Pasturella/Ear infection emergency help

[Gingerandalgy]

hi all. I am new to this forum. 



One of my house rabbits, Ginger, is in vet-hospital, as of 4 nights now, with Pasturella that has caused an inner ear infection. Though her severe head tilt and spinning/rolling has improved, she still refuses to eat, and so remains at the vets. She has had conjunctivitis, snotty nose, as well as nerve damage to her face (due to a passing ear infection it seems the X-ray showed earlier in the year, but she seemed to have gotten over it), since Christmas. It has flared up again the last week and this time cause severe neurological issues. Naturally she is on the right meds, but having tried long courses of Baytril in the past, the specialist is trying Penicillin G now. My sister is a vet, and I have a lot of meds at home, so as and when administer accordingly.



What I am seeking is stories of those who have overcome severe middle ear infections/chronic pasturella. I should also state although neurological symptoms are better she is still wagging left to right. Struggling to walk. And severely disorientated. and not eating (this is the biggest issue, as she is losing weight quickly).



Ginger is only 2, my best friend and loving sister to Algy. When should she come home? Is it less stressful to be in normal environment. or where there is 24 hr care? any examples/stories here would be useful. Has anyone experienced the surgery being successful (Im warned against this)? How long is force feeding sustainable? Its been 5 days now which concerns me. Equally, how long were courses of antibiotics before changes? Any help appreciated. Im scared they will make me make a tough decision soon . Liz

PS – she has been living with pasturella, I suspect for 6 months now. It is a risk, but has not caused any major issues beyond conjunctivitis. She has a cooky little face and a snotty nose sometimes, but is generally happy. See picture attached, from April.

[Bam]

Here is a link to Megabunny’s thread about her bunny Gus’ ear surgery. She says in this thread it’s ok to PM her and ask questions too – even if a member isn’t active, a PM to them could still reach them unless they’ve changed their normal e-mail address. If not, someone here might have her on Facebook.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/134036/afpg/4/Default.aspx

[Gingerandalgy]

Thanks!

[Muchelle]

My bun a few months ago had a pretty savage inner ear infection (not due to pasteurella). It took him about a month of heavy antibiotic/antiflammatory to get out of the neurological symptoms.
If she’s having trouble moving around, make sure to check her butt because if she can’t manage to clean herself after peeing she might develope an urine burn… we found out the hard way and it slowed the recovery by a lot.

I hope your beautiful baby makes it through with less troubles as possible <3

[Megabunny]

Hello. My situation was different. LMK if you want to PM/talk. Please PM me if you’d like. Honestly, it’s a long story that is hard to go into in detail. But my bun did have the surgery. He wasn’t sick though and it’s been chronic staph that we have hit hard and not gotten rid of. The vet never promised it would fix the problem, so I went into it with my eyes wide open.I’m glad I did it for Gus, but if I had such a sick bunny I’m not sure I would do it. We still flush his ears but, again, he hasn’t had the pasturella to contend with so I’ve been fortunate with that. Sorry. It’s late here and I’ve had a long day but saw this come across to me email and couldn’t go to bed without responding, though briefly. Let me know if you still want any input. All the best. These darned ears!

[Megabunny]

Darn it! If there’s one thing I remember about BB it’s do NOT hit the submit button twice!

[Gingerandalgy]

Thank for your help and comments!

useful to know about cleaning

Indeed if it gets to the point of needing surgery, she would be so weak and so bad anyway that she would not be a good contender for surgery.

I pick her up today. She has begun to eat a little bit. So now its watching the next 10 days for if antibiotics work. week.

Anyone had experiences of timelines on antibiotics?

[Author]

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