Crystal, we're back now! The vet was able to explain to me more what she did last week, too. She said that last week they did test Skyler's poop for coccidia and clostridium, and thankfully neither those nor anything else bad were present. I also brought in some fresh Rory poops (who by the way refused to poop for me for a good hour this morning, he waited until right before we left) and they're going to test those too. She said she didn't do a culture of Sky's boogers because cultures from the nose tend to be contaminated with whatever's in the environment so not very conclusive. She said if he's not getting better by next week (he has another appointment), we'll draw some blood and do a pasteurella titer on him. If he's better next week, we'll just be glad and consider what he has to be a simple URI. She also prescribed him Zithromax and said to keep him on the Albon too, which she is using as a preventative to whatever Tallulah had, just in case. Once we get Rory's poop results, we'll decide if he needs to be treated as well. She also suggested moving Skyler's cage into a different room from Rory, in case Rory's presence is stressing him out. Currently, his cage is on top of Rory's. Rory hates Skyler and would love to hurt him, as is evidenced by the bite he gave to Skyler (which by the way is healing nicely).
I got Tallulah's ashes back today. One of my close friends works at the vet office and she gave them to me. They were in a nice little box, very lovingly packaged by the crematorium. I'm looking for the perfect urn for her ashes and am trying to find a nice music box for the job. As for her health, the vet doesn't think it's worth sending the samples from her necropsy in to be tested right now. The general consensus is that Tallulah died from septicemia from the cecum issues and her intestines were not twisted likes was previously thought. My poor sweetie.
The vet suggested that because of Skyler's sensitivity, when I get a new rabbit I should get one with a known healthy background and from a clean place, then quarantine her for a month before introducing her to the boys. I know this is going to upset some people, but she advised against getting a shelter bunny because it would come with an unknown background. A bunny from a rescue should be okay though I think because it probably would have been in the rescue for a while (time for illnesses to present themselves?) and we'd be able to have the rabbit checked out by a vet before commiting to it. She said that there's a possibility that Rory is a carrier of pasteurella or whatever since Skyler didn't show any symptoms of anything until after he'd been living with us for a week or so. We stayed with Paul's parents for two days before coming home, too. I suppose Tallulah could have given it to him too, since she had a runny nose sometimes too. There are so many unknowns!
One last thing about Sky's meds. This is copy and pasted from the dosage thread on the main forum, hope that's okay: Skyler was prescribed Zithromax and I had to actually take the prescription to the pharmacy at the grocery store to be filled. I'm afraid they might have misread the prescription or something, because it cost $75 and I got two whole bottles of the Zithromax for 10 days! Skyler weighs 2.7 pounds, and I'm supposed to give him 3 mL once a day for 10 days. It was a powder they mixed with water. The label says "Generic for: Zithromax 100/5 mL SU". Is that the concentration? In another spot, it says "Whe constituted as directed, each 5 mL contains azithromycin monohydrate equivalent to 100 mg of azithromycin".
The vet is closed until the morning and I'm not going to give him any until I hear that it's okay. This just sounds like too much medicine to me. Maybe it's supposed to be .3 mL? I don't have the original prescription paper, so I can't look at it.
So, how does Skyler's treatment and meds and the general approach to what's going on sound?
