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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
› Forum › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › MOXIE *UPDATE*
So what I thought was Moxie sneezing because of the dusty hay (although the hay WAS dusty), I think now could be something worse. She’s been having bad sneeze attacks that end with a coughing/hacking sound. Occasionaly I’ll see a whitish booger come out of her nose. Since we moved I had to find Moxie a new vet. SO, my questions are:
What EXACTLY should Iexpect them to do? I expect them to weigh her, clip her nails, check her teeth, eyes and ears. Diagnose her and show us how to give her antibiotics if she needs them. And check her for lumps and bumps. Reasonable?
How can I make sure they are knowledgeable? Does anybody have some trick questions to ask them?
Her appointment is for FIRST thing in the morning Thursday. The soonest she can be seen. Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. I’ll add more later.
EDIT— If Moxie DID happen to have Pasteurella, is it contagious to other animals like dogs and cats?
Here is an article from the HRS on how to find a good rabbit vet: http://rabbit.org/faq-how-to-find-a-good-rabbit-vet/.
I hope that the vet you are seeing is a good one, and that he/she will find the cause of Moxie’s problems, and that the treatment will be successful.
Thank you. I hope it’s nothing too serious. :^/
I will definately ask the screening questions. I forgot they had those on there website.
Hopefully this is just a little infection that will clear up with some antibiotics. Let us know what the vet says/does and prescribes! I hope he feels better!
Thanks. At first I just thought it was the hay, because some got crushed and it was dusty. But now it is clear it’s a health issue. I’m thinking (hopefully not though) that it’s Pasteurella (is that how you spell it?) or a minor upper respiratory infection.
I went on their facebook page and there was many pictures of rabbit patients, and there were even pictures of rabbits being prepped for surgery and under surgery. So I think they have good knowledge about rabbits. I will definately keep you all posted. Her appointment is first thing Thursday morning.
Do you think I should bring Urine/stool samples? I think I will just bring some in-case they want to look at it…
I think it’s a good idea to always bring a fresh stool sample when you head to the vets… that way they might catch something that could be easier to miss. Never hurts!
Well, since it doesn’t appear to be a urinary tract infection or a GI problem, I don’t think that a urine or fecal sample are necessary.
Pastuerella is just an upper respiratory infection. Not certain of cats and dogs but guinea pigs can get this…best to ask the vet as not all infections are infectious to other animals.
Cats can have it, but from what I understand, it’s typically asymptomatic. Rabbits can have it too and be asymptomatic. Other things can cause URI too, so it’s hard knowing for sure.
Moxie was diagnosed with Pasteurella. The vets said they were suprised with how healthy she was for having Pasteurella for a while. (I guess she had it for a while, like a month or so ).
Otherwise than that she was very healthy they said. She weighed 8.1 pounds. They took her temp, checked her eyes, ears teeth and felt her stomach and body. The Vets said she was obviously taken care of good and had a good immune system. They said the Pasteurella hadn’t gotten a good foot-hold and hadn’t spread to her eyes and ears. So It *should* clear up easy.
She was prescribed 3 weeks of baytril (I’ll double check). The vet-tech gave her the first day’s dose there. Moxie wouldn’t take it as a pill, so she had to dissulve it in water and syringe feed it to her.
Moxie was surprisingly friendly to the nurse. The nurse opened her cage and Moxie hopped right out looking for a pat. That is, until her temperature was taken. After that it was imaginary dirt in all of our faces lol. I also asked them to trim her nails. It took 2 expierienced pet nurses to trim her nails. Moxie was having none of it! lol. We are going to bring her back in around 3 weeks to get her another check-up. Hopefully the medicine will clear this up! I’m going to try giving her medicine stuffed in a banana chunk, if that doesn’t work I’ll have to syringe feed it to her.
Can the vet compound the baytril until a liquid form for you?
Sarita— They told me if she wouldn’t take it in a treat to crush it and mix it with some warm water to dissulve it and syringe feed her. That’s what they did at the vets office. As long as she got the whole pill, it’s fine they told me. I wouldn’t mind doing that, because Moxie actulally should be drinking a bit more water, so it might actually be good for her. Is that correct?
That is definitely one way to do it. I’m not sure what those pills taste like though. I just like that my vet will always compound any pills into flavored liquids for me.
