Advice on ear infection treatment plan for bun

[Peapod026]

Hi All!

I first want to say how helpful this website has been as a bun-owner of 6 years now! I’ve been reading the topics about ear infections folks have posted, but wanted to ask some advice specifically about my bunny. My rabbit Merlin has a bad ear infection in his lop ear (he’s got helicopter ears so the flopped-down ear has the infection). He isn’t displaying any head tilt, but the vet said he’s in danger of developing it. He’s eating and pooping ok, but he’s on a long regime of antibiotics: He was on marbofloxacin for 2 weeks (.7 ml/day) and there was no improvement on his checkup visit. His vet then took swab of his ear and got the results (she read them to me aloud but I don’t have a paper copy of the test results, so don’t remember but they found 2 types of bacteria in his ear).  Now he’s on .6ml of doxyclycline 2x/day (which is effective against the second type of bacteria in his ear), and is due for a check up in about 12 days. These have both been administered orally, and that’s been the only treatment.

His vet says if there’s no improvement after this round of antibiotics, she wants to anesthetize him and go in and deep-clean the infection and see if there’s a tumor or cyst causing the issue. To be honest, I don’t know if I trust this vet–she seems very busy, her reviews online aren’t great, and doesn’t call to follow up when she says she will (IE she never called with test results and I never got them sent to me, it took me ages to actually get in touch with her to GET the results). I took him to this vet because it’s  the only one in my area. I’m willing to drive far, however–so should I take him to another rabbit-savvy vet for a second opinion , or does this seem like a normal routine treatment? I really want to avoid anesthesia; and my current vet’s plan of action seems drastic.

[LBJ10]

Hmm, I take it that the infection is not in the inner ear then. I wonder if he would benefit from a drop or ointment. You can do this as long as the eardrum is still intact.

I’m sorry the vet hasn’t been very forthcoming with information. It doesn’t sound like the vet has done anything unusual. One antibiotic didn’t work, so they did a culture and tried a different antibiotic. Sometimes it takes some trial and error. I’ve had a lot of luck with Azithromycin, while others have had luck with more common antibiotics like Enrofloxacin. It all depends on what kind of bacteria is causing the problem and what that bacteria is sensitive to. Each situation is different, so sometimes you just have to try something and then try something else if necessary. In fact, a lot of vets won’t even bother with doing a culture until several antibiotics fail. Just because a particular bacteria is detected, doesn’t necessarily mean that particular bacteria is what is causing the symptoms.

[Peapod026]

Thanks. LBJ, that makes me feel better.

The vet did say she thinks the ear drum is ruptured, there’s a lot of puss visible and it sounds like it wouldn’t be if the eardrum was intact. My poor baby. So it sounds like we are going down a normal treatment route.

 

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