Molly's abscess has returned :-( U/D Tues 6th Nov

After just noticing a large lump under mollys ear i rushed him to the vets where it was confirmed that his abscess has returned

He hasn't had a reoccurence since april and we really thought we had beaten it

He is booked in for his operation tomorrow to remove it, we are having it cultured this time to ensure that we are using the right antibiotics.

Please send healing vibes to my poor little fluff, he has been in the wars lately due to suspected EC/ear infection. I really hope he pulls through.

xx

Poor Molly Having the culture done is a good idea, so hopefully you can get it cleared up good and proper
Will keep everything crossed that he recovers quickly

Get well vibes coming Molly's way. Hope everything goes OK.

Thank you

xx

Vibes for Molly x

Sending healing vibes for Molly
xx

How is Molly doing?

Well hes in a sorry state, looks like hes only got half a head bless him. Hes in an awful lot of pain, grinding his teeth. The vets have given him painkillers, oral baytril, antibiotics that are being put directly to the wound and hibiscrub.

He ate quite well yesterday when he came home but im sorry to say hes reluctant to eat anything today, a few sprigs of parsley, brocoli, a bit of grass although hes been nibbling at hay all night which is good. I don't know what else I can do other than watch him sit on his own feeling very sorry for himself
xx

Hi there, I just noticed your message.....

If it is quite a serious abscess it is worth asking your vet about administering penicillin injections over three months. My ziggy used to be a garden bunny but he caught a cold one winter and the bacteria in his body produced an abscess on the front of his head. He had it removed but as there was a risk of it returning (even though he has ever since been a house-bunny) we gave him penicillin injections every day for one month, every other day for the second month, and twice a week for the third month. It is easy to learn how to do it. And believe me, it is the best way to get rid of an abscess if nothing else works. When ziggy got his I did loads of research and some websites say some really scarey stuff about facial abscesses. I read lots of articles (and case studies) by Marcy Moore who works with bicillin/penicillin and thankfully my vet was already familiar with this. It is safe to do, and is 90% successful in curing all abscesses. He had no side effects whatsoever.

p.s. If your vet doesn't administer it, I think it's worth checking with other local veterinary clinics in your area.

Here are some bicillin case studies:-

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jwmoore/bicillin/cs/

Bicillin is just a combination of two different penicillins used together, but we used the single one and it worked a treat! The only difference between the two is that bicillin is given every other day for the first month.

Awww sorry to hear about your little bunny.

Re: bicillin - Buffy my little bunny has had an absess over the top of her eye, she has recently had two operations but I'm glad to say - so far so good and she is doing really well at the moment - Treated with Antibiotics directly to the wound site, hibiscrub and Manuka Honey and Numed and Intrasite gels.

We did Buffy's name for a wee while to "Scary Movie 2" mind you, as she did look dreadful after her op:lol: :lol: - but she bounced back really well.

Our Vet does administer bicillin but with caution as in some bunnies in her experience it has caused gut statis, so worth treading carefully.

Hope your little bunny improves - sending snuggles

This is true but your vet should give you some good probiotics to add to your bunnies water daily to prevent gut stasis from occuring.

louzigga said:

This is true but your vet should give you some good probiotics to add to your bunnies water daily to prevent gut stasis from occuring.

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Hiya louzigga

The Probiotics don't always work, Both Buffy and Cagney are on daily Probiotics all the time as they have to have other injections every three days, at the mo I have Buffy with a facial absess and Cagney with a Jaw Absess (double trouble or what!!)

It was Cagney that had the statis problem with Bicillin despite already being on daily probiotic.

- I think its probably a case that all bunsters are individual and what works for one just may give another side effects.

I think my Vet just felt she had administered the Billcilin a couple of times with a few instances of Statis afterwards, including Cagney and as Buffy's eye absess is responding well to current treatment didn't want to risk it - I think if Buffy worsened as a last resort I would ask my vet to reconsider.