Baytril is awful even when disguised. You may want to at least use Apple juice instead of water. Can you break the pill? Some shoud NOT be broken but smaller pieces of the pill in banana might get sneaked past him easier depending on the pill size. Banana worked great when Gus was on pills
I’m glad that the pasteurella is localized to the nasal area, hopefully the Baytril will completely knock out the infection soon. In the past, when I had been given Baytril for my bunnies, it was in liquid form, and the vet gave me a small quantity of some kind of sweet syrup to add to it, to hopefully disguise the bitter taste. I have no idea if it did or not, since I only used a tiny bit of syrup in each syringe.
I don’t know if your bunny has been on antibiotics before, and if so, if they may have caused stomach problems. You may want to get some Bene-Bac or other probiotic, to keep her GI tract in good balance.
Megabunny— I assume I can break them considering the vet said it would be easier to crush it into powder and then dissolve it. I bought some bananas to try and diguise it when I give it to her. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just have to syringe feed it to her.
tobyluv— Moxie has never been on medication before. I’ll definately keep an eye on her.
oh right i forgot hope she takes it ok
Thanks. I think she may be more willing to take the meds from me, because it was a person she’d never seen before stuffing a syringe in her mouth…
Double post.
I hope moxie feels better!!! Sending healing vibes
Thank you BinkyMom14!
Glad you caught it in time so it should be easier to treat.
Sending vibes that she’ll take the crushed pill in banana …. {{{{tasty banana meds}}}}. Kieko was just on 2 weeks of Baytril, and thankfully our vet compounded it for us. It was still nasty (supposedly strawberry flavor) so Kieko wouldn’t take it from a syringe, but I was able to get her to take it on lettuce . . . one drop on each bite, so .4ml spread over 18 hand-fed bites of lettuce twice per day!
Did you get a culture sensitivity test done? If so, that was a quick turn around on the test if her first appointment was today.
Sending good healing vibes for her.
ergodic– No, I don’t think they did a Culture Sensitivity. I was actually thinking about that earlier. They said that they were sure she had Pasteurella and we would treat her with the Baytril and that would clear up what she has. If she doesn’t improve in about a week or so “we would do further testing.”
How long does it take for one of those tests to come back? Was it because they wanted to just get her on meds quickly?
It takes about a week/week and a half. It is probably a good idea to wait. It may or may not be Pasteurella, there are a lot things it could be or even multiple things. I was worried about two of mine. One had pseudomonas and a Staph infection (George), and the other had pseudomonas and enterobacter aerogenes (Gracie). Pseudomonas is a pain to clear up so I have read and from my experience. Staph is very common in bunnies including healthy ones as well as Bordetella
I got the feeling from my vet that the chronic cases are usually caused by something else underlying.
We did X-Rays and a CT scan with George and it showed nothing.
So the vet thinks George has allergies. I know he has problems with fragrances(clothes detergents) and dust.
Just be patient with it.
How the vets made it sound, was that she was lucky that it hasn’t spread yet and they needed to clear it up before the pasteurella (if it is) got a stronger foot hold on her and got worse. So I think it was a good idea to put her on the Baytril… I’ve read that Baytril kills bacteria, so if it was a different bacterial URI, the Baytril would cure that too right? Thanks for all the help guys.
Sounds similar to my vet she start George out with trimethoprim before I got the culture and sensitivity test back and added Baytril after she found there were two bugs. Baytril is a pretty broad spectrum, so it should be effective against many things. Only problem it used a lot so bugs tend to have resistance against it but it seem like a very good place to start.
After the third time coming back with George and Gracie the vet gave them Zeniquin which is pretty much a more powerful version of Baytril.
Anyway, I know how you feel. George and Gracie want Moxie to get better soon. It is no fun sneezing and having a runny nose.
Well tell George and Gracie that Moxie thanks them.
{{{MOXIE}}}
I hope she’s feeling better this morning!
(((((Moxie)))))
Moxie took her meds well today in the banana, I didn’t need to syringe it into her mouth. Lets hope she fall for it tomorrow. lol
Oh Moxie! What a bad BB mum I’ve been – I missed your thread completely. HOW??? Stupid me clicked on ‘my topic’s’ – no wonder I didn’t see any new threads, DOH!
So happy to know Moxie took her medicine so easily with the banana, and I’m sending (((((MOXIE))))) x10 to make up for being a bad Grandma to her when she wasn’t well in the beginning. Hug’s to you both.
AH— Ha ha thanks. I think she’s feeling better today, although she’s only had 2 doses so far. She was being horribly naughty and I had to seriously wrestle some things out of her mouth, I’m so glad she’s almost back to normal. LOL
Sounds like she is getting better by the minute, ha ha ha! Naughty Moxie! Gosh! We all love her so much!
› Forum › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › MOXIE *UPDATE*