Bunny with swollen vent and mucus like discharge

[KRiggz]

So we’ve been taking out rabbit Reginold back and forth to the vet for what we thought was an UTI, they’ve done sterile syringe test, ultrasound, x-rays, bladder sample, antibiotics and he still has a swollen penis area.. he’s a very clean and sweet bunny I don’t understand what’s going on he was on antibiotics for 2 weeks no affect, then all that other super expensive testing was done and the vets saying the pine bedding we use in his litter box could be irritating it but I use soft paper bedding for the cage and never have I had that problem with his junk being swollen from the pine or paper.. anyways I’m using all paper now just to be sure but has anyone dealt with this before or know what’s going on? He dribbles when he runs around so we and the vet thought it was an UTI and it’s not.. I just want him to feel better I don’t know if I can get any pics of his stuff but if I absolutely have to got someone to tell me what’s going on I will try! These are the only 2 pics I could get to upload.. he was neutered around 3-4 months ago and didn’t have this problem  before.. he is turning 1 yr old April 16th. If anybody can help me determine his breed to would be greatly appreciated!

[LBJ10]

Stones would show up on an x-ray, but sludge may not. Did the vet find any bladder sludge with the other tests? It can cause genital irritation and incontinence. Did the vet try flushing his system with SubQ fluids?

Since nothing was found via the tests that were done, then only other thing I can think of would be syphilis. But that doesn’t usually cause incontinence. Severity of the ulcers can range widely from very small or simply inflammation of the genitals to very large and crusty. The ulcers can also appear on the face. There is sometimes a whitish discharge associated with an active infection. Regular antibiotics are ineffective.

[KRiggz]

Yes he said there was stuff in his bladder but that it was normal because they pee out excess vitamins (calcium) and that they did the SubQ fluids a little bit ago I don’t know that they did a full thorough flush.. I thought it could possibly be the syphilis too but I don’t know how he would have that unless he was born with it or though genetics? As far as I’ve seen there’s no sores on his face, and the penis/vent area doesn’t have bumps or sores just a clear / yellow like discharge cause he dribbles pee. Sometimes it looks chaffed but other than that it they can’t find anything wrong with him the vets says he’s perfectly healthy and it’s just irritated but I still don’t know how to help him.

[jerseygirl]

Yes, rabbit syphilis is certainly a possibility. A rabbit can be a carrier and have no symptoms but then have them appear after time of stress or other illness. If it is syph, it’s possible he got it from his mother or from another rabbit that was asymptomatic. It’s normally treated with a series of penicillin injections. 

  http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syph_gen.html

Another possibility is E. cuniculi.. It had a variety of symptoms that can present, urinary incontinence being one of them. Some owners have reported the urine as being almost thick. Rabbits with EC can also be asymptomatic for their lifetime or have symptoms present in times of stress, illness or aging.

[Rookie]

Does EC show up in blood work?

[kirstyol]

Did the vet do a swab of the area? Perhaps it could be a local infection rather than a UTI?

[KRiggz]

The vet did not do a swab as far as I know, he inserted a sterile syringe in his bladder and we took urine from his litter box in and nothing showed up. Is there a smaller or more common name for the EC? I’ll look at him more and talk to the vet but Im still confused what to do as the vet didn’t find anything and he’s had it for months I’ve tried cleaning it with q-tips to keep the pee from sitting on it but nothing his helped so far. How do you detect EC or Syphilis? Bloodwork I assume? If it is a local infection what can I do to keep it clean and make it go away? Lastly this is not very important of a question but can anyone take a guess as to what breed of rabbit I have?

[kirstyol]

I was just thinking if a urine test was clear it could be a more localised infection – as in on the skin rather than in the bladder, a swab would be the way to test that. Did he have bloods done? Were his infection markers high? What antibiotic did he have? It could be that he has an infection that is not sensitive to that particular antibiotic or it could be something else entirely.

[LBJ10]

Oh, that’s a thought JG. EC can cause incontinence. There are usually other symptoms, but you never know with EC. It can do some crazy stuff.

KRiggz – There isn’t really a test for syphilis except doing a scraping and hoping the bacteria shows under a microscope. There is a blood test for EC, but it’s a titer so it isn’t 100% accurate. There are often false negatives. With both diseases, if they are strongly suspected then the vet will often just treat for it and wait to see if there is improvement. This is especially true for EC.

