakeCondo]

Thank goodness it soon will be repaired. It seems like if the owner were THAT concerned, he'd have had someone there sooner. And I was a landlord for awhile, so I know. [A 4-plex with FHA 5% down & I lived in the building after I bought it, thus the FHA.]

 

[ZRabbits]

SnowyShiloh wrote:

I'm feeling a tiny bit less worried. I'm 27 years old but I called my mom and cried to her and she reassured me that the bun buns will probably be fine and I feel a little bit better.

We got a whole bunch of fans blowing, Paul blocked the heat vents, and we have our inner door (to our entryway, it's not open to the outside but it's a little cooler in the entryway) wide open so it's much more tolerable in here now. I don't really care if we're making the furnace go into over drive right now, I don't want my bunnies at risk and the repair man will be here tomorrow.

Mom's words do help. Glad to hear you can call Mom and she listens and helps sooths worries.

Gees, it's always something, isn't it. Hoping the repairman is there fast for you so the bunnies aren't living in such a hot house.

Hoping all your buns are doing well.

K

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree that giving bunnies antibiotics as a preventative probably isn't the best idea. Listening to the lungs is great, and all the other things you are doing sound good. Who is doing the necropsy? E coli is a really common contaminant that can just be airborne and if they weren't really careful with the bacterial cultures it could just be from the area in which they prepared them.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Hi Claire! I hadn't thought of the cross contamination thing. The vet that put Nomi to sleep did the necropsy. She's not my favorite vet for them because she doesn't have a lot of experience with animals that aren't cats and dogs, but I don't know if she's careful when doing necropsies.

This is a bit off topic, but I'll never forget when our baby birds were sick and she treated them (regular vet was not available) and tried to empty Kieran's crop by sticking a metal thing down his throat. She was far too rough with him and I believe caused him serious injury. The poor little guy was standing as tall as he could, wings spread, gasping for air for 20 minutes after, then died a few hours later. He would have died soon anyway but I so regret letting her do that to him. I didn't let her empty any of the other babies and did it myself from then on and it was much, much less traumatic for them. My poor Kieran!

 

[Maureen Las]

This thread is really an intelligent discussion . I, too, would notgive antibiotics but observe carefullly as others stated.

 

[LakeCondo]

It's too bad the vets involved can't learn from us.

 

[Maureen Las]

LakeCondo wrote:

It's too bad the vets involved can't learn from us.

I agree....

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I didn't hear back from the vet today AND the repair man did not come They said he would be here Monday. We have lots of fans going, the bathroom window open (which can't be seen from outside because it opens in and has a screen), and are occasionally opening the front door to bring in some cool air. It isn't too bad in here.

Tonight my friend came over for pizza and games. She used to want to be a vet but changed her mind. She's worked with animals lots though and has worked in vet clinics, and has cats, dogs, and used to run a rat rescue. She's listened to lots of lungs so of course I asked her to listen to the bunnies' lungs. She'd never listened to a rabbit's lungs before but said she thought everyone sounded fine except Phoebe and Ned. Phoebe was making some sounds but she thought it was probably her tummy, but she said Ned sounded like his breath sounds were "catching" every once in a while when he inhaled. I'm hoping she was wrong since she's inexperienced with bunny lungs and said it was hard to hear their sounds (she said she hopes she's wrong, too!). Regardless, tomorrow I'll be calling the vet to see if we can bring him in to have his lungs listened to.

Please be healthy, Nedder Bug! He's the one I was most concerned with to begin with because he's the most delicate.