Onyx Update.

[OnyxMoon]

Alrighty! So my bunny Onyx, i got him back in January. He has always been sneezey/sickly, and he’s been back and forth to the vet. 

I just took him back to the vet again today. It was a different vet, but she was super thorough. Felt his stomach/abdomen, listened to his stomach, listened to his lungs, his heart. She said she didnt hear any crackling/wheezing from his lungs, his gut sounded slowed down but she said it could’ve been due to stress during transport..

He has also not been eating his hay very much, but eats his pellets just fine. In fact, he goes nuts for them. I’ll just try the trick i did last time he started refusing his hay, which was put a tiny bit of apple into it. 

She made sure to check his eyes because they are watery and crusty, she didnt say much about them just that they looked normal. Then she checked his incisors. 

He has a habit of scrambling, like an normal bunny would when they can never get a grip on the cage floor. So when he runs about he tends to slip and run into his litter box mainly. She looked at them and said that he broke a tooth. 

 I didn’t even see that because ever since I’ve had him his incisors looked like that. I feel terrible because i didn’t even know it was broken, it looks like its just a bit crooked. Or at least it does when you can only see it for one millisecond. So she prescribed him some pain meds (Previously said Metacam, i meant Meloxicam.) and said to keep an eye on it.

She also prescribed Baytril for his sneezing, and since he did so well on it the last time, we have high hopes for this round.

My question is: How can i help make him more comfortable? Also, what can i do to help him get a better grip on the cage flooring? Its smooth plastic. Whenever i put fleece in there all he does is pee/poop on it, and not in his litter box. Then he just sits in his mess, and gets his groin area even more dirty. Also, what shampoos/soaps are safe for buns to use on their groin area? Ive tried just butt baths with water, but it does nothing to actually clean him. 

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks! 

[Daisy]

Maybe try paper pellets? Wood pellets are too hard to be used as cage flooring, paper pellets are a lot like it but much softer.

[Wick & Fable]

Remember to keep using Baytril, even a little bit after the symptoms go away. If improvement plateaus, what worked for Wick was adding in injections of penicillin/floxacillin and those two combined for a while did the permanent trick.

Could you try buying those timothy mats? You can cover them in a pillow case if you think it may be a bit too rough. Some of them are thin, so I think they can be quite smooth. The one I happened to buy was thick so it seems more rough.

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.

[OnyxMoon]

I don’t cover the bottom of his cage with bedding anymore, i thought it would confuse him during litter training. Which he seems to still need, as he poops/pees where ever he wants still. 

I started putting dish towels in there with him, to make him feel more comfortable leaving his litter box and then also entering his cage after running around. But he would just sit in his poop/pee and wouldn’t even go into his litter box while the towels would be in there.

I’m trying to think of other options, could i put matte tape along the bottom in strips? Would that give him some kind of grip and not hurt his feet? I think he cant get a grip because the hair on his feet is longer than our other bunnies is.

He did have a grass mat in there, a small one from Oxbow i bought while at the vet a while back. He would rarely sit on it, if he did he would pee/pee on it, i’ve noticed that he isn’t a chewer. 

Which is worrisome, as he doesn’t chew on wood sticks, toys, or cardboard. He wouldn’t even chew on the grass mat like our other bunnies would. I bought our bonded pair a large one when i got Onyx his small one, and they slept on it for the first week and then began eating it when we had a gap in hay shipments. They are chewers though, Pumpkin is famous for ruining cords.

Onyx is running around in my room right now, i cleaned it up last night as it was pretty messy, and seems to be happy. I set out his morning pellets, and of course he attacked those. I decided to give him Alfalfa again to see if he would eat any hay, and he started munching on it. And set out his water dish, and he immediately started drinking. 

Update: (about five minutes later) I heard tons of sneezing behind me, sneezing and squeaking combined as well. I got up, went over to Onyx to see what was going on and i picked him up. Brought him over to my desk where i could see better (more light) and he was really sensitive about his nose.

So i try to get him to let me look at it, and i was very surprised. He had something stuck in there!  I quickly grabbed some tweezers, cleaned them, and he huffed out a small crumb lookalike. Then he started sneezing again, and with the help of my tweezers, a huge chunk comes out of his nose. I think its time to get him an x-pen until i find out what he sniffed into his nose. 

[LittlePuffyTail]

Oh, poor guy! He must have felt so much relief when you got that out of his nose.

[OnyxMoon]

He stopped sneezing right after, and then took a nap while laying on me after. I still can’t believe that there was something up there, it freaks me out to think about it.  He must’ve been in pain or at least annoyed. I haven’t heard a sneeze since though. 

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