I'm sorry to hear that the abcess has returned ~Infections in ears in rabbits are so hard to shift I have two lops with abcesses under their ears but am reluctant to have them operated on due to the risk involved and the high likelihood of failure which would mean that they had been through alot of pain and a huge reduction in their quality of life for nothing. The rabbits in question are old and so are high risk patients. My vet feels that the risk of damage to a facial nerve so causing facial paralysis is very high in that area and that actually removing all the pus is unlikely.

I haven't had much luck with using penicillin injections for the ear abcesses although they work a treat for tooth root abcesses. I find that gut reactions are very uncommon. In fact only one rabbit I have treated has reacted badly to a penicillin injection and that may not actually have been due to the jab at all as he was very ill already.

I guess it all depends on the bunny. Ziggy was only a year old when he got his abscess which was on the front of his head, above his eye. The penicillin really worked for him and I would use it again if he ever had another abscess in the future. Right now we have another problem with a side-effect to a spot-on treatment. (Xenex Ultra). Although he is getting better. With regards to penicillin, it's all depends on your preferred method of treatment. I was just worried about the risks of a facial abscess and with it being so close to his eye, (he was lucky not to lose it), I chose to use penicllin to fight it. Thankfully we're here two years later and it really worked.

louzigga said:

I guess it all depends on the bunny. Ziggy was only a year old when he got his abscess which was on the front of his head, above his eye.

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Hiya Louzigga, sounds like Ziggy may have had one in about the same position as Buffy - we were initially so worried that it was a retrobulbar abscess but the position has been very much above her eye - and after two operations I'm almost frightened to say it, but we have no more occurances - her last op was two weeks ago.

I'm so glad we went ahead with surgery now, as I was so close to just letting time take its course and having her PTS when things got too bad but I would definately make the same decision again -

Cagney unfortunately has a mandibular abscess but this has been well controlled with Engemycin Injections now for almost 12 months, so our Vet doesn't feel it warrants invasive surgery at the mo, in fact its now decreased in size.

And I think as we all know, a lot of general success in these areas is down to the how bunny savy the Vet is and I've been really lucky in that respect.

Sending snuggles and good luck to little Ziggy.

hi there my bunny amoss suffered from abcess for a year, first one came up o hes mouth and vets gave him antibiotics it last ages then one turned up on he toe and in our medcine cupboard we have this benylin cream, it was bring orange and it was to stop imflamatry and for bites and allergys and stuff anyway put some of that on it day night and cleaned the yellow puss from around the abcess and it drop of a week later, if that any help

Thanks bunnytales (Lany) for the kind wishes, I hope Buffy stays healthy and all the best to Cagney too. :wave: xxx

Hello :wave:

Sorry I haven't updated you about molly sooner, its been a very scary and hectic weekend! On sunday molly stopped eating, grinding his teeth and sat all huddled up, I syringed fed him, but we can no poo for almost 24 hours. On monday, he still wasn't pooing, eating or moving, so I thought maybe he couldn't take much more. So we went to the vets, who gave him a painkiller (injected) and also metoclop. When we got home, my little bunny started to scoff little bits of veg and grass

However, this morning, we stil had no plops, no food had been eated and he was sat all quiet, therefore I decided to bring him up to my room for a small run around to try to get things moving. As he was running.....poo started to appear albeit small and dark and not entirely round shaped but we had poo!!

So I put molly in the garden for 5 mins and saw that he started to scoff lots of grass and dandelion leaves! When he got back to his house, he was quiet again and stopped pooping so I was back to syringe feeding him.

However, we have just returned to the vets and im pleased to say his wound is looking much better, and his tum is showing no signs of bloat. The vet injected him with painkiller and he is not nibbling on some hay although he is rather spaced out, as hes had metacam, zantac, baytril, antirobe and injected painkiller today poor little man. I was worried that hes lost loads of weight but the vet informed me he had lost about 10 grams :roll:

We are currently waiting for the lab results back about the abscess, so we can discuss further treatement. Thank you for the advice and the different treatements, and cna we have lots of poop and eating vibes for my little fluff.


xxx