Yes, he was given Pen-G for rabbit syphilis in mid September and it seemed like quite the wonder drug. In addition to the sores, he was a bit congested then and it cleared everything up. While the vet we saw this time was not the same vet, she did remember Pip from his previous illness because it was so bad. The vet checked him for sores this time and didn’t see anything but I should probably check him again, just in case.

He’s been pretty cuddly today and I’ve been trying to give him lots of attention. But he still seems fairly active and has continued to eat and drink throughout the day. I’ll definitely make sure his greens are nice and wet tonight. Thanks for the suggestion.

No, nothing while we wait. We decided to wait on meds for a couple of reasons. He didn’t sound too, too awful at the beginning. I was out of town for a few days and wasn’t sure if the pet sitter would be able to administer the meds well. (He definitely has to be forced to take things.) And I thought the results would be in the day I was back, so we could start as soon as I was back.

And I didn’t want to treat him with the wrong thing after my previous experiences with both him and Dobby. All of these antibiotics are becoming less and less useful and more and more overused so I think its important us humans keep that in mind when treating both rabbits and ourselves. (Sorry to sound a little soap boxey here.)

If he still isn’t 100% before my next trip I may need to reconsider the whole pet sitter thing and look at boarding them both at the vet. Fingers crossed I don’t have to worry about that.

And he is still eating,pooping and exploring, although there has been no running or binkying since I’ve been back. But who wants to binky when they have a rotten cold.

Pip has strep?!?! I did not know that was possible. But I guess I never really thought about it. Sounds like, as with humans, it is normally found in their systems but for some reason has decided to multiply in Pip. Good news is the culture showed it was very susceptible to several different antibiotics. We have another round of Pen G shots because he reacted so well to that the last time we used it. He got his first shot tonight and took it well. 6 more to go…

But my new concern is Dobby. I got home pretty late tonight because I had to drive out to the vet during rush hour to pick up the medicine. When I let them both out for play time Dobby just went to the corner and sat down. Usually he runs around a bit or comes over to say hi. I tried to give him a treat and some of his favorite hay and he wouldn’t eat it. He is now inside a cardboard tunnel where I can’t bother him. I’m not sure if he is mad at me for being late and pouting or if he is having tummy troubles. He has had some incredibly long pouts before but that hasn’t happened in a few months.

I’ll try to watch him closely for the next couple of hours and may give him some simithicone, just in case, but am wondering how those of you with bonded pairs normally monitor something like this, particularly overnight. They have equal size poos usually so I can’t really use that as an indicator. And Pip is the greedier eater so if Dobby isn’t eating, I’d imagine Pip will just eat Dobby’s share.

About 2 minutes after I posted this, Dobby came out of the box and started running around and being crazy. And he just ate some of the special hay (with clover!) I put out for him. I think he was just pouting because I came home late or smelled like the vet’s office. Silly bunny.

But my question still stands. What’s the best way to monitor a potential GI issue in one of a bonded pair other than close observation, which isn’t always possible?

(I’m happy to repost this in the bonding section, if that’s more appropriate.

jerseygirl – Do you mean something like benebac when you say immune support products? I just bought a big tube of it last night and had planned to give it to Pip during his treatment, like I did last time. I could keep that up after the meds are done.

I’m wondering if Pip just doesn’t handle stress well. The stress of the move to my apartment likely brought out the syphilis symptoms and maybe the stress of his recent bonding brought out the strep. We have one more possibly stressful even in December (I’ll be out of town for a little over a week.) but then things should settle down for everyone.

Thanks, jerseygirl. I’ll keep up the benebac, with Pip at least. He will eat it if I put it in a treat. Dobby is harder to trick into eating it. He’s such a picky bunny.

Has anyone tried those Oxbow immune support tablets? Maybe those could become our new treats…

We’ve just finished the last in a week of pen-g shots and I’m a little worried. He seemed to clear up a bit after a few days but tonight his nose was runny (still clear) and he is sounding worse again when he snores. I haven’t heard him at night since starting the pen-g but I don’t think I’ve seen him run or binky in several weeks now. But he is still eating and pooping well and occasionally grooming his roommate.

I will call the vet tomorrow. I know she gave us a medicine the culture said would work but I’m not so sure about that.

I’m wondering if something else could be at play. Maybe it’s partially environmental. The heat in my apartment makes things VERY dry. It bothers me a lot and the humidifier doesn’t always keep up. The heats been on a lot the last few days. It’s the coldest November of the past couple of decades here in our nation’s capitol. He’s not used to being in a heated environment at all. I’m trying to observe more closely if he sounds better when the humidifier is on.

At our first appointment the doctor said it could also be timothy hay. I guess she seen some allergies to that in the past. Luckily I’ve got a nice bag of meadow and another of oat that they both like if I want to test out the timothy hay theory.

I know I’ve also read that some of you have had success with benedryl. I’ll make sure to ask the vet about that too.

Any other things I should consider?

We’ve just finished the last in a week of pen-g shots and I’m a little worried. He seemed to clear up a bit after a few days but tonight his nose was runny (still clear) and he is sounding worse again when he snores. I haven’t heard him at night since starting the pen-g but I don’t think I’ve seen him run or binky in several weeks now. But he is still eating and pooping well and occasionally grooming his roommate.

