New bunny has wet nose

[Susanne]

Hi all,

So I noticed during speed dating that the rabbit I chose to bring home to bond with Ruby had a little wet on his nose. I asked them and they said that they hadn’t noticed before and he was “perfectly healthy”.  I was hoping it was nothing but it’s been wet again, I’m pretty sure it’s a runny nose vs him getting it wet drinking or something.

Just booked a vet appt for next week, and I hesitantly am going back to the vet that didn’t see the blockage on Elmer’s x-ray.

Is a week wait OK for a runny nose? (I haven’t noticed any sneezing or difficulty breathing.). Can he give it to the other bun?

[Wick & Fable]

Waiting a week for a runny nose is fine– if it was a URI or something related to respiratory illness, typically symptom progression wouldn’t be so drastic and extreme to cause imminent risk within a week; that being said, keep monitoring and if breathing seems to be getting hard, that would merit attention sooner (since rabbits can only breath out of their nose).

Re: whether a URI can be passed to another bun, yes it can. If the rabbits have been together for a while, it is likely that the other bonded mate’s immune system is robust enough to fight off the infection. Some vets will treat both rabbits as a cautionary measure.

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.

[Susanne]

Thank you. I’ll keep close attention to his breathing. As of now I don’t hear any sound.

I just brought him home Saturday and he has been separated from my other rabbit with double xpens. I was going to start swapping them for pre-bonding and so the new guy can get a little more exercise, do you think they’ve been close enough to be exposed anyway or is it better not to swap their areas?  They’ve almost touched nose to nose several times and are laying close against the pens.

[Wick & Fable]

I think it’s very hard to manage contact that it wouldn’t happen, so I don’t think you’d have to worry or be anxious about contamination. You should mention having another rabbit so your vet can advise on 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.

[Susanne]

Ok – I went ahead and swapped them.  He has been exploring and running around like crazy! After he took a break his breathing may be concerning? Didn’t stop him from getting up and running again after a couple minutes but after the video it looked like he was opening his mouth to breath a little too. Does this look normal?

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZCtsM9qE3f09egQQs_MZJB8OQDbFV7o/view?usp=drivesdk

(Video link reviewed and approved by Wick)

[DanaNM]

I didn’t see that he was opening his mouth in the video, but maybe I missed it. His breathing looked ok to me, pretty normal after some excitement running around. My understanding is that a bun having trouble breathing will kind of sit up and not lay down like that. His nose also didn’t really look wet to me in the vid, but could have just been the lighting.

I’m less worried about it being contagious, but if you do suspect any health issues it’s best to wait till you’re sure he’s healthy before starting side too much bonding stuff.

He’s also very cute!!

. . . 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.  

[LBJ10]

How wet is his nose? Is there an identifiable discharge? I’m just wondering because sometimes bunnies have “damp” noses from condensation of their breath.

[Susanne]

It’s not that wet and not all the time, but it keeps coming back. I think it’s a small amount of clear discharge. I don’t think condensation due to the temp here and how it was like that where I met him then still at my place.

The breathing seemed little louder than I’ve heard in other buns, although agree he was excited. The mouth dropping a little was not captured in the video unfortunately.

It’s so hard for me to tell. He does seem very energetic and healthy otherwise. I have a pic of the wet fur around his nose from earlier today. I may be just a little paranoid right now, so I’m thinking I won’t interrupt any bonding stuff and just see what the vet says next week.

 

[LBJ10]

That really doesn’t look that bad. Does it dry hard and get crusty? Or does it just disappear?

[Susanne]

Good to know. It pretty much goes away, maybe dries hard for a little bit then he cleans it.

[Susanne]

Hi again,

Since the nose kept getting wet and looked a little green on the fur, I went ahead and started Baytril. Also my other rabbit seemed like her nose may have been wet and they both seemed to lick the air, like something was running into their mouth, (and just given their close proximity), I have been giving her the meds too. I have a couple questions since things aren’t going very smoothly 🙁

First- I think I overdosed Max this morning. The first try got some on his chin, but couldn’t tell how much so gave him a second dose. He doesn’t look like he swallows but I couldn’t find more spilled other than some on his chin so probably got like 1.5 the dose. Should I just make the next one less, or skip it?

