At the end of October I noticed that my male bunny, Buttercup, was getting a slightly damp nose. I took him to the vets and he was prescribed Baytril for 10 days. Part way through the course of antibiotics I noticed that my female bunny, Pancake, was also getting a damp nose, very slightly damp, but I took her to the vets thinking that she must have the same infection as Buttercup.

We finished Buttercups course of antibiotics and his nose was still damp, we took him back to the vets and they prescribed a different kind of antibiotics, with an anti inflamatory, enroflaxin and melodixyl … She instructed me to use the new antibiotics for 20 days. Throughout the course I noticed that his nose seemed to be getting worse, meanwhile Pancakes was fine after finishing her antibiotics.

Now, during the antibiotics I switched out all of their sawdust/wood shavings for Carefresh, this didn’t seem to make a difference. I also mentioned to the vet that his nose seemed to be worse in the mornings, and it would dry up slightly throughout the day, and the dampness would come back more in the evenings and overnight. The vet thought that this could be a ventilation issue, so I started to only cover them up half way overnight. It’s been getting quite cold here recently, with frost most mornings, so I was reluctant to do this, but I did it anyway.

Keeping their ventilation better has seemed to help slightly, but last week I think that Buttercups nose started to get worse again. Another vet trip and we came away with no more information, she was skeptical to start on another course of antibiotics. Pancakes nose has also started to get worse this week, it is now worse than it was before she even had antibiotics originally.

On December 1st we bought a shed and have moved the rabbits into there. We’ve got a temperature and humidity gauge in the shed so I can monitor the highs and lows, at the moment the humidity is quite high (approx 75%) and it’s been around 7 Celsius for most of today.

Neither of them have any other symptoms, besides the wet nose. They are eating, drinking, going to the toilet properly, they haven’t lost weight (Buttercup has actually gained weight). Their teeth are also great according to the vet.

Does anyone have any suggestions of anything else I can try? Do you think the vet is missing something? Is there something I can ask the vets to check for? Does anyone else have any experience with their rabbits just having a damp nose for no apparent reason?

I’m trying to attach a photo so you can see their noses, but I’m not able to from mobile. I’ll log into my computer and see if I can add one in the comments or something.

Thank you for any help you can provide!