Hi I’m new here.. I tried searching for this topic but couldn’t find anything so sorry if this gets asked a lot or there are other places on the site that offer this information..
My rabbit, Jefri, is a spayed mini rex and he is 9 years old. He weights 4.3 pounds.
We took him to the vet a while ago because he started dragging his left leg. Also he had a lot of ear wax build up, a slightly crusty nose, somewhat watery eyes, a slight head tilt once in a while, and he started peeing on himself.
The vet prescribed metacam for his hind leg weakness. At first it was just .3 ml per day for about a week or 2 – then she upped it to 0.5 ml (1.5 mg/ml) a day. We saw immediate improvement – no more dragging and he hops into his high sided litter box instead of using the low ones or the ones i trimmed down for him. He LOVES metacam he bites at the syringe for more haha. I know metacam doesn’t treat the watery eyes and nose but after a few weeks on just metacam his eyes are clear and his nose was less wet/crusty looking…
For the other stuff she said she thought it was e cuniculi but when I asked if it could be something else she said it could be an ear infection… at first she was going to treat for e cuniculi but i asked which is more dangerous to rabbits and she said ear infection so she changed her mind and decided to treat for that first.. I’ve heard of people treating for both at the same time but I didn’t know how well he would handle that and I’m glad we didn’t because we think the baytril is causing diarrhea… he’s on 0.4ml (50 mg/ml – liquid) once a day. The past few days since he has started baytril he has had poopy butt and there were one or 2 smears or little mounds of mushy poop a day. Theyve been getting stuck to his butt and feet so I have cut them out and then give butt baths. He’s very docile but i know it stresses him out. He is getting old and cant be bothered to use a litter box most of the time (grr) so he usually leaves poops everywhere… but today he’s been in his big pen all day and there are only a few.. (actually he just pooped a bunch right now while writing and they look normal.. but still) he had mushy poop this morning and before i could clean it up – he ate it. Definitely not his typical cecals… it was like mushy nasty stuff.
Also he has an appetite but seems less than usual. He doesn’t seem lethargic or anything.. he looks happy and normal in every other way. I stopped giving him greens and treats so he has unlimited timothy and oat hay and about 1/2 cup pellets a day. I did give him simethicone one day but I didn’t know how much to give so I did 1 cc and it didn’t seem to have any effect… was it not enough? Is it safe to give simethicone with baytril and metacam?
What time of day do you recommend to give the medications? Is it okay to give one right after the other?
I’m waiting for the vet to call back so I can ask her these things but she probably wont get back to me until tomorrow so until then I thought I would ask here what others have done or experienced with these medications….I was wondering if I should stop the baytril…? Is there something else I could use if Jefri just cant stomach the baytril? I heard of something called SMZ (sulfamethoxazole).. we told the vet about it but she said they stopped using that because baytril was more effective in rabbits… also i read somewhere that any antibiotic could mess with the good yeast and that yogurt pellets or acidophilus should also be given……
thoughts?
Anyways thanks for reading and sorry for the lengthy post !