Enroflaxacin not doing the trick

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This topic has 10sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by LBJ10.

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- 09/21/2018 at 5:04 PM
  JoyCounts
  Participant
  30 posts
  On August 28th, I took my bunny Char to the vet after he started having sneezing fits, a wet nose, and an incident of white discharge because I was afraid it was snuffles. I paid for the culture and the test came back as Staph causing a respiratory infection. They gave me enrofloxacin (baytril) and told me to give it to him twice a day for two weeks. After the two weeks passed, he hadn’t really improved at all, so the vet told me to make sure he was in a very clean environment and prescribed me another two weeks as well as some Metacam. Well that two weeks ends Tuesday, and while the sneezing appears to have stopped, his nose is still constantly wet, and now another one of my rabbits, Puck, is starting to sneeze and his nose is slightly wet. Mind you, I moved Char to another room that I could keep clean easier, and Char and Puck have not been in contact for a couple of months because they’ve never bonded, and I’m temporarily living with my parents so there was no room for the pens to be side by side even before I moved Char.
  
  Neither have runny eyes, matted fur on their paws, or seem to have any problems breathing at all. They act completely normal except for the sneezes, and look completely normal except the wet noses.
  
  I’m currently jobless and living off of my savings, and I can’t afford to have an epidemic of snuffles among my bunnies, but it’s starting to look like that’s what I’m facing. The only rabbit vet I can go to (and also the pharmacy that preps the rabbit medicine) is a little over an hour drive away from where I live, so even just getting to what the bunnies need is a handful.
  
  I called the vet and have another appointment for Puck on Monday as they are closed on the weekend. If Puck also has snuffles, then his bondmate Lua is likely to get it too, and I’m just really starting to feel overwhelmed.
  
  If any of your bunnies had snuffles (especially caused by staph) how long did it take for your bunnies to feel better?
  
  What did you have to do to fight it off?
  
  Anything you can say to calm this freaking out bunny mom would be appreciated.
- 09/21/2018 at 6:34 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  Sorry you are going through this, that sounds very stressful.
  
  I don’t have any personal experience with this, but medirabbit has some really detailed info on respiratory disease in rabbits: http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/Bacterial/URI.htm
  
  Worth reading to make sure your vet covered all the bases (although i see they’ve done a culture, so that’s good).
  
  Hopefully some other members with experience can chime in!
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 09/21/2018 at 6:41 PM
  Bunny House
  Participant
  1241 posts
  I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Did the culture ever have a sentivity done on it? A sensitivity would have used antibiotics on the culture to see what med killed the bacteria. I know my lop has pasturella and always has a wet nose on and off. Maybe your bun might have that too and with that infection, the body let it slip up and now has the constant runny nose. I know my lop has staph infections in her ears all the time and baytril is not a med that kills it, and the sentivity test showed that wasn’t a useful med to use. I forget what she was on but it did the trick.
  
  I hope this helps
- 09/22/2018 at 1:54 PM
  JoyCounts
  Participant
  30 posts
  I’m not sure if a sensitivity test was done. I’ll be sure to ask the vet during my appointment. She did call me after this post and told me that she’d get in touch with some of her colleagues who also deal in exotics and ask for other opinions. She also told me to bring in all of my babies so she can go ahead and get weights on them so if it spreads, we can get the correct doses to them more quickly without having to come in for each rabbit. She seemed a bit worried about the fact that Char hasn’t really improved and told me that maybe the initial culture swab wasn’t far enough in, and so it’s missed something. I’ll see what all she has to say Monday, and I can just hope for the best for now.
- 09/22/2018 at 2:44 PM
  Bunny House
  Participant
  1241 posts
  Keep us updated. I hope everything will go good this weekend for you guys.
- 09/22/2018 at 5:26 PM
  LBJ10
  Moderator
  17242 posts
  Cultures can be a great thing, but not always. Sometimes the problem is what grows is not the source of the symptoms. Rabbit nasal passages are full of bacteria, but not all bacteria is going to cause an infection. The fact that they got Staph to grow doesn’t necessarily mean anything, unless it is the actual source of the problem. Hopefully that makes sense. I’m probably not explaining that very well. LOL
  
  Anyway, this is usually why vets will simply prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic first. Baytril is a go-to antibiotic… but it doesn’t seem to be working for Char. This leaves you with trying a different antibiotic or trying to do another culture. I’m sorry you’re having to go through this. It’s never easy when standard treatment doesn’t solve the problem.
- 09/25/2018 at 12:48 PM
  JoyCounts
  Participant
  30 posts
  Well I took all my bunnies except Char to the vet yesterday to get them all weighed, that way if others started showing signs, the vet would be able to tell me how much to dose quickly. I did ask about the sensitivity test, and what I’ve been giving them was listed as good to tackle staph, but since there hasn’t been improvement, we’ve switched gears to a different antibiotic. Now we’re giving all the bunnies trimethoprim, hopefully to help the boys and be preventative in the girls and continuing the metacam in both boys. I think the vet agrees with you LBJ in that the staph that grew isn’t actually what is causing the infection. So now we’re going to be playing the waiting game to see how this new antibiotic turns out. We’re trying to be optimistic about getting this all under control soon. Fingers crossed.
- 09/25/2018 at 10:12 PM
  LBJ10
  Moderator
  17242 posts
  A new antibiotic sounds like a plan. Hopefully whatever is causing the problem will be sensitive to it. Let us know how things go!
- 09/27/2018 at 1:53 PM
  JoyCounts
  Participant
  30 posts
  Well, we’ve only had three days of the new medication but it seems to be working! I check every day, and it seems all of the bunny noses seem to be drying up, and we haven’t heard signs of sneezing. Char in particular has shown the most improvement (since he was the worst case to begin with) and he looked almost completely dry this morning. Obviously I will keep giving the medicine properly and probably schedule a follow up exam toward the end of the dosing to get the all clear from my vet, but I’m finally feeling hopeful after several weeks of worry.
- 09/27/2018 at 3:04 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  That’s great news!
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 09/27/2018 at 5:55 PM
  LBJ10
  Moderator
  17242 posts
  That’s great! Glad to hear the new antibiotic is working. Sometimes, it’s just trial and error.
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