Symptoms of rabbit syphilis

[Wick & Fable]

Many of you know Wick has been having recurring ringworm since November 2017. I do adamantly believe he did have ringworm episodes, but now I wonder if he could actually have syphilis. His new vet mentioned it at the first appointment a month ago. Wick’s original vet ruled it out because there were no lesions by his private parts and the mouth lesions were outside, rather than more inside the lip area (which from her experience was more telling).

I’ve been thinking about it more seriously for two reasons:
1) Wick’s new vet says that the medication I use for his ringworm would alleviate syphilis symptoms, so if it’s an underlying syphilis, it would explain the constant reoccurrence.
2) The last four or so waves have been very different than his first episodes. The first episodes clearly travelled and dodged the medication, as is typical with ringworm. All the episodes he’s had recently have been very weak. I can not treat it for a day or two and it won’t budge at all. His first one literally travelled across his shoulders.

In short, I’m curious if anyone has experience with rabbit syphilis and what the mouth symptoms looked and behaved like? When we schedule his next molar spur grinding (finally coming up! His bottom incisors are getting majorly slanted), we’ll be taking the offer to get blood work done as well.

In terms of treatment, I know pen g shots are common to treat it. Is it a terminal cure? Because Wick has gone through two months of pen g shots for different reasons, so would syphilis treatment need an even longer course?

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.

[LBJ10]

Atypical syphilis infections are pretty well documented now. There’s a good article about it on MediRabbit. There was a member here with a rabbit that had very atypical symptoms (two or three bumps on the nose). I’m trying to remember who that was now, it was awhile ago. Is the pink part of his nose inflamed at all? If you scroll down, there is a picture here (rabbit’s name is Gozal): http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Bacterial/Syphilis.htm

It sounds like the pen G injections are pretty close together:

Administration of the narrow spectrum antibiotic penicillin G (benzathine/procaine: 42.000 – 84.000 UI/kg, SC, IM), 4-6 repeats at intervals of 5 to 7 days, is the treatment of choice against rabbit syphilis. (Rabbits should NEVER be administered penicillin orally; it can lead to severe diarrhea).

Most other antibiotics will not cure the infection. Mostly, healing of the skin lesions is observed during the treatment, but relapse will occur as soon as the treatment is stopped as the Treponema cuniculi bacterium is not killed. This is particularly the case of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Clinical signs and skin lesions develop rapidly after the treatment is stopped, often in a more severe form than before.

[Wick & Fable]

Nose not necessarily inflamed. Wick generally always has some amount of fur thinning around his lip part though. I very rarely have him where his face is full-on furred. Hm.

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.

[Q8bunny]

Oh balls… that WOULD explain the insane stubbornness of the ‘ringworm’

[Bunny House]

So it seems like Pen-g will be a lifelong treatment? So does that bacteria over get killed? It seems like from the passage that it doesn’t get killed all the way but most of it gets killed.

[Bunny House]

I also found this link, click the trepeno section.

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/rabbits/bacterial-and-mycotic-diseases-of-rabbits

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