My bunny Louie is almost 2 years old, and his sneezing problem has been going on for basically a year now. He has been to multiple vets, and on multiple antibiotics. He was originally having sneezing fits, and a severe watery nose, so we tried out three different courses of antibiotics and every time it came right back. So we finally decided to have his ears swabbed and do a bacteria culture test. (At the time of the fits he was also severely scratching his ears also) The test that came back said that there was no Pasturella bacteria but there was a small amount of meth-resistant coag neg staph.
So we put him on 1 month of a certain type of antiobiotics that was especially made to kill that specific type of bacteria, and it worked great! He has had no sneezing since he was off antibiotics, and I even cleaned his ears daily with zymox after he finished the antibiotics because the vet said that would be a good after treatement/preventative.
But now here we are, it’s been about 2-3 months since he stopped his medicine, and there has been no sneezing at all. I check his nose all the time and it’s always dry. But just this last week I keep hearing sneezing, like maybe 5 times a day, and I’m pretty sure it’s from him. But these are different, they aren’t sneezing fits and he doesn’t have a watery nose or discharge. They are single sneezes and at least one to three hours apart. And he still has a dry nose and has been eating and acting 100% normal. He’s also not scratching his ears a ton like he was before.
So I’m just very confused, it doesn’t seem like the bacteria came back because the symptoms aren’t the same and he’s been in perfect health for three months since then, but yet he’s dry sneezing frequently now. Could he also have allergies? If a bunny has allergies, are they more prone to respiratory infections? He’s already been tested for pasturella so I don’t think its on and off snuffles. Also if I take him to the vet can he be tested for allergies?
Some extra information:
- Louie has had past molar problems, but he had surgery once and it’s not been a problem for a whole year now, plus his teeth were check every time he went to the vet for the sneezing thing and every time they said his teeth look great.
- I recently switched to a kiln-dried pine litter, but I did extensive research on it and many bunny people said it was safe for buns because it’s kiln-dried. I also have a metal grate on top of the litter so they can’t even kick up dust. But this is the only very recent change that has occurred in my house that may be a factor.
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