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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A My poor bun has symptomatic pasteurella. What can I expect?

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    • Pepperbun
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        I’m sorry in advance if this post is really long. I’m very overwhelmed and sad about my bun right now. Could really use some advice and good vibes for the little guy…

        My rabbit Pepper is a holland lop, about 1.5 years old. He’s not really had the most charmed life. When he was neutered at ~6 months old, the vet gave him an injection of Baytril and unfortunately hit his anterior tibial nerve. He had a hind foot drop for months but thanks to his youth and spunkiness, he’s now regained almost full function. 

        About 1 month ago, we noticed that Pepper was scratching his ears. I’m sorry to say that I did not realize as soon as this started that it could be a sign of infection; he was still eating and pooping and binkying with gusto. Within a couple of weeks this worsened to the point that Pepper had scratched himself BALD and RAW in front of both ears and of course even we could not mistake that for normal behavior. We immediately brought him to the vet who ended up sedating him and doing a full otoscopic exam. What he found was not good – Pepper had bilateral ear infections with visible pus in the right ear and likely a ruptured ear drum. I feel so awful for letting it get to that point .

         

        When we went to go pick little Pepper up from the vet, he was prescribed metacam and baytril. We asked that they administer the antibiotics and pain killer prior to us leaving. Unfortunately the nurse missed a decimal point on the administration instructions and gave Pepper 10x the indicated dose! His going home after a brief procedure turned into a 4 day stay requiring daily labs and IV fluids administered through interosseus access. Luckily he did not develop a stomach bleed or end up with kidney damage.

         

        Cultures from the pus did not grow anything out so we’ve just continued with the Baytril hoping that’s the right thing for Pepper. Serologies just came back and the titer was high for Pasteurella. I feel so horrible for my little guy. Does this mean a lifetime of ear infections, head tilt and abscesses? I’m so sad and scared for him. Does anyone know if lifelong antibiotics act to supress further infections? Clinically Pepper is eating better and pooping well. He’s a bit more withdrawn than usual but he also HATES getting Baytril and is starting to avoid us. 

         

        Also the vet wants to draw repeat titers this weekend to make sure they’re not getting higher. Not sure that makes sense to me, anybody ever hear of this before?

         

        Anyway, if you’ve read til this point, thank you for your time and patience. Any guidance would be so appreciated. Thanks

         

         

           

         

         


      • Kokaneeandkahlua
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          Welcome and {{Healing Vibes}} Sounds like a lot has happened.

          I’m just thinking…the vet and vet tec made a mistake here if I’m not mistaken, perhaps you should be getting a really good discount on your bill! But otherwise it all really sounds like they know what they are doing.
          I do think a repeat titer sounds proper, it should be going down or staying the same if treatment is working. Most rabbits have pasturella, and you treat until it’s asymptomatic as far as I know; so no I don’t think you need to worry about a life time of sypmtoms. I think once you get this under control with medications he could lead a very normal life

          Keep us posted on how things go with Peppers treatment!


        • 3 buns mom
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            Aw, so sorry you and Pepper have had such a rough time of it. My French Lop, Max, was diagnosed with Pasteurella a little over a year ago. He is now 3 1/2 and doing well. He has had a tough time as well. He has had other issues along with it and has been on antibiotics for most of the past year. He had an abscess in his leg and abscesses in his mouth. His abscess in his leg was removed for the most part, but not fully due to location. The doctor put him on a daily penicillin injection for life to keep it in check. The abscess in now fully gone, but may come back if we stop the injections. The mouth abscesses were causing pus to leak from his chin and scab up really bad. The doctor wants to avoid another surgery if possible because he is high risk and she would need to remove most, if not all of his teeth. It never affected his eating or behavior, so why chance it. The injections were not helping that at all, so he went on Baytril and that made a huge difference in that. His chin has cleared up and he does seem happier. She wanted to avoid a lifetime of Baytril because the bacteria could become resistant, but when we stopped it for a week, the pus came back. So we have decided to keep the Baytril going for life….just want him to be comfortable.

