Sneezing rabbit

[wife2brad]

I am new to rabbits. I have mini Rex buns. A dog got under one of my cages a month ago. Tore 2 toes and broke the same front leg. I brought sweet girl inside to baby her and nurse her. She has survived and has learned to live with broke leg. Now she is gonna stay inside because of her leg. Almost two weeks ago she started sneezing now has small amount of mucous. Called a rabbit judge said give her childrens cold medicine. Did exactly as she said do for just one week with no change in rabbit. She is eating drinking happy only thing is the sneeze that is increasing. No rabbit friendly vets in my area. Any suggestions, medications I can give?

 

[wife2brad]

She is a 5 month old mini Rex

 

[Sweetie]

I am not sure where in the Southwest you are but here are two rabbit savvy vets in Arkansas:

All Creatures Animal Hospital
4549 Hwy 62 Street
Mountain Home, AR 72653
(870)425-5175

Allpets Animal Hospital
Tim Paladino, DVM
2100 N McKinley St
Little Rock, AR 72207

This rabbit needs to see a rabbit savvy vet and needs to get pain meds, because he/she is in physical pain because of the broken leg. Or did the broken leg get fixed already? The sneezing could be an upper respiratory infection and needs antibiotics. Please get this rabbit to a rabbit savvy vet. Children's cold medicine is really not going to help at all because it is not bunny safe. There are, however, bunny safe medications, but your vet needs to prescribe them. This bunny will need baytril or another safe antibiotic that will work at healing the URI.

If these two vets are too far away, call around and see where the closest rabbit savvy vet is to you. Use information, or even the phone book to locate a rabbit savvy vet. Veterinarians will list what they see, dogs, cats, birds, exotics. If exotics are listed, they will most likely see rabbits.

Also if you cannot afford the rabbit savvy vet, there is Care Credit that you can apply for if you don't have it already.

Please get this rabbit to a rabbit savvy vet asap!

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

I'd agree. I've been through respiratory issue with Charlie and it wasn't the funnest thing (AT ALL!) I know the breeder who I'd gotten her from, started giving childrens benedryl as soon as I gave her back to them, but I don't know that that ever cleared it up fully.
Depends what you're dealing with, but you really need to take her to a vet. I tried not doing it for a whle and if I had sooner it would have helped before it advanced into something worse.

 

[hillrise]

Can you go to a livestock supply store? They usually have antibiotics available that would be used for other animals. I give my sniffly buns terramycin-10 (tetracycline hydrochloride that is 10g per 227g packet), which I put just under 1/4 tsp per 32 oz water bottle until the snot goes away, or 3 days (whichever takes longer).

 

[wife2brad]

Sweetie- Thank you. I am several hours from those vets. I am calling around. Her leg is healed and she is actually using it. I need to know where some are anyway it goes.

Bunnyluva4eva- Thank you! I wish I had found this forum sooner.

hillrise- I can go to a livestock store. There are plenty of those. I will try one of those meds. And thank you!

 

[Sweetie]

That is good that she is using the leg and it is healed, I hope that it healed correctly. If you can get pain meds, get metacam and/or buprenex, both are safe for rabbits and I have used both for Prince when he broke his leg back in May 2010. Prince is gone now but I can use my experience with him to help others. Prince had so many issues with his health in the 2 1/2 years that he lived.

 

[aurora369]

For a respiratory infection, antibiotics are needed. A visit to a rabbit savvy vet is in order.

It took me 6 months to get rid of a respiratory infection with one of my rabbits. I tried several antibiotics until we found one that got rid of it. Hopefully you will be able to have success much more quickly and your first antibiotic will work.

If possible, taking a culture of the snot will allow you to pick an antibiotic the first time. I really should have when I was battling with it, and I wish I had done it.

Have a read through this library thread on respiratory infections:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=16807&forum_id=10

Taking benadryl is not going to fix an infection. It may help to temporarily relieve some of the inflammation and snotting, but the bacteria will not be treated and will continue to get worse.

If you educate yourself about how to treat upper respiratory infections, you may be able to work with a vet who doesn't normally treat rabbits. Just be very careful about not giving an antibiotics that end with "cillin" orally, they can kill a rabbit.

-Dawn

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

aurora369 wrote:

For a respiratory infection, antibiotics are needed. A visit to a rabbit savvy vet is in order.

It took me 6 months to get rid of a respiratory infection with one of my rabbits. I tried several antibiotics until we found one that got rid of it. Hopefully you will be able to have success much more quickly and your first antibiotic will work.

If possible, taking a culture of the snot will allow you to pick an antibiotic the first time. I really should have when I was battling with it, and I wish I had done it.

Have a read through this library thread on respiratory infections:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=16807&forum_id=10

Taking benadryl is not going to fix an infection. It may help to temporarily relieve some of the inflammation and snotting, but the bacteria will not be treated and will continue to get worse.

If you educate yourself about how to treat upper respiratory infections, you may be able to work with a vet who doesn't normally treat rabbits. Just be very careful about not giving an antibiotics that end with "cillin" orally, they can kill a rabbit.

-Dawn

Just curious~which one did you find that worked with your bunnies? I had a bunny who had an upper respiratiory infection, that we couldn't get cleared up for *anything*..I'm just curious what med works for it.

 

[aurora369]

The one that ended up working for Baxter was Azithromycin. The recommended dosage is 30-50mg/kg, and he was taking 50gm/kg for 10 days.

By the end of the first 3 days, his nose was pretty much completely clear. I finished out the entire course to make sure all traces of the bacteria were killed so that it wouldn't come back again. It is very important to always take full courses of antibiotics and at the proper dosage to prevent bacteria from building a resistance.

Azithromycin can have side effects of lose of appetite. Baxter did not, but I know other rabbits on the forum have had a very hard time eating while on it. Careful monitoring is needed.

-Dawn