Please help :(

[Juliet]

So recently my 8 year old rabbit, Rio, has started uncontrollably sneezing. I took him to the vet and the vet said that because he is an “older” rabbit that there is not much he can do. He prescribed some extremely expensive antibiotics to give him for about 2 weeks. I gave him the antibiotics and after a few days he started acting very different. We never had him neutered because he was always extremely sweet and playful. After a few days of him on the antibiotics he started having a relentless sex drive. When we let him out of his cage he attacks everyone in the house and starts biting and humping whatever he can get his body on. He’s been off the medication for about a week now but his behavior hasn’t changed. He also started thumping uncontrollably if we don’t let him attack us. The antibiotics also didn’t work and he is still sick ): I don’t know what to do for him anymore or how to help. I feel so bad and am constantly trying different things to help him. If anyone has advice please respond A.S.A.P. Thank you so much.

[ThorBunny]

Is there another vet you can take him to? I know that respiratory infections can take a while to clear up, 2 weeks is probably not enough. Did they prescribe Baytril? It is the usual one given for respiratory infections. I’m sorry I can’t help much from my own experience, but I know others on here have had rabbits with infections that cleared up after extended antibiotic treatment!

As for the humping, it is probably because of the change in his health, stress, etc. Hopefully it will calm down again once he is well

[tobyluv]

I agree that you might want to find another vet, unless you are confidant that your current one is rabbit savvy. Did the vet discuss allergies at all? Sometimes sneezing is due to allergies, not to an infection. Has anything changed in his environment?  Does he have new hay which might be dustier or is there a lot of pollen in the air, etc.  Has he just been sneezing, or do you see any discharge? If there is a white discharge, that would probably indicate an infection. Sometimes a vet can culture the discharge and find an antibiotic specific to that infection.

That reaction he had was very strange, and it seems to indicate that he is allergic to the antibiotic or some component in it. It can take a while for infections to clear up, but you probably don’t want to keep giving a rabbit a medicine if he is having adverse reactions to it. Did the vet give him any sort of medicine with steroids in it? Maybe that would explain his behavior.

[ThorBunny]

Good point tobyluv, I didn’t think about the medicine causing hormonal shifts.

Does he seem to be sneezing less or more now than when it started? I agree it is important to see if there is white or opaque discharge. It is true that if discharge is clear, he may not have a respiratory infection at all, and he could instead have allergies or perhaps something stuck up his nose.

[Author]

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