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Abcess Advice

lisalouuk

Young Bun
My 7 year old male cashmere/angora lop has recently had an operation to drain an abcess which is located on the side of his right cheek just below his right eye.

The vet advised me that the abcess was the result of a rotton molar tooth (which he removed) during the operation and he inserted some antibiotic beads inside the cheek and advised me to keep the hole open and flush out with a solution of iodine/water three times a day, and he also put him on 0.5ml of Baytil antibiotic twice a day.

It has been 2 weeks this thursday 7th Feb since the op took place and upon taking him back for a check up he has advised me that the infection appears to be remaining in the bone and that the chances of it going away are very slim.

My rabbit is acting like nothing is wrong and is eating and drinking normally and running around as normal but I am worried about this and was wondering if anyone had experienced anything similiar with any of their rabbits and if anyone could give me any advice.

I continue to give him his antibiotic Baytril twice a day and flush out the hole where the abcess was as instruced by the vet and he has got to go back to see the vet again on Monday 11th February.

His name is Misty and he is 7 years old he is my first ever rabbit, I do have others but being my first ever rabbit I am very protective of him and would hate to lose him.

Any advice is much appreciated
 
My 7 year old male cashmere/angora lop has recently had an operation to drain an abcess which is located on the side of his right cheek just below his right eye.

The vet advised me that the abcess was the result of a rotton molar tooth (which he removed) during the operation and he inserted some antibiotic beads inside the cheek and advised me to keep the hole open and flush out with a solution of iodine/water three times a day, and he also put him on 0.5ml of Baytil antibiotic twice a day.

It has been 2 weeks this thursday 7th Feb since the op took place and upon taking him back for a check up he has advised me that the infection appears to be remaining in the bone and that the chances of it going away are very slim.

My rabbit is acting like nothing is wrong and is eating and drinking normally and running around as normal but I am worried about this and was wondering if anyone had experienced anything similiar with any of their rabbits and if anyone could give me any advice.

I continue to give him his antibiotic Baytril twice a day and flush out the hole where the abcess was as instruced by the vet and he has got to go back to see the vet again on Monday 11th February.

His name is Misty and he is 7 years old he is my first ever rabbit, I do have others but being my first ever rabbit I am very protective of him and would hate to lose him.

Any advice is much appreciated

I'm no expert (so please listen to others too!), but my rabbit has been having teeth problems and it was suggested to me that Baytril might not be up to the job for such bone infections. I was advised to suggest Ceporex (cephalexin) to my vet if it appeared the Baytril was not working. I'm sure Jack's Jane would be able to help further as she always offers good advice. Fingers crossed he recovers.
 
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I wonder if you Vet would agree to prescribing Ceporex (Cephalexin) instead of Baytril ?
Cephalexin has good tissue penetration *including bone*.

Janex
 
Did your vet take a culture of the infection? They can work out from that which antibiotic is the best to treat it. I had a bunny with abscesses and Baytril never seemed to work. I think a lot of vets use it because its safe for buns. Other antibiotics aren't certified for their use, however some vets will use them.
 
:D Thanks for the advice guys I will mention this alternative antibiotic to the vet on Monday 11th Feb when Misty goes back in for a further check up of the open abcess.
 
:D Thanks for the advice guys I will mention this alternative antibiotic to the vet on Monday 11th Feb when Misty goes back in for a further check up of the open abcess.

Personally I'd give the Vet a call today. The sooner a more appropriate antibiotic is given the better :)

Janex
 
i to have a bunny with a facial abscess and baytril did no good what so ever. i had a culture done which shows exactly what antibiotics can be used. I have used ceporax with no problems and am currently using amphicillin. if the bone is infection it is difficult. You say beads where used? my bun has just had these put in and the wound is stitched closed which i what i though was the best way to go. You say yours was left open for draining?
my bunny is also very happy and healthy besides her abscess.
 
The problem is to take a culture now you will need to completely stop giving any antibiotic for a week, otherwise the culture may come back negative.

Both Tilly & Sylvia have had ear abcesses - I believe dental abcesses can be more complex to remove - but my vet prescribed oral Baytril twice a day AND ceporex injections once a day for 7 days for both buns, plus antibiotic ear drops and flushing with saline solution once or twice a day. In both cases, the infection seems to have cleared. However, it's unlikely in these cases that the infection went into the middle ear and the vet actually removed the entire abcess - not drained in.

I would encourage your vet to try some different antibiotics and see if this makes a difference. The infection may be difficult to get rid of, has s/he given you some kind of drops to put into the wound as well? For Tilly it was Canaural drops that eventually killed off the infection after weeks of saline and antibiotics - if only I'd thought of it earlier! They are both now quite well - apart from a hole in the head :)

Helen
 
What about Metronidazole I heard that this can be safely given along with baytril.

