Wound on left flank - HEALING NICELY NOW

[ChinaBun]

Hi, I'm the one who lives in China. I have a long post already about a lump on Qingqing's jaw.

Just now I discovered a wound on her left flank, if that's how you say it. At first, we just saw a little bit of blood, but as we pulled back the fur, we saw an area about an inch in diameter where the skin was gone. We have been unable to find out if she injured herself or if an abscess has broken. I have a houseguest now who has three cats, and she suggested that it might have been an abscess, even though we hadn't felt anything when we petted her. We have looked around the apartment and can't find any blood or fur, so we don't know what happened. She was eating and hopping around when we found the wound, so she doesn't appear to be distressed. My friend got a student to help her buy hydrogen peroxide and sterile gauze. We plan to clean the wound with this. We can take her to a vet tomorrow if needed.

A bit of background. Two days ago we caught her with a large amount of fur in her mouth. It scared me, so I caught her and pulled it all out. There was some left in the back of her throat, but she escaped from me before I could get it out. She ran a few steps, then spit the hair out. I did some reading on here and found that she was probably having a false pregnancy. Later in the day I watched as she had more fur in her mouth (though I didn't see where she got it) and spit it out on a blanket on the floor where she had been toying with the fabric. We had noticed it the day before and thought it was cute. Now it seems like she was preparing her nest.

She is 2 1/2 years old and unspayed. I have not found a rabbit-savvy vet in this city of millions of people. If I could, I would have her spayed, because I have learned from here that it's better for her.

I have had my students and houseguest looking for the fur that is missing. They finally found a small amount in her cage, on a wooden cutting board where she sometimes sits. She has the run of a small room, and when I'm home she has the run of my apartment. They are looking for more bloody fur now.

It seems like there are three possibilities. 1) She hurt herself somehow; 2) She had an abscess there and it burst; 3) She pulled the fur out herself. If the latter, why would she do something that would hurt herself?

Two students are spending the night here. We can wait a few minutes to see if this gets any answers. Then the students and my houseguest can clean the wound. My houseguest will take the lead, since she's cleaned her cats' wounds before.

Thanks for reading this.

 

[ChinaBun]

Here's a photo of the wound area:

 

[ChinaBun]

I should add that I also have antibiotic ointment, but my houseguest said that she might lick it, so the hydrogen peroxide would be better.

I just went in the other room and checked on her. She's eating and happy. My guest said she shows no sign of animal distress. I am the one who is distressed because of the ugly-looking wound, which I don't know the cause of!

Nancy

 

[Leaf]

Because it doesn't look as if she has infection in the wound, I'd suggest using Betadine instead of peroxide if you can get ahold of some.



Peroxide can be very invasive to wounds, damaging surrounding healthy tissue while betadine is much easier on the site and just as effective when great ammounts of infection are not present.

 

[ChinaBun]

Thanks, Leaf! My friend just got off the phone with her vet in Alabama. It's Friday morning over there. The vet said what you said, not to use the H2O2 directly on the skin, as it could seep into the bloodstream. He said to put it on the gauze and daub it on. I don't know what Betadine is, but can do some research and try to find it tomorrow.

 

[ChinaBun]

We have cleaned the wound and checked for any others. The wound was larger than we thought at first. Below is a photo of it, while the poor bunny was in an old-shirt bunny burrito, with my students' four hands holding her hind legs down.

She didn't flinch when the wound was cleaned. We also cleaned the area around the lump in her jaw, and again she didn't flinch. We noticed that the hair under her chin was gone, presumable pulled out by her two days ago when she apparently had a false prenancy.

After we let her go, she ran into her room and groomed herself for a few minutes, then came out and rejoined us and let us scratch her ears, as if nothing had ever happened! Oh, she wouldn't let me scratch her ears . . . I was the one who caught her, so she's still mad at me.

 

[tonyshuman]

oh dear! the poor little thing!
i really can't add any info, since i haven't had experience with this kind of thing. i hope you can find her some help! i have heard of putting antibiotic ointment on a wound, as long as it doesn't contain painkillers, becuase even though she might lick it off it could still do some good. anyone else know?
how bad are the vets? could they not treat an abscess, since it happens in other pets (like cats,a s you mentioned)?

 

[aurora369]

The anibiotic cream should be okay to put on. I know many in US, Canada, UK use Polysporing, Neosporin, or another triple antiboitic cream.

You need to make sure it has no pain medication in it. The pain medication is harmful if digested.

Put some on her wound and try to keep her occupied for a little bit before she grooms it off. Try to allow it to soak in a bit before she gives herself a good grooming.

I would put some cream on a couple times a day until it looks to be pretty much healed.

The peroixide is good for an initial cleaning, but you don't want to use it full strength. You need to dilute it a bit with some purified/sterile water. Only use it once, otherwise it will eat all the scab and damage her newly healed skin.