Second- Ruby is acting sick from the Baytril. I don’t think she is just stressed, I think she doesn’t feel good. Not eating her treats. She will eat a little hay if I hand feed. She did start eating pretty good last night for a bit after A LOT of coaxing. In this case, I am torn on whether to keep giving her, especially when she didn’t really have symptoms but now we could have the issue of antibiotic resistance.

My vet is out of town for 2 weeks on top of this, a tech is supposed to call me but not sure they will have a good answer.

[DanaNM]

I would wait to hear back from your vet, but Baytril tends to be pretty well tolerated, and I know with antibiotics it’s generally not good to skip a dose. So personally if I didn’t hear anything back I would give Max his next dose.

Can you syringe feed Ruby and/or give her some fluids while you are waiting to hear back from the vet tech? She may have gotten a bit dehydrated which is making her feel worse.

. . . 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.  

[Susanne]

I talked to the tech and like I thought not a great answer. She also mentioned CC. I honestly don’t like that answer because it will stress her out even more, and still not sure if this is stress induced or side effects from meds. They are hoping to get ahold of the vet and call me back with advice. I really don’t think giving her meds and living on CC for the next 11 days is the right choice. I can try a little now to hold her over but if the meds are making her sick that seems like the bigger evil at this point.

[DanaNM]

Can you see if she’s dehydrated? If you grab a handful of scruff and then let it go it should kind of snap back quickly. If it kind of rolls slowly back into place, she could be dehydrated. I’ve noticed with my buns this can be one of the main things that makes them not feeling well, and they perk up really quickly after some CC and fluids.

She might be annoyed at you, but I do think some CC at least now is a good idea and might help her feel a lot better.

. . . 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.  

[Susanne]

She just had gone in her box and ate some hay, but maybe not water.  Now she is in a place I might not be able to catch her, but I will try. I will try the scruff trick but not sure if I will be able to tell. She is really giving me a headache :/

[Susanne]

I forgot to say thanks yet again! I know I have the bonding thread but trying to keep the 2 separate and will resume updating there when I get back to bonding.

Update: The vet tech was able to talk to one of the vets. They said stop the Baytril, get some CC in her and monitor until she gets back to normal.  I was able to catch her, and administer some CC. I think it was a decent amount, then a couple small syringes with water. I totally forgot to check the scruff already because the stress of catching her but I am feeling better now. Like mentioned, no way to know for sure if it was stress or the Baytril, but I’ve seen her stressed and she has never not wanted treats after a few hours, and she was eating cardboard scratchers and wood planks instead of actual food so it was just too weird.

If she ends up with a respiratory infection we’ll have to cross that bridge with how to medicate her. Maxwell seems to handle the medicine well and his nose doesn’t seem as wet now. I am getting him some flavored Baytril from the vet for the rest of his course.

[DanaNM]

Glad you got some answers! And yes hopefully they vet can make you a better suspension! Sometimes the vet-techs don’t realize it’s for a bunny and make them liver flavored for cats (yuck). My bun’s favorite flavor was one called “tooti fruity” lol

. . . 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.  

[Susanne]

Yes, I’m sure this is a bit subjective situation but glad a vet gave an answer on what to do, just hope it doesn’t backfire later. I’m thinking maybe after I finish the meds for Max they can both get a culture to test for any bacteria to be sure.

I’m glad you also suggested the water, my vet has never suggested I guess because of adding water to CC, but I think it makes more sense to get more liquid in them. I actually think I should have given her more CC but it’s not like she wasn’t eating at all on her own. She perked up a little not long after getting fed, she went and ate a little more hay, pooped, visited Max, then went back to my room in her box to sleep.

And yeah, I don’t know why they didn’t think to flavor it the first time, but maybe now I can get him to eat fruit with the meds in it. They only had grape and watermelon flavor, haha.

[Susanne]

Oh and I was so concerned about Ruby, I didn’t answer about Max. I had planned not to skip his next dose based on what you said, and the tech said a half dose would work. I may just fill up the full amount knowing he resists swallowing and some may not get in him (or better yet he’ll eat it in fruit). He doesn’t seem adversely affected by getting a little over dose today.

Side note- Ruby just ran down the hall with a binky.

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