            What I am trying to get at is, although Max doesn’t seem to have the same ear problems caused by pasteurella as Pepper (he is deaf though, so maybe it went unknown), his other symptoms (eye and nose drainage, fluid in the lungs) have been controlled by antibiotics, and the pasteurella has been the least of his problems. Antibiotics is the key and will hopefully work. Different antibiotics work for different bacterias, so good thing your doctor knows which kind they are dealing with. Hopefully your doctor will prescribe daily or weekly penicillin injections to help control the bacteria. I do it at home myself. I give it to him sub q…much less painful than an injection in the rump area. And a lot easier than trying to get oral meds into him. He hardly notices that I am jabbing him with a needle. BUT I do have to give him his Baytril orally. Because he will be on it for life, and these meds are so expensive, we opted for the pills. I usually crush it with some apple juice or baby food and syringe feed it to him. He is finally getting used to it and I make sure I have a little treat for him afterwards. Or I will put it in a tiny piece of banana and feed it to him.

            I am sorry I rambled on, but I seen your post and thought to myself that I know what you’re going through and wanted to try to help! If you have any questions, ask away.


          • Sarita
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              Oh goodness…so glad he came out of the all right.

              As 3 Buns Mom stated, it antibiotics will help. Not all rabbits will suffer from runny noses, abscesses, etc…most rabbits are carriers of Pasturella.

              Keeping your rabbit in a clean and stress free environment will also help keep him from getting symptomatic.

              Vibes to Pepper.


            • kralspace
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                I’m so sorry to hear about Pepper’s troubles. My Toby takes a dropper full of Baytril each day (along with probiotics), he loves it mixed into a spoon of applesauce, maybe because he’s never had applesauce without it. The other buns will sniff it, but they must not like the smell of the meds because they leave it alone. It keeps his runny nose and sneezing pretty much in check. At his age and trouble with his teeth, our vet is also concerned with just giving him the best quality of life we can.

                I’ve wondered if it also gives him his strange obsession with catfood.

                 

                ((((((healing vibes for Pepper)))))))))


              • Pepperbun
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                   Thanks for the vibes! Pepper needs all the good thoughts and feelings he can get!

                   

                  We thought the bill should be heavily discounted too,but their explanation was that up until the point that Pepper was poisoned the care was good. They did discount the metacam though (what they poisoned him with) :/. I would have put up more of a fuss, but the other vet in town was the one that messed up his leg so not a lot of good options. 

                   

                  Thanks for the advice on the titer. Pepper will have that drawn on Saturday and hopefully it’ll be going in the right direction! Our vet has been in contact with a vet at the University of Georgia, and they actually are recommending adding on penicillin shots, just like 3 buns mom recommended. Thanks for sharing Max’s story – it definately helps to hear it! Also, I’ll ask about giving Pepper pills instead of the suspension (which is expensive and he HATES). 

                   

                  I’m still nervous for him because he does still scratch his ears; it’s much less than before but still there. Hopefully even if the Baytril won’t clear it completely adding the penicillin will help. 

                   

                  Also our vet is recommending a CT scan so we can better evaluate the extent of disease. Any thoughts on this?

                   

                  Thanks again to everyone!


                • Sarita
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                    You do sound like your options are limited so Pepper is lucky to have someone who is committed to loving and caring for him…I have to say that the explanation does not exactly jive for me but he probably does get good care there and it was just a terrible mistake. At least they are consulting with a another vet so that’s promising.


                  • LittlePuffyTail
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                      That’s awful that Pepper had to go through all that due to carelessness at the vet!

                      ((((Pepper)))))


                    • BinkyBunny
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                        I am so sorry for all that you and your Pepper have had to go through.  He sure is lucky to have you.   

                        Posted By Pepperbun on 01/12/2012 03:57 PM

                         Also our vet is recommending a CT scan so we can better evaluate the extent of disease. Any thoughts on this?

                         

                         

                        I have heard of this before — seems common if the vet thinks it is serious enough (especially if absesses keep coming up) as they want to make sure there aren’t any internal infections that are attaching to bone etc —  that could require further treatment and/or surgery.  (That is my understanding at least). 

                        I sincerely hope though that things will soon get better with medication alone.  Sending out healing vibes for Pepper!

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                    Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A My poor bun has symptomatic pasteurella. What can I expect?