Snuffles

[Kaela and jasper]

My bunny is now 9 weeks old and has had snuffles for two weeks. I took him to the vet who put him on baytril and today had to take him back as he started to get a bit sicker again. The vet added vibravet paste ( which is for cats and dogs) to his treatment, I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with this combination or with snuffles in general and what their bunnies have taken.

I know snuffles can’t be fully treated.

So far his symptoms include sneezing, white nasal discharge and a blocked nose, his lungs are clear and is eating well.

I was hoping someone could tell me if they have had any luck with snuffles treatment I am really worried about him and only just lost my other bunny to a neurological problem and can’t let him die too.

Thank you
Kaela

[Sarita]

Moving to the Q&A Section.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Snuffles is not an actual illness, it’s sort of a catch all word used to describe symptoms. The symptoms are caused by a bacteria, most often pasteurella. To treat the bacteria with the most effective drug, you need to first know which bacteria you are dealing with. Most vets will do a nasal culture to determine this. Has your vet mentioned this?

[Kaela and jasper]

No, both vets just put him in the antibiotics and neither mentioned doing a culture at all.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Is there an other rabbit savvy vet you could see? if it doesn’t clear up with the antibiotics, that’s my advice. Or ask your current vet about a culture.

[Kaela and jasper]

Thank you. Yep there is one near buy but they are hard to get into.

[tanlover14]

I think there’s a lot of recent debate about the effectiveness of cultures so I’m not surprised the vet hasn’t done one (if they are rabbit-savvy). My vet doesn’t do cultures specifically because rabbit nasal passages are known for having multiple different kinds of bacteria. When doing a culture, you are basically picking and choosing which bacteria to grow and see which antibiotic affects that specific bacteria. The problems stems from the picking and choosing of bacteria – there is no way to tell if the bacteria you “pick” to grow is actually the one causing the issue. I opted not to do a culture for this reason. She will of course do one if her patients insist though so if you feel it could be helpful, I would talk to them. They may give you specific reasoning as mine did when I mentioned it (she never mentioned it until I brought it up either).

The Baytril didn’t help my last rabbits URI so I tried Zithromax. It worked well and he hasn’t shown symptoms since he’s been off it for almost two weeks now. My rescue has had great results using the Zithromax recently which is why I opted to try it before taking him farther away for more extensive tests.

[Kaela and jasper]

I’m interested in this Zithromax, he is on his second lot of antibiotics know so I may ask about something like that when I take him back to get his refill.

[Kaela and jasper]

Did you get the Zithromax from the vet?

[tanlover14]

Yupp, my vet prescribed it. Be careful about using antibiotics too much without knowing the cause. You don’t want to run the risk of bacteria in his body becoming resistant to the antibiotic and not working in the future. I would talk to your vet about their concerns with using antibiotics too much so you know you’re making the right decision. Sometimes it’s better to do further tests rather than doing more antibiotics if they aren’t responding after a few treatments.

[Kaela and jasper]

Thanks so much. He had another couple if days before his refill so I will make another appointment for him. The information is really helpful to have.

[Bam]

Locking this thread now since it is in the FAQ. If you have more questions about pasteurella/snuffles, please start a new thread!

[Author]

Messages