[KRiggz]

OK I will just stick it out as the vet is claiming he’s perfectly healthy in every aspect. I checked him today after I got off work and he actually had no discharge, still looks a little raw and poked out but it doesn’t look AS irritated.. hopefully it continues to get better! Getting him neutered was a nightmare all in itself and all this time I’ve been worried about why he might br dribbling and having personality changes! If anything else develops I’ll let you guys know tomorrow. Hopefully this is the end of this dragged out infection or whatever has been going on with him ;0 the vet trips really stressed him out.

[KRiggz]

OK here’s an update.. the discharge has died down, but now I noticed a TINY little sore on the side of his vent, looked like 1-3 tiny red dots.. what should I do now? I currently have been disadvantaged with having 1 source of income and we’ve probably spent $1000 on the vet already for medicine, dietary supplements, and testing.. he didn’t find anything wrong. Should I try to make another vet appt. At the risk of him saying nothing is going on again or should I try a new clinic.. we’ve been going to the same vet for all our animals but lately he has been pissing me of… I don’t know what to do to help little Reginold! Please help me figure out what my next steps should be? Do I wait for more obvious signs and symptoms and take him in or do I try a new vet or should I tell our regular one what I suspect?

[LBJ10]

I remember BunnyTowne really struggled with this. Her vet did not believe her. Finally, when Cotton was treated, he got better. He did not have traditional symptoms. But that’s the funny thing about syphilis, it doesn’t manifest itself the same way in all cases.

There are two things you can do. One would be to wait to see if the sores get any bigger and hope your vet will recognize it. The other is to try a different vet, hopefully one that would be willing to try other things. Like I said, syphilis is not something typically diagnosed with tests. It’s usually a visual diagnosis.

I’m not saying that this is what your bunny has. Obviously, I’m not a vet. But if money is a concern, it may be more cost effective to treat with pen-G shots. Otherwise, you might be testing and testing and never get a diagnosis (just like BunnyTowne). Sometimes you just have to risk having the wrong diagnosis and treat for whatever it is. This happens quite often with EC, for example. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

Are there any exotics vets near you? You indicated that you take all of your pets to this one vet. Do they have a lot of experience with rabbits and “pocket pets”?

[KRiggz]

Thanks for the information, Ive been monitoring him daily. I’ve owned gerbils and hamsters and grown up with a huge variety of adorable furry pets and cute scaly creatures this is my first time raising a rabbit but we got him after me and my gf got together she already had brooklynn our lop ear first since he was a baby and they are well taken care of, I’ve read lots of “guides” for the lack of a better word .. I understand a lot of their body language and their diet (timothy hay & other varieties alfalfa we give to our baby bunny only as a treat to our senior, advanced nutrition pellets, fresh water every day, occasional vitamins, varieties of greens/veggies parsley which I heard has anti inflammatory properties, small portions of kale , ect) anyways we plan on getting our vet tech degrees and I want to eventually get my certification to be a small exotics vet. Yes we go to an AAHA accredited vet, animal hospital at the crossing in Champaign, IL. We take our baby Reggie, senior Brook and our 3/4 year old green iguana. They are the few places that has an exotic vet, there is one a few towns away I think mahomet it’s just a far drive and bunny hates car rides. I will sit on that info and see how he does. I will bring it up to the vet when I have the money for an exam.

[LBJ10]

That’s great! It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research and you are studying to be a vet. I would think that you would be able to convince the vet to look into Reggie’s condition more thoroughly. In the meantime, MediRabbit has some good pictures of less obvious ulcers (on the white rabbit). They might help you determine whether these sores on your bun are similar.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syph_gen.html

[KRiggz]

Yes that looks about right except they are less obvious than that, he has small crust by his eye and nose/mouth and his vent has more little sores on it. I’m begining to think it might be that, now convincing the vet to really check him out should be fun, you would think he would notice something like that right away! He even pointed out how his nose always looks sore and crusted over, we bought him from Pet Supplies Plus like that, they said because of his face shape and that his nose sticks out so far when he goes rummaging through stuff it gets scabbed.. I don’t know if there’s a link between his nose crusting and this issue because his nose will clear up then get bad again. Other than these sores he acts like a healthy bunny he’s doing Binky’s on my bed right now..

Totally unrelated question but what is your stance on cleaning a rabbits scent glands? I’ve been told by the vet I don’t need to because they groom it all themselves but things I’ve read say you should clean them out once a month or a few or something similar? I’ve never done it before and don’t want to irritate or harm my bunbuns.

[KRiggz]

He did not have bloodwork done just urinary and bladder tests, they us doing 6ML Baytril (neroflaxacin? Or something like that) twice a day we did that for 2 weeks with no affect, it even almost caused him to go into GI Stasis he stopped pooping for 2, almost 3 days straight until we put him on critical care with the meds.. I was flipping out worrying the whole time he wasn’t defecating and barely drinking. Next time I go in I’ll ask about blood work and swabbing, and make sure he does a thorough check on his facial regions again.

