House rabbit sneezing

[Shannon]

Hi everyone,

I brought my baby bunny home last week and in the past few days he has begun sneezing and today he has a slight clear discharge under his nose.

I have spoken to the vets and took him in today, I’ve been told to monitor him over the next few days.

I was just wondering, however, what your opinions are. He is fine in himself – still running around the house like a lunatic, eating, drinking, pooing and weeing as normal – he just has the occasional sneeze and this clear runny nose. I have just changed his hay as he was on quite a dusty bale, so I am wondering if it could be caused by that or maybe something else in the environment, or if I should be worried?

[sarahthegemini]

Dusty hay can definitely be the culprit!

[kurottabun]

Since you mentioned the hay is dusty, then like sarah said it could very well be the cause. You could shake the hay to get rid of excess dust before giving it to the bunny, but continue to monitor and see if that helped with the sneezing and discharge to rule out an upper respiratory infection.

[Peri and Poe]

My rabbit Poe had a very runny nose when he was younger but it something that has disappeared as he grew older. Whereas my rabbit Peri when she started sneezing with discharge, it was a sign of her teeth issues. I think carry on monitoring if it gets worse, otherwise like mentioned above it could be environmental.

[Daisy Rey]

Our Daisy had this – she was sneezing constantly…I actually recorded it to show the vet. But, my son got right up in her face (she’s not a snuggly bunny – she’s too busy running around!) and saw the hint of something sticking out of her nose. We scooped her up and my husband got a pair of tweezers – she had a piece of hay stuck up her nose. We pulled it out (along with the goop that surrounded it) and she was good as new! 

Good luck! 

[Shannon]

Thanks, everyone. He did get a bit worse so I took him to the vets, they gave me Baytril but he has been on that for four days now and while there was a slight improvement <g class="gr_ gr_264 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="264" data-gr-id="264">to</g> begin with, he seems to have descended back into huge sneezing fits again!</p>

[Wick & Fable]

If Baytril is being administered correctly and at an appropriate dose while the symptoms are getting worse, it could be that Baytril alone or Baytril itself is not the antibiotic needed to fight your rabbits specific URI. When Wick had his, we tried Bactrim first which did not make any improvements. Baytril was next and while it did improve it for a bit, it plateau’d and didn’t really make him better, so we kept him on Baytril and added in penicillin shots and that did the trick wonderfully.

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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