Snotty nose! How big of an emergency?

[JBun]

What is the problem with your vets not prescribing antibiotics when they themselves said your rabbit had a bacterial infection(pasteurella). Probiotics won't clear up a bacterial infection, this requires antibiotics.

Injectable penicillin is an option, but one injection isn't enough. If it's just the short acting procaine penicillin, that requires daily injections. If it's the long acting procaine/benzathine penicillin, that should be injected every 2-3 days. Which means you will need to be taught how to give the injections if you don't want to be at the vet several days a week for them to do it. And this is going to have to be done for probably 4 weeks minimum, maybe longer.

Then with penicillin, because any accidental oral ingestion of it could cause serious digestive disease, precautions need to be taken like if any leaks out at the injection site onto the fur, it needs to be carefully and immediately cleaned off so your rabbit doesn't lick it off. Also a high hay diet can possibly help minimize the risk of antibiotic induced enterotoxemia. And I would remove extra sugars and carbs from the diet as they encourage the wrong kind of bacterial growth in the digestive tract. And you want a very healthy digestive tract when giving this antibiotic. Even though it is given by injection, it can still sometimes lead to serious digestive problems occurring.

You may want to consider trying enrofloxacin or ciprofloxacin(pretty much the same as enrofloxacin) first if the vet is willing. They aren't always the most effective antibiotic for rabbits(depending), but in some cases it can be, is usually one of the safest antibiotics to give to rabbits, and it can be given orally, which would be a lot easier for you. It may be worth just asking your vet if they have either one of those as an oral medication, and if you could try one of those two antibiotics instead, and maybe pick it up today. The sooner the antibiotic is started the better. An oral suspension is the easiest way to give it(though rabbits usually detest the taste), I wouldn't let them do injectable enrofloxacin as it can sometimes cause sterile abscesses, and then there are pills as an option, but these you would have to mix up or hide in food to give to your rabbit. I crushed mine and mixed with maple syrup.

All you can really do is get the right medications started. The antibiotic, anti inflammatory meloxicam could be helpful, and if you have bisolvon to thin the mucous, that is sometimes prescribed in Europe. If the respiratory infection has advanced to increased respiratory effort and/or mouth breathing, then this is incredibly serious and needs emergency treatment.

Medirabbit (respiratory infections in rabbits)

Medirabbit (safe medications for rabbits)

http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Common_drug_dosages_for_rabbits

 

[Catlyn]

What is the problem with your vets not prescribing antibiotics when they themselves said your rabbit had a bacterial infection(pasteurella). Probiotics won't clear up a bacterial infection, this requires antibiotics.

Injectable penicillin is an option, but one injection isn't enough. If it's just the short acting procaine penicillin, that requires daily injections. If it's the long acting procaine/benzathine penicillin, that should be injected every 2-3 days. Which means you will need to be taught how to give the injections if you don't want to be at the vet several days a week for them to do it. And this is going to have to be done for probably 4 weeks minimum, maybe longer.

Then with penicillin, because any accidental oral ingestion of it could cause serious digestive disease, precautions need to be taken like if any leaks out at the injection site onto the fur, it needs to be carefully and immediately cleaned off so your rabbit doesn't lick it off.

Also a high hay diet can possibly help minimize the risk of antibiotic induced enterotoxemia. And I would remove extra sugars and carbs from the diet as they encourage the wrong kind of bacterial growth in the digestive tract. And you want a very healthy digestive tract when giving this antibiotic. Even though it is given by injection, it can still sometimes lead to serious digestive problems occurring.

You may want to consider trying enrofloxacin or ciprofloxacin(pretty much the same as enrofloxacin) first if the vet is willing. They aren't always the most effective antibiotic for rabbits(depending), but in some cases it can be, is usually one of the safest antibiotics to give to rabbits, and it can be given orally, which would be a lot easier for you. It may be worth just asking your vet if they have either one of those as an oral medication, and if you could try one of those two antibiotics instead, and maybe pick it up today. The sooner the antibiotic is started the better.

An oral suspension is the easiest way to give it(though rabbits usually detest the taste), I wouldn't let them do injectable enrofloxacin as it can sometimes cause sterile abscesses, and then there are pills as an option, but these you would have to mix up or hide in food to give to your rabbit. I crushed mine and mixed with maple syrup.

All you can really do is get the right medications started. The antibiotic, anti inflammatory meloxicam could be helpful, and if you have bisolvon to thin the mucous, that is sometimes prescribed in Europe. If the respiratory infection has advanced to increased respiratory effort and/or mouth breathing, then this is incredibly serious.

I'll go in explaining by your paragraphs


I don't know. The vet said that the bacteria is just acting up, and the probiotics help rebalance the digestive system. I don't know how true or not it is though. Apparently it helped but wasn't enough.

