Sounds like snuffles

[Stevesmum]

I need some help and advice please. My rabbit steve is about six years old, a rescue rabbit. He has a female mate. He had had several episodes of choking like behaviour after eating hay in the last month or so. A month ago he choked three times in 36 hours, each time he expelled some mucus and felt better afterward. I took him to the vet, they did all the X-rays and everything looked normal. No wet nose or paws, he usually has eye crusties but always has had them. He really rarely feels sick. Then last week while eating hay he had another panicking choking episode. He couldn’t seem to clear it on his own so I ran to the emergency vet in the middle of the night. They wanted to do all the X-rays again but I couldn’t face another $600 bill and he had just had them done anyway! That vet did not feel there was a lower respiratory infection, just an upper. So after a stint in the oxygen kennel and an injection of baytril he came home on oral baytril, 0.8 ml twice a day. No further choking episodes, but he does sneeze a few times a day. He is eating and drinking well now, and perking up. Every time he eats hay I get the anxiety. I’ve read terrible things about snuffles and how it cannot be cured. I haven’t separated him from his girl as I feel that would only stress him out more and I think he’s had this all along anyway so she must be a carrier too. I bought oxbow immune support and have been giving that too. I guess what I’m asking is what else can I do? How else can we manage this at home? Will ten days of antibiotics be enough? I doubt it. They did not put him on a probiotic supplement as they say recent evidence indicates it doesn’t help and rabbits get the good bacteria just by eating their cecals. I feel like even the “rabbit savvy” vets I have taken them to know little. I have not been given a prognosis. What should I do/not do. I live in Edmonton, Alberta and I think I’ve been to at least five or six vets here looking for a truly knowledgable one with limited success.

[Sarita]

Did the vet take a very good look at his teeth – especially those back molars?

Snuffles is a catch all term for an upper respiratory infection, it’s not an actual medical term. I would suggest that the vet take a very good look at the molars because as rabbits age they lose bone density which can cause their teeth to shift and can result in molar spurs.

Also here is a list of rabbit vets in Alberta:

http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/CanadianRabbitVets.htm#Alberta

[Stevesmum]

Yes his teeth are all looking great. No Spurs. Apart from this “infection” he is in great health. I will check out that list, thank you!

[Author]

Messages