The dreaded myxy!

[grumpybabies]

Well as the title suggests i'm not having a great time! Will just give a brief run down of my last 2 months just for the hell of it too! I have rabbits and guineas and this is what has happened... First a guinea dies of suspected kidney failure, a week later a rabbit is pts for kidney and all organ failure caused by kidney problems, aweek later a guinea that lived with the first one dies reason unknown. A few days later a rabbit dies suddenly, illness and death in 24 hours, turns out to be e coli! The next day another guinea dies of pasturella, 3 days after that a rabbit catches myxy and can't be saved, 2 days after a rabbit gets e cuniculi. Here i am thinking things can't get worse, 3 rabbits and 3 guineas in weeks.. And by the way everything has been scrubbed and disinfected so many times, new cages boought and everything to help prevent further problems. So i treat the rabbit with e cuniculi and he gets better, go away for the weekend come back and a rabbit has myxy, then another and another! All are vaccinated and they are at varying levels of illness, the worst has eye discharge, hot ears, skin problems, and breathing problems. The second one has skin problems and breathing problems, and the third just has skin problems. AARGGH!

So what do i do to help them? They have been treated for 2 weeks with baytril, are kept inside away from the others, fed all good veg etc heating kept on just for them. The worst one seems to be getting worse in her breathing but it just the same in herself, the other 2 are remaining the same. I might have to call it a day with the worse one if she carries on getting worse, but what can i do to help more? I know most amercican members can't help, but anybody have any experience? I have searched the net high and low but it says the symptoms and death and that's it!

ETA Please don't think they have poor care they are spoilt i just seem to have bad luck at the mo, even so my mum has just finished treatment for cancer and my grandma has incurable cancer too, not my life!

 

[Flashy]

What an awful time you've been going through, I'm so sorry.

I don't know if this is allowed, but this is a link to another forum. Someone had two of their vaccinated buns catch myxi and come through, and reading the thread might help you.

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=146764&highlight=polo+myxi

That's from a predominantly English forum and so lots of people have experience of myxi (unfortunately). Mods, if this isn't allowed, then feel free to delete it, sorry if I breached any rules.

 

[Maureen Las]

any good info is allowed
http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/vaccination.asp
apparently if they are vaccinated survival rate is greater...

 

[Maureen Las]

http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/understanding_myxo_feb06.htm

 

[Maureen Las]

I pm'd some of the rabbitry mods to assist with this.2 of them are from the UK and may be able to help you with this

 

[grumpybabies]

Thanks for those links, i obviously didn't look far enough down on the pages because i've been on those before! i'm doing everything they say, even took a week off work so i'll carry on as i am now i'm due to go back to the vets this weekend as well.

 

[Flashy]

This might help

'hello there. ok glad firstly she has a diagnosis finally. i will tell you now from my expeiriance that rabbits who have been vaccs as polo has only USUALLY get nodular myxi and the nodule by her nose confirms this is likely to be what is wrong with polo. so being that it is nodular she stands a great chacne of survival if taken care of(As i know you will)

ok regarding the baytril... chelsea was on it for about 4-5 months so dont worry about the prolonged affects getting her better is the main thing. regarding loss of appetite have aprobiotic like biolapis to help with the gut movement and fibreplex if she really stops. keep tempting her with lots of tiny bits and wrtie it down everything she does eat will add up. try dandilions and mashed warm pellets...rubbish pea rabbit mix...anything to keep her eating. dandilions and herbs and spring greens adn grass go down a treat as a re softer than hay and easier to eat.

right the metacam is important this will keep her feeling better than she would otherwise it will act like ibruprofen would in a human ie anti inflammitry and painkiller in one. this is the best one to be on. for eyes tiacil is supposed to be a god drops but we had fucilthalmic which i know stung so we stopped it with chelsea tho others have sadid tiacil is fab instead we never tried it.

keep her warm this is soooo important especially during the cold nights..blankets and extra hay bedding and also warm water bottle wwill help. puttting bioling saucepan of water on top of the hutch/ area she being kept will help as it will have a steaming affect on her...many people use steam bathes for bunsters..this would be done similar to a human ie put bun in small area say a travel cage or carrier...put twels around it and have a steaming bowl of hot water allow the steam to go around the bunster or sit in a bathroom where it is all steamed up after a hot bath of shower with her this should help ease her congestion in her nose

i know it sounds daft but i read her everyones warm wishes and told her who was sending her vibes as i beleive she knew people were there thinking of he(chelsea) i would suggest that unless the vet you are now seeing really is very rabbit savvy you find a different one..you will need your vet as it goes on it will likely get worse(and lots more lumps) befoer it gets better. chelsea had lumps everywhere towards the 1st/2nd month. she had a very long recovery which we think was due to old age(9yrs at time) and the fact shehad a bad reaction to the xenex we were prescribed.... and this inflamed and burnt her skin...and set her back lots. some rabbit s recover in 2 weeks some severla months some unfortunatly dont make it. i would say dont give up on her at all as i think she stands a good chance of fighting it.'

