Abscess on Jaw

[Miss Bunny]

Hello..  I have a 7 year old female cotton tail.  She developed an abscess on her lower jaw, near rear of jaw.  This was first noted 20 days ago,  I took her to a rabbit vet right away.   She has been put on Baytril antibiotic, twice a day orally  0.57 ml per dose of 100 mg/ml Baytril and also a pain medication Metacam 0.15 ml orally once a day.   Now on day 20 of the treatment.

The abscess is about the size of a marble, half inch diameter, and is firm, not movable.  It I believe is in the jaw, in fact the bottom of the adscess is about even with the bottom of her jaw bone.

After the 20 days for treatment, it has not changed, maybe just maybe it might be tad smaller, but it is very hard to tell.   The adscess came on suddenly.  She is out little friend, lives in our enclosed patio, and joins us for meals and evening TV time.  

She has been eating fine, pooping fine except for a few days when she had pudding type poops, but over all her bathroom and eating habbits are normal.  She appears to be in no pain, and seems to chew normal.

It just is the abcsess is still there, possibly the same size or only slightly smaller if any.

I plan to take her back to the vet in the next few days as the medication will be run out.

What should I be asking the vet?  suggestions?

She is a most loved rabbit, a great friend.

Thanks for any advice

[Bunny House]

Hi, so I am assuming its wild and not domesticated?

If any animal is on antibiotics they need to be on pro and prebiotoics so their gut flora doesn’t get messed up and cause stasis.
Caramel had a huge tooth root abscess that grew in her jaw. Often times antibiotics won’t make it go away, often times surgery is needed to clean out the abscess, take out dead bone and scraped and pull dead teeth that will cause an abscess to keep forming.She would also need an X-ray or ct to see how deep the abscess is and how much of her jaw it has affected. She was one a years worth of surgeries,pen-g shots and enrofloxacin and her recent culture came back negative so we were able to stop her meds.
If she is wild, I would be hesitant to do treatment on them as they are not domesticated but if you want to, you can ask for surgery for what I said above ( clean and take dead bone out) and maybe add some antibiotic beads in there and then continue antibiotics for a long time and it might fix her right up but I know that surgery is long and for her age, it might be a risk but heck, if you want to go for it, do it and well back you up, it just not an easy fix.

[Miss Bunny]

She is very domestic, litter box trained most of the time, and very friendly and loving I have had her for at least seven years since she was young. Is treatment different for domesticated bunnies verses wild ?

[jerseygirl]

I would ask the vet about giving penicillin-g shots as well as the baytril. The oral meds along just don’t seem to reach the target. Cases like this often need dual antibiotics. I agree about having x-ray also, to see if the bone or teeth are involved. My vet mentioned about x-rays being better done 5-7 days after being on antibiotics, as inflammation can make the xray less clear.

I would normally say this would require surgery but we did have a member here who saw some results with medications alone. I couldn’t say how long that lasted as never heard an update. It seems to be a balancing act, holding infection off. But they don’t seem to fully resolve without more intervention.

The pain med seems to be a low dose. They don’t always have pain, my boy didn’t seem to with his. But the anti-inflammatory property of the med will be useful. If your rabbit has tolerated this dose okay, you may want to discuss with the vet if a higher one would be beneficial.

[Miss Bunny]

Sadly Miss Bunny was put down this evening. We tried surgery to remove the abscess. The doctor found two teeth poking thru the abscess, and so much bone missing that the jaw had come apart. With the infection, he said it would never heal, and said it would be best pain wise to let her go before he woke her up. She passed with me rubbing her little forehead. I am very very sad. He said the teeth were very bad. Needless to say, get your bunny in for tooth exams, and love them while you can. First night in 8 years or so that my bun bun is not watching tv with me sitting on the floor, never thought Id cry over a rabbit until Miss Bunny came into my life.
Tomorrow morning will be tough, we’d always eat breakfast together, she’d jump on the chair next to me and she’d get a blueberry, then into the living room for a game of hide and seek, she would run around like a rocket. we had fun just yesterday, she went without out prolonged suffering at least. boy do I miss her and it only been a few hours since I saw her off.

so sad.

RIP

dave

[Nutmeg]

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear that! Making the decision to put a pet down, who is a basically a family member, is never easy!
I’m so sorry!!
Hugs your way!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I`m so very sorry for your loss. I know your pain all too well. 

(((((Binky Free)))))

[Bunny House]

I am so sorry.
You can write a post in the rainbow bridge if it helps you

[Author]

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