[KRiggz]

It took me a minute to convert photos I hope this works.

[KRiggz]

More pics of our baby.

[jerseygirl]

Aww gorgeous bunbun! His body shape sort of reminds me of a Dutch or Mini Rex rabbit. Maybe he’s a mix of one of those breeds? He could be anything really.
His coat pattern is called Magpie Harlequin. : )

With sores appearing around nose, eyes and genitals, Id definitely suspect rabbit syphilis ( also known as vent disease and Treponematosis). They could just go ahead an give penicillin shots which would save money and the test can give false negatives. Then pay for more diagnostic test if the course of penicillin doesn’t clear it up. I would recommend getting the 1st one done at beginning of the week so you can take your rabbit back in if he has a sensitivity to it. Most do tolerate injected penicillin well though.

[jerseygirl]

Totally unrelated question but what is your stance on cleaning a rabbits scent glands? I’ve been told by the vet I don’t need to because they groom it all themselves but things I’ve read say you should clean them out once a month or a few or something similar? I’ve never done it before and don’t want to irritate or harm my bunbuns.

In the Bunny Info here on Binky Bunny, it recommends at least checking the glands monthy, not necessarily cleaning them. I must admit, I don’t get around to checking them that often! You may find some rabbits never need anything cleaned out, where as others get a hard waxy substance build up often. We had a member post a photo here recently of an area they found looking odd. It turned out to be a pretty full scent gland. For some buns. they can get infected, so I do think it is worth checking them rountinely.

[KRiggz]

When we got him we were told he was a polish rabbit. As he grew and got bigger in thought he was a mix between a polish and mini rex (I know polish rabbits are tiny and mini rexes are huge compared to them so I don’t even know if that’s a possibility) now I’m just stumped. You said his coat color is Magpie Harlequin? What does that mean necessarily, I’ve seen pictures and what classifies certain coat patterns as what but when I looked at the magpie coat I didn’t see the resemblance myself, I’m glad someone else has a better eye than me. I’m assuming theres a handful of certain breeds are capable of having that type of color? Whatever he is me and my gf found him at the pet store with a mini lop buddy and he instantly stood out, he was already about 3 months that day so he was bigger than the other bunnies so I feel like nobody wanted him for that reason because he wasn’t a baby “baby” rabbit, but when I went up to all the cages as the other rabbits ran away and slinked down he stood up on the bars and watched us the whole time so I went over to him and put my finger through the bars and instantly got a bunch of kisses! So my asked to gf hold him and he snuggled his face into her neck anyways we weren’t planning on buying any more pets that day at all but needless to say I felt like he chose us, because you can go and buy whatever pet you want but animals choose their people not the other way around. I didn’t care about his scabby nose or that he was already big or the fact that we really could afford him at that time.. I don’t know if he just had a good vibe from us or if we just smelled like outside so he wanted to be out but he was very cuddly and sweet. We took him home got a new cage, bedding, hay, toys, and have him kale for the first time and he loved ii he’s gonna be 1 yr in April he’s growing so fast. I will monitor him closely and check them monthly. My only concern about him when we brought him home was as he’s got more comfortable with us he’s shown more skittish tendencies, I feel as if he was neglected badly of abused as a kit as he will flinch at fast movements not directed towards him or he acts funny about his food as if we are going to take it from him, just little things that I wouldn’t expect from a rabbit that has never gone through a traumatic experience.. sometimes whenever he acts up and breaks stuff I’ll go to pick him up and put him in cage timeout and he’ll jump, and look bug eyes at me like he knows what he did wrong and thinks he’s gonna get hurt for it? I’ve never hit our bunnies as I know “discipline” isn’t an option, same goes for our Iguana, sometimes if they REALLY mess up I’ll do a VERY light tap on their bottom and say No bunny. Anyways I’m not 100% about the scabs but they look possibly connected so when I get paid again I’ll take him into the vet, we usually take him to see Kent Davis who was an awesome vet when we started going there, now when we go he talks to us like we don’t know $*&! about our bunnies and he rarely listens about what WE want to do for our bunnies. I will think about this for awhile and come up with a decision sometime soon. Thanks for all the help I really appreciate it everyone! I’ll post an update soon. Reginold likes praise and to be talked to so I’ll tell him what you said!

