Hey all,

I wanted to share my experience with my lop bunny, Gouda, and the progression of her ear bases abscesses.

Back in March of this year, I noticed Gouda sneeze a bit more than I’ve noticed in the past. It was once every few days for a couple weeks, but then suddenly stopped. I thought nothing of it since she was eating, drinking, and acting completely normal. Fast forward to May, she developed a small growth on her third eyelid. I noticed her eye was really watery, and looked overall agitated. I took her to a vet eye specialist and she prescribed some antibiotics. They helped. No further investigation was done on the reason behind her eye infection since it went away. Early August we noticed her face was slightly lopsided. It looked like someone pulled up one cheek and she was smirking. Again, eating and drinking, acting completely normal. A couple weeks went by. I decided to palpitate her head and noticed two marble sized growths at the base of her ears. I was alarmed, and read up on ear based abscesses and how they can start with a simple sinus/respiratory infection. I immediately made an appointment with a rabbit specialist. To no surprise, he diagnosed her with ear based abscesses that developed from an inner ear infection. Thinking back after hearing that made me think about that bout of sneezing she had and her eye infection. The vet said it very well could be that the infection never fully went away and made it’s way into her inner ear. The abscesses then developed to try and contain that infection from spreading even further. I felt horrible for not acting on this all sooner. The facial paralysis was also a result since the abscesses on her right side was pressing on a facial nerve. All in all, lucky to have caught it when we did.

As for options at that point, we were told we could 1. have the abscess surgically drained, we flush the open wounds out for weeks alongside an aggressive antibiotic injection plan 2. have the infected parts of her ear canals removed (ear canal ablation) 3. have the sides of her vertical canals of the external ear canals removed to improve ventilation to the deeper parts of the external ear to help keep them clean (lateral ear canal resection). Ultimately, abscesses in rabbits are extremely hard to get rid of unless the entire abscess capsule is removed. Option 1 or 2 is most desired if the rabbit is healthy enough and you have a rabbit savvy vet who has experience with these procedures. Considering Gouda is 8 yrs, we decided to go with the surgery that was the least high risk (option 1: drain, flush, and antibiotics). The plan was to get as much of the puss and abscesses out as possible. We never went through with an x-ray or imaging, but this is recommend if you/your vet wants to know the extent of the infection. This can help determine the best course of action if you are considering a few different options on how to approach the issue.

Gouda was scheduled for surgery the week after her vet visit (cost was about $700 for both abscesses). The surgery went super well, and she was left with massive open wounds on the left and right side of her head. It was ugly but necessary. The wounds must stay open in order to continue flushing/cleaning the abscess wounds. This is to help the wound heal from the inside out. If these wounds closed too soon (such as a scab forms and heals over within a few days), they would fill with pus quick. Using a syringe with saline, I flushed both wounds at least twice a day for 17 days. Also used q-tips to scoop out any puss.  Couple times I had to peal off scabs just to have access to those wound pockets. Once I had trouble keeping the wounds open, I started applying Silver Honey to fight bacteria and help the wounds heal. I also gave her (still currently giving) daily penicillin procain injections.

It has been a month and Gouda has no signs of abscesses. Her wounds are closed and she is continuing a daily penicillin procain shot for another 20/30 days. After the 20/30 days are up, I’ll be giving her a a couple months worth of Bicillin (a penicillin shot that can be reduced to every few days instead of daily). As mentioned, the antibiotic treatment must be aggressive if the entire abscess capsule can’t be removed. Also note, due to the paralysis, Gouda can not close her right eye. This has resulted in her eye getting extremely irritated and slightly infected due to minimal lubrication. I was able to alleviate this with eye antibiotic ointment and prescribed artificial tears. The artificial tears will probably be life long, along with her little smirk. Luckily it is minor enough to were she is able to eat and function 100% normally.

Lesson learned: I wish I brought Gouda in when she had those sneezes. At that time we may have been able to stop this entire thing simply by putting her on a basic oral antibiotic, such as Baytril.

PLEASE if you have any questions reach out. I was googling like made throughout this entire process, trying to find out as much info on this situation as possible. However my efforts paid off! Initially the vet wanted her on just a short 10 week course of Baytril after her surgery. This is not aggressive enough for rabbit abscesses, and I got him to agree to the penicillin injections. There are studies that a long course (3-4 months) on penicillin injections can prevent abscesses from coming back for months, even years sometimes.  IMPORTANT: make sure to administer a rabbit friendly probiotic supplement while they are on antibiotics. Due to their sensitive gut, the probiotics will help them keep their appetite during treatment.

This process has been difficult. The wound cleaning and injections are a lot, but it has been worth it. I would do it all over again. Gouda is happy an healthy at the moment, and has taken her cleanings and shots like a champ. With the use of some extra timothy hay treats, she doesn’t seem to mind any of it.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Lauren