The vet said that the injection would have to be done daily for at least 10 days, and when the receptionist told us what antibiotic the vet was thinking about, i looked at the medirabbit link for reference. It was the short-term g-type penicillin apparently. She did say via email that it would be better if we tried some other non-injectible antibiotics first, that "they help, not as much, but still they help." She was probably talking about those floxacin-type meds but she never told us that.
I don't know what's up with people being really vague here.

I am aware of that thanks to our previous rabbit. I would want to avoid injections too.

My mum is still far from understanding that house rabbits cannot be "treated to" tasty stuff all that much like she's used to doing (i guess she confuses pets with meat rabbits). Unless she gets to inderstanding it somehow, it will be a big problem. She just won't listen to us no matter what we try.

We're passing by the city where the vet is at the day after tomorrow. I'll have to ask the receptionist if the bunny vet is there so that we could discuss about it. If the receptionist rrlays our message, there is also a chance that the vet may connect my dad. I still think it would be safer if i just wrote to her first tonight. My parents have stubbornness issues so maybe they'll go along with the vet's plan if she' already given me one. I'll have to see to it somehow.

I don't think that my boys will have any issues with taking the meds, they've been doing well with all their meds thus far. And maybe a little food pellet will encourage them to push through

I cannot do much anything about our vets being the way they are, too bad, but there's no other option. That vet is the best bet we have, and as far as i know, we don't have any emergency vets that would take rabbits in.

 

[JBun]

Yes, probiotics may help rebalance the digestive microflora, but they most certainly do not stop a bacterial infection in the rest of the body. It would be like if you yourself had a bacterial sinus infection or even pneumonia. It would be ludicrous if your doctor only gave you some probiotics to try and make you better. All that would happen is the bacterial infection would get worse and you would get sicker. Same with your rabbit. Probiotics are something to give in conjunction with an antibiotic treatment, they aren't a stand alone treatment for a bacterial infection in the body.

Whatever antibiotic you manage to get from your vet, your rabbit just needs to be put on an appropriate rabbit safe antibiotic period. Whether that's injectable procaine penicillin or enrofloxacin. It's just the injectable penicillin can be a bit more complicated in giving to a rabbit, and so requires you to be more careful. Though it often is also a more effective antibiotic than enrofloxacin. So that part is good, just need to be careful and keep a very close watch for runny or pasty fecal poop, or diarrhea(not just a case of minor mushy cecotropes), which is usually a sign of enterotoxemia occurring and is an immediate emergency.

I know it's a difficult situation for you and you can only do your best. Sometimes though, if you are firm and insistent on the help you feel your vet should be giving your rabbit, they will listen to you and go with your request.

 

[Catlyn]

What should i do in the case if something serious happens but there's no emergency vet around? I did some hard digging around the web and the closest, the only emergency vet is in the capital, 2.5hrs drive away. The webpage gives no information on whether or not they deal with rabbits, and i would have no means of getting there.
I live in a literal dump with absolute sparse traffic, so i wouldn't be able to go by bus or train more than maybe one time in the morning, or else i wouldn't be able to get back.
I'm not old enough to get a full driver's liscense either, still have to wait a year for that. It'll be one of the first things i do when i'm a lawful adult though, as then i won't have to rely on my dad being pre-notified so he could drive the car. Nobody else in my family has a liscense/sober any time to drive if an emergency were to happen.
I've never heard of vets making emergency house visits either (for small mammals and avians at least) and taking taxis would just kilö my budget. What should i do in such situations? Just wait for the chance until someone is able to drive?

 

[JBun]

Maybe arrange with your vet to pick up emergency medication at a local vet if it's needed. It's not likely that it would be, but there are rare instances where there is a negative effect from the antibiotic. Medications would be the antibiotic metronidazole and the med cholestyramine(binds bacterial toxins).

The other option might be to have activated charcoal capsules on hand, and it wouldn't require a prescription. I've never used them, but have read of it possibly being an effective emergency measure to absorb the harmful toxins from the clostridium bacteria. And activated charcoal is usually widely available and doesn't require a prescription. This link below talks about it's use for weaning diarrhea in baby buns It's essentially the same thing as antibiotic induced enterotoxemia. Just a caution in clicking on the link, it contains graphic necropsy photos.

Medirabbit (WARNING: contains graphic necropsy photos)

Like I said, enterotoxemia isn't likely, but if vet care may not be available if anything were to happen, I would want to be prepared just in case.

 

[Catlyn]

A little update- the 10 day cure of enrofloxacin-type oral antibiotics hasn't done much to improve the situation- it helped some, but i'm inclined to believe that the nasal drops(turns out they were some mix with antibiotics) and probiotics given earlier had done a better job. He's still snuffing and wheezing to me.
I emailed the vet for a follow-up as discussed but i don't feel that they will reply for the remainder of this week, red holidays and all, making me really tempted to just call the reception again on monday because i ain't waiting another bloody work-week for the vets to help.
I'm betting that we have to switch to the g-type procaine penicillin, but how long would a cure of that, guesstimating, be needed\considered safe? I'm a lil' bit half-expecting them to prescribe us another cure of 10 days...