Penicillin Injections for Reoccuring Abscess

[MintJulep]

So about 6 weeks ago Julep had surgery to remove an abscess that had formed at the base of her ear. Unfortunately the abscess came back about 3 weeks ago. I just took her to the vet last night to have it drained and my vet said he wanted to try a round of penicillin injections to try and stop the abscess from coming back. Has anyone had success treating an abscess like this? I don’t want to put her through surgery again and am dreading having to take her back to the vet every month to have it drained. She is a lop so we think the abscess started as an ear infection (darn adorable and infection prone lop ears!). She handled the surgery pretty well but I can’t afford to do it again for a while. I know that oral penicillin is not good for bunnies but that injections are okay. She is still acting perfectly fine and eating and pooping so I know in that aspect she is fine. She just gets very stressed going to the vet so I want to minimize that as much as possible.

[Bunny House]

Hi there! I have a lop with reoccurring ear infections but I never thought of an abscess so thank you for that!
I have a New Zealand who had a terrible tooth root abscess, the previous vet didn’t do what they should have and it came back worse. So we did multiple surgeries to clean out the wound ( need to have surgery done to remove all of the infection) and then we have been doing weekly pen-g shots for the past year and everything is great but you need to keep her on probiotics every day or everyother day so her GI tract doesn’t get compromised.
(my baby has been very expensive as she has regular cts to make sure everything is fine).

Is her abscess hard or is it just liquidy? as long as he flushed it (if it is liquidy) then the pen-g shots might have to be done for a long time ( so it doesn’t come back as those bacteria are very tough to kill), but they are very cheap! I suggest a couple of months and honestly to buy the 100ml bottle, for me it was $10 (last over a year) compared to having her monthly prescription cost $10 so I saved over $200 dollars.

The pen-g might resolve the abscess entirely without anymore surgeries! Just make sure to get a flush from the vet to flush her ears out weekly for the rest of her life as that is what my vet did so hopefully no more painful ear infections occur

[MintJulep]

Thanks Bunny House! The abscess was about as liquidy as a rabbit abscess can be, kinda like toothpaste. Very gross in all honesty. There was a little bit of the pus that came out on the way home so I had to use a washcloth to get it all off of her. My vet wants to just do 3 weeks of the injections once a week. Should I ask him to increase it for a few more weeks? I know those darn bacteria are so hard to kill. I will be picking her up some probiotics but she is so fussy I’m not sure she will like having them. What kind do you use? She eats a great diet with tons of hay and fresh veggies but gets oats to keep her weight up since she doesn’t like pellets. Do you give your bunny the shots yourself? If I could have the vet show me how it would save me so much time and gas money!

[Bunny House]

of course! Okay so that is a good sign that it is liquidy, its easier to flush out the bacteria than it being hard like my buns was. I would ask him to increase it for 2-3 months ATLEAST because it can come back and be really bad, 3 weeks on injections is not long enough to ensure it gone. Is your vet rabbit savvy or is it a regular vet? He might even be able to put antibiotic beads in the hole and then close it up so its fighting directly in it and then the pen-g comes in to help so it tag teams it, you want to treat it right and aggressively the first time rather than fight it again 3 more times and not be aggressive .

I use Bennebac from amazon in the dry canister and then I wet pellets and then stir in the probiotic in it and they can’t tell the difference!
And yes I do them all myself because they charge a lot to have a tech do it when you can do it for free! Its scary at first but if they show you the right way to do it, the hardest part is getting them in the bunny burrito and then you just stick it in and you’re good to go!

I hope that helps

[Daisy]

I had a bunny with an abcess on her hind stump (she had her hind leg amputated). I had to inject penicillin every other day subcutaneously between the shoulder blades and the abcess was flushed monthly.The abcess did not go away and finally was the cause of death after roughly 2 to 3 months, but this was because she was sitting on it causing even more damage to it.

You can easily learn injecting yourself. I was already able to do it myself because I learned it at uni, but it is very easy to learn even from a vet on the spot. Maybe have him/her watch you as you do it the first time yourself so she can see if you do it correctly. The only thing you need is guts. If you are going to inject, stick in horizontally, INJECT, pull out straight. Don’t hesitate because you will either end up injecting in the skin, or you poke and pull back, or you poke and wiggle around while the needle is in, hurting your bunny unnecessary. Make sure not to accidentally inject into the muscles (then you are injecting not horizontally enough or too deep), this is very painful. It sounds kinda scary but it is really easy and fast to do.