I will call the vet tomorrow. I know she gave us a medicine the culture said would work but I’m not so sure about that.

I’m wondering if something else could be at play. Maybe it’s partially environmental. The heat in my apartment makes things VERY dry. It bothers me a lot and the humidifier doesn’t always keep up. The heats been on a lot the last few days. It’s the coldest November of the past couple of decades here in our nation’s capitol. He’s not used to being in a heated environment at all. I’m trying to observe more closely if he sounds better when the humidifier is on.

At our first appointment the doctor said it could also be timothy hay. I guess she’s seen some allergies to that in the past. Luckily I’ve got a nice bag of meadow and another of oat that they both like if I want to test out the timothy hay theory.

I know I’ve also read that some of you have had success with benedryl. I’ll make sure to ask the vet about that too.

Any other things I should consider?

Oh, yay. I’m glad the humidifier is a good idea. Makes me feel like I’m at least doing something helpful.

Unfortunately there isn’t much chance of varying climates in my apartments. It’s basically one big room. I live in a studio with some partial walls to divide up the space. I also only have sliding glass doors as windows, so opening them up isn’t really an option when I’m at work and way too cold when I’m at home.

They do spend their days while I’m at work as far away from the heat source as possible. But I honestly haven’t been great at checking the humidifier before I leave for work. I will start being more diligent about that. Luckily the humidifier is right in their area during the day so they should get most of the benefits from it.

Sorry I disappeared for a few days.

I don’t know that the bathroom would be much better and it would be really hard to live with as it also opens into my closet, so there is no good place to put a litter or anything. There is also a vent in the bathroom that I can’t control, so it never gets particularly humid, even after a nice, inappropriately long shower.

I thought he was sounding better with the humidifier for a few days but the last two days he is sounding worse again and his nose has looked more runny. The slightly weird thing is that he only sounds bad when he is sitting in the meatloaf position. When he is puts his head on the ground or when he flops out on his side, he stops making any kind of noise while breathing. He’s flopped out right now and I can’t hear a thing. Sometimes I find myself asking him why he just doesn’t keep his head on the ground of flop over more, like he understands what I’m talking about. 🙂 I also wish I could roll him onto his side when he sounds uncomfortable but I know he would not take kindly to that.

We are going back to the vet tomorrow. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to talk to her yet because she was gone last week for Thanksgiving. I head out of town for a week and half on Wednesday so I do want to get her take on all of this before I go. Unless the vet says otherwise, I plan to have a pet sitter come to check on them twice a day while I’m gone and I’ve asked the sitter to continue with the humidifier. I’ll also put the thermostat down low so the heat won’t be drying out the air quite as much. Hopefully that will help.

We’re back from the vet with 2 new medicines and 1 bunny who hates me at the moment.

The vet thinks it is probably not bacterial, given how it got better and worse while taking the pen-g and how it seems to be related to how he is sitting and that the discharge is clear. She mentioned it could be because he is a dwarf and his face is smooshed, which messed up his soft palate. If this is the case, all the medicine in the world isn’t going to improve the situation. And if he is eating, drinking, pooping and showing off with the occasional binky (which he did last night!) we don’t need to do anything further.

However, because the culture showed something, she does want to try one more round of antibiotics. So he is taking a sulfa based antibiotic, that the culture showed the bacteria was very sensitive to. The other is basically benedryl, but not to put in the water, like I’ve read about in other posts here. It’s given straight up with a syringe.

The antibiotics are for 10 days and the benadryl for 14 days or longer. The idea is that if the antibiotics clear it up, the benadryl won’t hurt. And if the antibiotics don’t do anything and the benadryl does, great. He can then be on benadryl as needed and I can try to rotate different types of hay through to see if one type brings it on more than another.

She also checked his teeth again and there is already some regrowth. I was disappointed because after his first trim, about 2 months ago, he has been eating hay like crazy. It looks like the teeth issue may be genetic, not because of lack of hay. She recommended a trim in about a month.

She called him the cutest little genetic disaster she had ever seen. 🙂

I’m checking with my pet sitter to see if she’d be comfortable giving him the meds. If not, they will board at the vet while I’m gone. I got to check out the space today and it seems nice. And there is an exotic vet there at all times, along with a very nice staff.

Oh, and I finally found a video of what Pip sounds like sometimes…

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/Differential/respira_diff.htm

The pet sitter has never given meds to a rabbit and can’t get here before I leave. She was quite honest about how she would be uncomfortable with it, which I appreciated. So they are going to the vet for a week and a half. I’ll be packing a goody bag for them tonight. But I’ve scheduled something with the sitter for when I get back to show her what needs to be done. If he’s no longer on meds at the time, I’ll just show her with a little water. Hopefully she’ll be comfortable enough with it that she can do it in the future if this happens again.

And expensive is right. I don’t think the charge is unreasonable for a molar trim but it sounds like I am looking at 4 times a year at a minimum, plus check-ups and other illnesses and things get pricey fast. If the vet thinks the timing is OK, she may actually do the trim the last day they are boarding, to avoid a trip back right after the new year. Without a car, these visits and trims and such are even more expensive. It might even be worth it to get a car for all the aggravation and cost of getting a car share each time. Of course, that would also require quite a bit of money.

Jerseygirl – how is Maple doing? I haven’t seen an update recently (unless I missed it somehow).