You are starting treatment probably as early as you could have, so that’s a great start. Upper respiratory infections are not uncommon, and many live on. Pasteurella is the most common culprit for URIs, I believe. In actuality, many rabbits are infected with pasteurella! Some get ill while other’s don’t. It’s a combination of the rabbit’s immune system and the particular strand they have. Outcomes can also vary: some get “cured”, in that there are no longer sneezing or show any symptoms, while others become “chronic snufflers”.

— Other mods/members > Please correct anything if is wrong; this is what I recall about URIs/pasteurella from a quick recall.

My Wick perhaps has a similar story to Theo (or perhaps Theo is simply younger!). Wick was the runt of his litter, so he was the smallest and got neglected, so a weaker immune system to start probably. I brought him home and he started sneezing within a couple days. He would have sneezing fits of 7-12 sneezes in a row, and this would happen at least 4 times an hour… it was very frequent, poor baby.

The typical treatment for URIs is to start with an antibiotic, and see if it works. If not, try a different one. Different antibiotics target different bacteria, so sometimes it make one or two tries to find the “right one”. Septra was not one of the medications that was tried with Wick, but that doesn’t mean it’s “wrong” or “bad”. According to MediRabbit (a common source we use here!), Septra should be safe. Septra is also known as Trimethoprim, and they have Trimethoprim sulfa listed as safe (which I assume is the same thing).

Warning: Graphic images at the top of this page. If you want to visit it, but don’t want the photos, just scroll down very fast and you’ll miss them: http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm

The wood pellet litter from SPS should be fine. While it breaks up into dust when it’s wet, it’s wet dust, so doesn’t really get inhaled.. is my thought!
Nonparticulate bedding, I believe, is just not-dusty or made of small pieces bedding. I don’t believe you have bedding for Theo, so you should be OK! Some people have litter in the litter box, and then put “bedding” in the cage, but that just becomes too tempting for rabbits to pee on, so typically people just use litter for litter boxes.

Wick is all better now. His was a very unusual case, in that it took several months of trying medications and then a longer course than usual for him to get over it. In hindsight, it may have been more difficult for Wick to fight it because his body was also trying to fight syphilis (which we didn’t know he had until later on).

For Wick, we tried three:

1. Bactrim (oral)
2. Baytril (oral)
3. Flocillin Shots (injection) + Baytril (oral)

We stuck to Bactrim for the usual 2 week course and nothing changed, so we then used Baytril. I think we ended up seeing some improvement by the end of the first week, but the improvement “plateau’d”. We then tried Flocillin shots which pretty much instantly changed things. We went just with Flocillin, but after just one day without Baytril, it got worse so we ended by doing both the shots and Baytril. From my discussion with Wick’s vet, it seemed unusual that two medications were needed and that it took so long.

… To get to your question, I’d say from my experience, if there’s no noticeable improvement in a week, discussing trying another medication may be worthwhile.

For the future, I believe 2 weeks is the minimum, but sometimes it is good to go for a little longer, even if there are no more symptoms. No symptoms could mean that the infection is immediately wiped out, but it could also mean there just isn’t “enough” to cause symptoms. You sometimes get rabbits who seem to have their URI “re-emerge”, but in actuality, it’s because treatment was stopped to soon.

Pasteurella is often present in rabbit nasal passages, but that doesn’t mean they will get sick. In fact, most rabbits don’t. It also doesn’t mean it is what’s causing the URI if they are sick.

The best course of action is to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic. If you don’t see improvement, then you may need to try another. Most vets go that route before resorting to a culture.

You did a good job getting him checked out and on medication. It isn’t unusual for baby bunnies coming from a breeder to get a URI or other infection. That’s just what happens when rabbits are kept in close quarters.

Wick is correct about some individuals being susceptible to chronic problems with Pasteurella. However, this is not common. I would compare it to chronic EC problems.

So George has chronic runny nose issues. It definitely get worse when he is shedding. He has been on antibiotics several times but it repeatedly comes back. Right now he is off antibiotics, and he gets nebulized twice a day with acetylcysteine and saline. The vets think it is caused by allergies and he is just prone to nasal discharge, probably from irritants like hair and other allergens.

If the oral route does not work try nebulization, From what I have read Rabbits have very poor blood circulation in their noses so many times oral medication are not effective for URI.