That's from page 16 of the link I gave earlier. the other suggestion all round is to treat all the buns for mites and fleas (but I wouldn't touch Xenex because that seems to give a lot of bad reactions).

 

[Michaela]

Agh what a terrible situation! But Vaccinated rabbits can and do survive Myxi, it's a much milder form of it, still difficult though. I really, really hope you can nurse them through it. So sorry this is happening to you. :hug:

 

[polly]

I had a client who had a vaccinated rabbit get myxi but I am sure they treated it with myxi injections rather than baytril. they were going regular unfortunately myxi has mutated a bit since then so there are now different forms.

I hope you can get them through this you do hear of more surviving now because people are better at getting the vaccinations. Im sorry I can't be of much help to you

 

[TinysMom]

First of all - I'm glad to see you again - haven't seen you posting in a bit.

I'm sorry though that it had to be this way....

I don't have any advice to give or any experience - so I'll give what I can..

:hugsquish:

and

:hug1

I'll be praying and sending lots of good thoughts and wishes your way....that's the best I can do!

 

[Becca]

TinysMom wrote:

First of all - I'm glad to see you again - haven't seen you posting in a bit.

I'm sorry though that it had to be this way....

I don't have any advice to give or any experience - so I'll give what I can..

:hugsquish:

and

:hug1

I'll be praying and sending lots of good thoughts and wishes your way....that's the best I can do!

:yeahthat:

 

[Jenson]

I'm so sorry to hear about your awful bad luck. I have no experiance with myxi either, so I don't know what to suggest other than wishing you the best and keeping my fingers crossed for a full recovery.

ray:

 

[naturestee]

The Myxomatosis Helpline has some really good info. For some reason I can't get the page to open but Google last cached it a few days ago. Hm. Maybe it will work for you?

http://www.einet.net/review/14046-786928/THE_MYXOMATOSIS_HELPLINE.htm

Also, treat all of the rabbits and guineas for fleas because myxi is carried by biting insects like that.

As mentioned already, the Rabbit Rehome forum is mainly UK members and they can probably help you a lot.

ray:

 

[Flashy]

How are they doing?

 

[JadeIcing]

I just wanted to say that I am keeping you and yours in my thoughts.

 

[grumpybabies]

Sorry i haven't replied before had bad migraines on and off since posting Well the worst one Mischief went back to the vets yesterday and she now has low grade pnuemonia as well so that's not good but she is still happy in herself and eating fine. Ginger the secon worst one has been re-united with her cage mate today as they were pining for each other and the vet said it would be safe. And the third one, Tiny is just the same, a few skin problems but that's all. The vet says carry on as i am, if needs be for 4-6 weeks as she isn't suffering or losing weight. So that's where we are at!

 

[Flashy]

I'm not surprised you've been having migraines, especially if they are brought on by stress. I hope that you get some relief from them soon.

Hopefully Mischief will respond to antibiotics soon. Sounds like you're doing everything you can. I just hope that they keep fighting alongside you Please keep us updated if and when you can.

x

 

[grumpybabies]

Yeah stress migraines, gotta love them lol I forgot to ask earlier, what products can you use to treat rabbits for fleas etc? If it is very expensive it may not be an option for me as i have a few rabbits but i definitely want to look into it.

 

[Flashy]

Some people use Xenex but I would urge you to steer clear of that (it killed one of my buns and others have reportedly had harsh reactions). Ivermectin can do it, so injections, or Xeno 450 spot on.

I believe someone on here (Randy?) said that they don't like Listerine, and you can stroke a bunny over with a Listerine covered flannel or something and they will hop right off.

Your house will need to be treated too, as well any other animals. I used RIP Fleas for the house, a good few times, and that worked well.

Unless you have seen fleas, flies are a very strong possibility for how they got infected so it might also be worth sorting out as much fly protection as possible

You're doing great.

How are the buns doing? Any chance of some pics at all? Do they have nodular myxi?

x

 

[grumpybabies]

You don't want pics the state they are in! Might try and dig out some old ones though. The better 2 have nodular and the worst one has it full blown, nodular, swelling, eye discharge, and also the pneumonia. She is getting worse by the day, i fear i may have to have her pts, she is still eating but her breathing is horrid, so loud i can hear it over my TV. Any ideas?