Abscess

[Slowebot]

I have this really terrible long story about Sherlock’s abscess. I noticed it on a Friday and took him to the nearest available vet because he wasn’t eating. Also my usual vet was full for the day. Anyway when I looked inside his mouth he had this large amount of white gunk around one of his lower Incisors a and the tooth seemed pretty loose. I took him to an exotic vet, one of the ones listed on HRN and they were awful. I told them I had a rabbit, that I would be bringing a rabbit in, and when I got there the vet started poking around inside of his mouth with the tool to open their mouths and the vet literally looked like he had no clue what he was doing. Sure enough he turns to me and says we are going to have to do an in house referral for the exotic specialist here. It will be a small fee. I could not believe it. So I was basically seeing a regular vet and was going to have to pay another exam fee for a different vet. She came in and gave me a write up of how much her procedure was going to cost. She wanted to remove the tooth and clean out his abscess. It was going to cost over $1200. I immediately started crying because I was overwhelmed with what was going to happen and the cost of everything. She actually became very annoyed with me and literally left the room. A tech came in to explain the rest to me. I tried to ask the vet if there was anything else I could do because I was not going to be able to cough up $1200 by Monday and she basically said no. I paid $300 for seeing the 2 vets, metacam for 2 days, a fluid injection I did not witness and critical care. On Monday I went to my preferred vet in tears asking for a second opinion and they immediately took pity on me and were completely understanding. They were upset that I was given the option to cough up the money or euthanize sherlock. The vet looked at sherlock and said he’s so young and there wasn’t much pus so he wanted to try some antibiotics. He said keep your bunny eating and active, stay positive and let’s see how this turns out.

I’m in the midst of being positive and things seem really well. Sherlock seems full of energy, he’s eating so much food, I haven’t seen pus in a couple days and it makes me really happy. I understand that abscesses have a way of returning but for now I’m just happy to see we are on top of it right now. I plan on taking him in at least one more time for another round of antibiotics just to make sure we kick this out of his system.

I did a lot of research on abscesses during this time and they suck. I wanted people to be able to search and find this story just in case but I also wanted to know if anyone else has dealt with abscesses without surgery. From my understanding sherlock’s abscess was pretty small.

[LongEaredLions]

I am sorry you had such a horrible experience with the two vets!
I know you can treat with antibiotics, but the only abscesses I have seen were on the outside of the body, and were kept open and flushed daily as well as the antibiotic use. I don’t know how different it would be in the mouth, hopefully someone with more experience will comment.
Sending (((((VIBES)))))

[Sarita]

My rabbit Bobby had a terrible dental abscess – he was dropped off (well dumped) at a local guinea pig rescue because he was not eating.

The vet had to pull most all his bottom molars and they did pen-g shots which is what I suggest you discuss with your vet. He is now very healthy but has to have regular dental checkups.

[Slowebot]

Luckily, the abscess was on his chin and doesn’t affect his molars (fingers crossed that it stays this way) but I’m definitely going to talk to my vet about pen g shots

[Author]

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