[MintJulep]

BH: My vet is rabbit savvy. I have very limited options for vets who deal with rabbits in my area. There are only 2 offices that have rabbit knowledgeable vets and the one I see came from the other office. I thought about antibiotic beads and will bring it up when I take Julep back in next week for another injection. I will also try and get her some probiotic. Sadly she doesn’t really eat pellets but I bet I could get it in the oats she eats and she would be fine with that.

Daisy: I am so sorry that happened with your bunny. I am going to ask the vet to teach me how to do injections. I’m not very squeamish so that’s a good thing! But it’s really good to know that learning how to give subcutaneous injections is easy. That makes me feel better. I just want to make sure this abscess stays under control so it doesn’t end up effecting her hearing down the road.

[Bunny House]

I wish there were more rabbit savvy vets :/ I wanna specialize in rabbits after vet school. You can always sprinkle it in the wet veggies before you feed them to her and she won’t taste a thing! Let us know how it goes!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sorry to hear your bunny is having problems. She’s so cute.

Ear base abscesses are especially stubborn. Has your vet cultured the abcsess to determine what type of bacteria you are dealing with? This is always my vets first step with an abscess. You want to identify the bacteria so you can target it with the best antibiotic.

I’ve personally heard of a few cases, unfortunately, where it was necessary for the vet to do a lateral ear resection (basically removing the ear canal). It looks truly awful but is helpful with abscesses that recur and chronic ear infection buns. Attaching a link below (Warning: Graphic Photos). Not all vets are capable of performing this. My own vet was unwilling to consider it as an option for my chronic ear infection bun and would have had to refer me to a specialist.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Surger…ection.htm

[MintJulep]

LPT she is a cutie! And a very good bunny at the vet. I thought they might have been giving me the wrong bunny back when the tech said “she’s just so sweet!”. I kept thinking “you should see her at home when she is feeling grumpy!”

And the vet did a culture when he did the surgery to remove the abscess but has not done a culture since it came back. He did mention the possibility for having to remove the ear canal but that he wouldn’t be comfortable doing it. Luckily I live within driving distance of Cornell University which has a very famous vet program and would be able to take Julep there if need be. I am hoping that the penicillin injections will do the trick. Since the flush on Tuesday I have been giving her daily anti-inflammatory/pain meds and oral antibiotics as well as topical for the incision. I have also been able to get a tiny bit of pus out of the abscess by very gently putting pressure on the sides but that has diminished. I will be ordering some probiotic for her and talking to the vet more when I take her back Tuesday evening. She hasn’t had any ear infections that I know of until the suspected one that could have started this whole abscess mess! I really hope we will be done with all this very soon!

[Bunny House]

I hope everything goes great! And if not, Cornell should be able to fix her right up. Let us know how it goes!

[MintJulep]

Well we were at the vet last night for another shot. I wasn’t able to talk to the vet himself but instead talked to one of the techs who then relayed my questions to the doc about increasing the penicillin to every 3 days. I can already feel the abscess forming again deep under her ear so I was very anxious about getting answers. The vets office called back today to say, yes we can increase the shots so yay! But now I am waiting for the vet to call me to talk about doing injections at home because I can’t afford to take her back to the office twice a week. Fingers crossed I will hear from him by tomorrow and find out what he thinks.

I hope I can advocate well for myself and Julep. She was so stressed coming home from the vets last night. She didn’t move at all once they put her back into the carrier and we have about a 40 minute drive home! It also took her a few minutes to come out of the carrier when we finally got home. I don’t want to put her through that kind of stress twice a week.. Poor little thing. We will figure this out though!

[Wick & Fable]

Doing the shots at home is definitely a good route! If you need any help, I’m sure there are videos online and some BB members (myself included) are experienced in doing injections.

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.

[Bunny House]

The hardest thing is standing up for yourself and your baby at the vet and saying more needs to be done, but don’t worry, a lot of us bun parents go through it so don’t be afraid to push We do weekly pen-g so as Wick said, we are always here for help!

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