Or you could even use some saline to wash the wound. That would be a good daily thing to do, rinse it with a little saline.


Poor girl, she's having a rough time... I hope she feels better soon.

--Dawn

 

[Leaf]

I'm kind of thinking it may not be a bad idea to trim the hair down around the wound. It's a lot bigger than I first imagined, and I'd hate to see fur irritating it further, or getting tangled, matted and pulled as the wound begins to dry up and heal.

 

[tundrakatiebean]

it might be a good idea to wrap with some gauze or other bandage so that she can't mess with any more...

 

[ChinaBun]

Thanks for the replies! She's still a happy rabbit this morning. The wound was covered by fur. I caught her and my guest doctored her. We used the hydrogen peroxide again, because I wanted to double confirm with you that the antibiotic ointment won't make her sick if she licks it. My guest, who has three cats, says it would make cats sick. The wound is healing; a thin crust is over it now. It was raw last night. After lightly going over the wound with gauze-soaked H2O2, my friend cut fur from around the area, as it looked like it would get matted into the wound.

 

[ChinaBun]

Because of where the injury is, I can't imagine that any kind of dressing would stay on for more than a few minutes!

 

[Haley]

Wow that looks really awful! I cant imagine that would happen from her pulling fur-they usually pull out of their dewlap. But on the other hand I cant think of anything else creating a wound that big. I think if it were an abscess it would have had to be big enough for you to notice when petting her and there would be some pus around the wound. Geeze

For now I would do as others have suggested: keep it rinsed out with sterile Saline and put some neosporin cream on it. Keep an eye out for signs of infection as well.

Poor girl (and poor you), its been a rough few months!

 

[Haley]

ChinaBun wrote:

Because of where the injury is, I can't imagine that any kind of dressing would stay on for more than a few minutes!

I wonder if you could put some vet wrap (or that ace bandage stuff that sticks to itself) and wrap it around her midsection after putting some guaze on the wound. Or maybe some sort of tshirt (like made for small dogs) or something to keep her from messing with it.

 

[tundrakatiebean]

I'm sorry, I should have clarified, I meant the wrap guaze - like what Haley is talking about.

 

[ChinaBun]

No need to apologize, TKB. I'm the ignorant one! I should have guessed that it was something like that.

 

[ChinaBun]

An update: We've been treating her wound with antibiotic cream for two days now. Today it looked like it had gotten bigger. Part of it is scabbing over, but there are new raw parts. At first, we thought that she was pulling them out, so I was afraid that I had a neurotic rabbit on my hands. I couldn't understand why, since she lives in her own small room, and has run of my apartment when I'm home, which is a lot. She is also still eating fine and seems to be happy, even with a lump on her jaw and a nasty-looking sore on her hindquarters.

Tonight we took her to a storefront clinic to get a shot. My friend in the US brought some medicine her doctor had recommended to try to get rid of the lump on the jaw. The woman doctor (a people doctor, not a vet) had actually given injections to rabbits before, in medical school, and was willing to help us. She easily gave the shot, then looked at the wound and said it looked like a fungal infection. (Luckily, one of my students had her dictionary with her to look up "fungal".) She sold us a tube of Ketoconazole cream to use on the sore. I wanted to do some research before I used it, so I searched on here and found a link to a site that said that that was one thing to use on fungal infections.

Below is a new shot of the sore place. I welcome any comments. Remember that I live in a place where I haven't been able to find a rabbit-savvy vet. If a dog and cat vet knows how to treat something like this, I would be glad to take her to one.

 

[MsBinky]

Could the lump on the jaw and the infection here be related? I don't remember but was there any pus in the lump? What if the bunny while pulling her fur slightly injured herself and infected it herself with the lump? Just a hypothesis.

That seriously does look terrible. I'd be seriously freaking out at this point if any of my buns had that. Gosh I wish you had a rabbit-savvy vet there right now I hope someone has an idea...


Question: Can the peroxide be damaging the area and making it worse? Have you stopped using it since you got the cream now?

 

[Leaf]

I'm no expert so I can only assume that a regular vet (for dogs and cats) would be able to do a skin scraping, or a black light test to see if the problem is being cause by some type of fungus.

At this poin't I don't think it would hurt to take her in. I'd just suggest doing your research online as far as medications go so you can educate yourselfabout types of medicines or treatments a vet who is not experienced with rabbits may offer.



Maybe those who know more than me could list off some medicines strongly suggested NOT to give to rabbits, and which are safe... just to make your research a little easier.

 

[Ivory]

It looks like a scrape wound, and it looks infected. Perhaps some strong injectable Baytril?

I'm sorry, but I seriously doubt that that lump on her face is a fungal infection. If there's any fungus involved, it's the dermatitis from what looks to be a perfect molar abscess.

Is it possible to get some injectable Baytril? It may help with the jaw lump as well as the flank wound.