Stubborn Mystery Upper Respiratory Illness :(

[caitlin]

Hi everyone! I am in need of some medical advice. I am currently seeing a vet, but we are both a little stumped.

I recently (in March) adopted another rabbit (male) to bond with my own (female). From the start, I noticed he had a very red nose, but assumed it was just how he was. I soon noticed that he was sneezing and wheezing a lot and immediately brought him to the vet and they said it was likely a URI and started him on an antibiotic (i forget if it was trimethoprim sulfa or enrofloxacin) which helped, but did not exactly stop the sneezing fits he would get throughout the day. I then brought him to another vet back home and they ran a culture and found Bordetella. They then started him on Marbofloxacin, which did not seem to help. After that, we tried Doxycycline which helped a little bit, but not as much as we had hoped, he was still getting fits of sneezes. We lastly put him on Ceftiofur injections every 3/5 days, but this did not kick the infection either. We also have been putting Echinacea drops diluted into his water. At this point both me and my vet are quite confused why nothing is helping. I had mentioned that maybe we should do allergy testing, but the vet did not seem to think that it was an allergy, but regardless, I switched their timothy hay to orchard hay in case he was allergic, but this also did not help. I also feel like its worth noting that my other rabbit that is now bonded to him has not gotten sick despite being around the sick one pretty much all day. I was wondering if anyone had any sort of suggestions or if anyone went through something similar. Thank you guys!

[LBJ10]

The fact that they found Bordetella doesn’t mean much. Like Pasteurella, it can be present in rabbit sinuses and not cause any symptoms. It’s just part of the microbiome. Since you have tried antibiotics that are effective against Bordetella, then it may be that the Bordetella wasn’t an issue at all.

Does he have any other symptoms? You mentioned that his nose was inflamed. Is it still red? One thought I had was an atypical syphilis infection. Rabbits can get lesions in and around their noses, which can cause sneezing.

[caitlin]

Thank you for your response!! I was actually thinking the same thing about Bordetella, but just listened to the vet and let her do her thing but maybe I should bring that up to her. His nose is still red, but not as bad as it was when I first adopted him. He is kind of a weird rabbit and also struggles with keeping his bottom clean, I am not sure if that is related or not. I would like to get his bladder/urethra checked out too because he pees in the litter box, but then within five minutes later he will pee on the floor. I just found that kind of weird that he pees so often and that sometimes it is in the litter box and sometimes it is not, as if he does it on accident. He still has a great appetite and poops well thankfully. He also gets quite a bit of eye gunk that I have to clean every day. The vet is supposed to call me today and maybe I can bring up lesions and see if we can somehow check for that!

[LBJ10]

Hmm… yes, I think something else is definitely going on here. Although a dirty bottom and incontinence can be caused by a lot of things. Usually if syphilis is the reason, there are lesions in that area too. But you never know. At least now you know that you may need to do some detective work to figure out what’s going on with him. I would ask the vet about an atypical syphilis infection. The disease can present in some weird ways sometimes.

[Wick & Fable]

It may be coincidental since it’s a single case, but my Wick had atypical syphilis, though symptomatically his scabs (which for him was only around the mouth) only appeared after he contracted ringworm.

Before all the ringworm, he had a URI that took about 5-6mo to resolve. Ultimately it was a combo of Baytril and Penicillin injections that did the trick. Coincidentally, PenG shots are a tx for syphilis.

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.

[Author]

Messages