Bun piddling?

[furballlover]

Has anyone had their bun piddle? Not spray marking or peeing outside the litter box but actual pee dribble? My girl’s going to get checked today but I’m concerned they’ll tell me it’s nothing. She’s never done this before and I know 10000% it was NOT spray marking.

[DanaNM]

It sounds like she could have a urinary tract infection, they happen from time to time with buns.

. . . 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.  

[furballlover]

she’s still on penicillin for her syphilis so I didn’t think that was possible?

[furballlover]

She’s also started sneezing. The piddling just started Wednesday.

[Wick & Fable]

A urinary problem might not always be caused by a bacteria that is susceptible to penicillin, and also there might be actual anatomical things going on that is causing the pee-spotting (ex. muscle control, bladder stone…).

If the sneezing is recurrent (i.e. it wasn’t just a single sneeze or two), then I would definitely consider having your vet assess if another medication needs to be added to address the other concerns. Another option is also waiting until you finish the syphilis treatment until adding on more, while monitoring if any of these new symptoms get worse enough to merit immediate treatment.

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.

[furballlover]

She’s at 6months of weekly penicillin injections and at this rate I’m not hoping to be done with it any time soon. I also have 2 buns so I’m worried something might get passed between them. She’s been sneezing every day for a week & each day was a bit more sneezing and she’ll sneeze doing different things so I doubt it’s her hay like I first hoped. I’m just so worried somethings going to happen to her because I missed having the vet check for something.

[Wick & Fable]

How long is the penicillin treatment intended to go for?  6 months seems very long for treatment, and if syphilis symptoms aren’t improving, I think more frequent intervals might be needed though definitely discuss with your vet. My rabbit was treated for syphilis and I did daily penicillin shots for 3 weeks.

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.

[furballlover]

I did talk to the vet about increasing the frequency but was told no. The last blood test a few weeks ago put her at .389 which is mildly positive. She’s halfway through another round of penicillin and then we’ll do another blood test. I also asked if there was another medication she could take to help the penicillin be more effective but was told no to that as well. If she still does test positive on her next blood test I’ll look at getting a 2nd opinion. Only catch is the next closes exotic vet is 3+ hrs away.

[furballlover]

The vet said it is a uti so TMS antibiotics. The sneezing, since there’s no discharge, the vet said it may just be seasonal combined with the stress of weekly shots. If it gets worse then they’ll check her again.

[Wick & Fable]

Both vets (exotic, rabbit-experienced) that I have worked with with my Wick (treated for syphilis) mention that it can take a long time for the PCR blood test to show a decrease in syphilis antibodies. Did/is your rabbit showing signs of having syphilis still?

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.

[furballlover]

The bumps are gone but she still gets eye crusties. The eye crusties are mostly gone at this point. I didn’t know that about the delay in the pcr test. Her blood work in December (5months of treatment) showed fully contagious but her blood work from this month showed the almost negative level. I want her to be non contagious so I don’t have to worry about my other bun getting it.

[furballlover]

Maybe after this round of shots is finished, even if she’s still showing slight positive,  we’ll take a break from treatment? I hate stressing her out every week especially since she’s doesn’t handle stress very well.

[Wick & Fable]

I would talk to your vet but I think that is seems like a valid route.

My notes say the blood test was a treponema titer, but PCR stuck out in my mind so unsure if those are synonymous or we talked about doing a PCR, but didn’t do it if it’s a different test.

My Wick’s treponema titer literally increased between when we tested him initially before treatment (.364 – Nov 2018) and directly afterward the 21 day treatment (.519 – Oct 2018), and then 5 months later it was still around the same value (.508 – March 2019).

Wick had fur loss and scabs around the mouth and that went away and has not occurred since we stopped treatment  which is now well over a year. Since then, we did rescue a 2nd rabbit and she hasnt shown signs of syphilis (though they do not hump or have intimate contact). Both vets who have seen Wick since his diagnosis gave their OK that even though the test shows antibodies exist, his lack of symptoms and treatment completion are confident signs.

Wick had penicillin shots spaced once every 1-3 days for a separate condition early on (he had syphilis, but we didn’t know and he had no signs), so when I informed the vet about this, we opted to do both daily penicillin shots and daily oral azithromycin for 3 weeks.

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.

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