[LBJ10]

Yes, he’s magpie harlequin. It’s dilute, that’s why it’s grey/white instead of black/white. He’s obviously got a lot of genes working in there! Unfortunately, the harlequin pattern has been mixed into a bunch of breeds because breeders think it would be cool to have a harlequin patterned this or that. I’m looking at his pictures and I don’t see any distinguishing features. He’s not polish or rex, that’s for sure. How much does he weigh now? That might help.

I’m just reading what you’re describing and I would strongly suspect syphilis if I were you. The ulcers/sores can get better and then come back. If he has them on his nose and now his genitals, then that would point toward a syphilis infection. He probably got it from his mother. It may have even started on his face and it finally spread to his nether region. Probably from grooming, etc. Anyway, as I said before and as Jersey said, it would probably be most cost effective for you to treat with Pen-G shots and not worry about testing. IF treatment doesn’t help, then you can spend the money on additional tests. But right now, since money is a concern, a test may not be worth your time because there are often false negatives. That’s why syphilis is more often diagnosed via visual inspection. I think your problem is that he isn’t exhibiting the “classic” symptoms. This doesn’t mean that isn’t what he has. Like I said, BunnyTowne’s experience with Cotton was very similar to yours.

Oh and the scent glands. Eh, you can just check them every once in awhile. Most bunnies don’t have any issues with cleaning them themselves. But, there are some who end up with a buildup that they need help with. So it’s just a good idea to check every now and then.

[KRiggz]

His last vet checkup about 1/2 weeks ago he was a little over 4 pounds and he’s still growing, where do I get the PenG shots? Should I take him to the vet and ask for that specifically? I do check them out 7 yr old mini lop is not neutered so it’s difficult to check him with all that fur, testicles, and his fiesty attitude! Reginold also has this thing where if I put him on my bed he CONSTANTLY digs and digs and digs at my bed spread and clothing no matter what I do to try and stop him he keeps doing it. Anyways back to his breed yes his personality and his patterns are what got my attention! When he was a baby his ears and tail were too long for his body but now he’s growing into them nicely, as I said he wait 4.29 last time we took him in! Hopefully that can help determine his breed, I assumed I was probably wrong about the Rex and Polish but like I said this is only my second rabbit and first time raising one so I am not to good at distinguishing mixed breeds. He’s definitely a looker the pics don’t do him justice so you say he’s part harlequin magpie? Or is that just his coat/fur variant?

[LBJ10]

Harelquin is a pattern gene. Magpie is black/white harelquin, instead of the more well-known black/brown (Japanese). He also has the dilute gene, which dilutes the color. So the black appears blue/grey. His eyes are lighter too. Anyway, the coloring could have come from anywhere. They have introduced the pattern into many breeds. Just looking at his body and face shape, he reminds me more of Havana. But my guess is as good as anybody’s.

Pen-G shots come from the vet by prescription.

[KRiggz]

UPDATE

Sores on his vent have all cleared up but now there’s a funky looking mess on his bottom lip/chin, me and my GF took him into the vet with our iguana, Kent took a coultur off his mouth and said it could possibly be ring worm :0 said he would call us within 21 days if anything started growing. He acts better now sometimes it seems like the scabby thing bothers him other times he ignores it, hopefully we figure it out and find what the next step is.

You said Havana? Yeah I’m confused because the pet store I got him from usually takes pride in the fact they don’t sell mixed breed animals an that they only sell specific breeds also (Mini-Rex, Polish, Mini-Lop, England-Lop, Lion-Head, Harlequin, and I can’t remember the last one it was either Havana, Dutch or Florida Snow) any way we love the little guy and just want him to get better!

[KRiggz]

Pic of the scabby thing

[LittlePuffyTail]

Just read through this whole thread. Sores now appearing on his mouth really point to syphilis in my opinion. I do not know much about syphilis other than those being the main symptoms. I would def talk to your vet about treatment.

Not sure about breed but he’s super handsome!

[Bam]

Totally agree with LPT and LBJ10. Have the vet check him for vent disease aka rabbit syphilis. http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syph_gen.html

[Aaron]

I have two things to say: How is he doing today, any pain, not eating? And number two……HE IS SO ADORABLE!

[KRiggz]

I tried to bring that up to the vet but he was basically trying to tell me thats the last thing he thinks it is and that he’s testing for ring worm which I don’t even know how or why he would have that or what it looks like, I have brought up the Syphilis thing more than once, if the test comes back negative and he still refuses to try the Syphilis meds I’m going to go to a different vet. He doesn’t act like he’s in pain and he poops/pees and eats perfectly normal, drinking seems to bother him a little bit but every time he goes to drink we squeeze the bottle to make it easier on him and not make him move his mouth as much. The sore seems to have gone down a little bit but it’s still there.

[Author]

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