Or is the Ceporex better than this
 
Hi, we've just gone through a similar thing with Jess, our lionhead. She had her front teeth removed a while ago (growing in all directions), and about a month ago she stopped eating, it turned out to be a huge abscess under her tongue. The vets drained it as best they could, but didn't give out much hope, as a last ditch attempt she was put on betamox LA (penicillin based antibiotic) injected sub cutaneously every 48hrs. Penicillin must not be given orally to rabbits as it upsets their gut and if injecting you must make sure any residue is cleaned away. We also are feeding her a 1/4 teaspoon of manuka honey( for its antibiotic properties) and fibreplex to avoid any tummy upsets. The lump under her chin, where the abscess is, was hot and quite big but it is shrinking and the heat is leaving it, she will be on antibiotics for a long time but we are very hopeful, where there was no hope before.
Hope this helps, sorry to drone on, hope your bunny recovers.
 
The vet said that he would only put him on Ceporex as a last resort and has upped the baytril dosage from 0.7ml twice a day to 1ml twice a day, and am still cleaning the open hole out where the abcess was with a solution of iodine/water 3 times a day.

Have got to take him back to Vets on Thursday night (14th Feb), and apparantly he didnt take a culture when he removed/drained the abcess just put antibiotic beads in the cheek area inside where the abcess was.

Trouble is now though is that the bone has gone lumpy and feels strange when you touch it (cheek bone above site where abcess was) which he says means the infection is in the bone.

He said he would look up the dosage for Ceporex and would let me know his decision about possibly using this drug instead.
 
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The vet said that he would only put him on Ceporex as a last resort and has upped the baytril dosage from 0.7ml twice a day to 1ml twice a day, and am still cleaning the open hole out where the abcess was with a solution of iodine/water 3 times a day.

Have got to take him back to Vets on Thursday night (14/02/08), and apparantly he didnt take a culture when he removed/drained the abcess just put antibiotic beads in the cheek area inside where the abcess was.

Trouble is now though is that the bone has gone lumpy and feels strange when you touch it (cheek bone above site where abcess was) which he says means the infection is in the bone.

He said he would look up the dosage for Ceporex and would let me know his decision about possibly using this drug instead.

I do hope your Vet will prescribe Ceporex as Baytril just wont be effective if bone infection is present :cry:

From the book 'Notes on Rabbit Internal Medicine' the dose for Ceporex is 15-30mg/kg sub-cutaneously ( injection) daily or 15mg/kg orally every 12 hours

Janex
 
Been back to vets again tonight and he has now put Misty onto an injection of Depocillin for the next 3 days to see if that helps.

Has taken him off the Baytril and given me more Bio-Lapis to put in his water.

So 2nd Depocillin injection tommorrow evening (Friday) and 3rd Depocillin injection on Saturday morning.

Ive never heard of this medication before does anybody know exactly what it is (he just said its a similar treatment to Ceporex)
 
Been back to vets again tonight and he has now put Misty onto an injection of Depocillin for the next 3 days to see if that helps.

Has taken him off the Baytril and given me more Bio-Lapis to put in his water.

So 2nd Depocillin injection tommorrow evening (Friday) and 3rd Depocillin injection on Saturday morning.

Ive never heard of this medication before does anybody know exactly what it is (he just said its a similar treatment to Ceporex)

My rabbit, Hobbes, is on Depocillin for an abscess on his jaw. He has to have an injection every 3 days for 8 weeks and then every 5 days for 4 weeks so the treatment your vet has given for 3 days of depocillin doesn't seem like a lot at all :?
He has been having them now for about 6 weeks and the abscess has cleared up but the vet said he needs the whole course of injections to make sure it kills all the infection.
Do you know of another vet you could ask for a second opinion?
 
Misty had his 3rd injection of Depocillin today and Vet now wants him to have a further 4 injections of Depocillin but now 1 over the next 4 weeks. He said that depending on how this goes over next 4 weeks he will then consider giving him one injection a month from then on to keep the abcess from coming back.

He says he does the same thing with another rabbit at his other branch of vets and this is working for that rabbit and that rabbits was much much worse than what my rabbits was.

Will see how it goes as I trust this vet compeletly as have been using him for years.
 
Have noticed a huge improvement since he had his 3 injections the lumpiness of his face is considerabily less.

Fingers crossed the weekly injections of Depocillin keep it at bay
 
Misty is now on weekly injections of Depocillin and the Vet is extremly pleased with the way the infection in the bone is responding to this antibiotic.
Another 3 weeks of weekly injections and then he will go onto a monthly injection of Depocillin to keep the infection under control.

AM SO SO PLEASED AS BAYTRIL WAS DOING NOTHING FOR HIM HOORAY FOR DEPOCILLIN :D:D:D
 
Misty is now on weekly injections of Depocillin and the Vet is extremly pleased with the way the infection in the bone is responding to this antibiotic.
Another 3 weeks of weekly injections and then he will go onto a monthly injection of Depocillin to keep the infection under control.

AM SO SO PLEASED AS BAYTRIL WAS DOING NOTHING FOR HIM HOORAY FOR DEPOCILLIN :D:D:D


Thats such good news :D

Janex
 
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