Staphylococcus Aureus.Barlie has a new abscess.Post52

Hello every body,I have a problem with my bunnies that no body can give me an answer to.I have five conties,last year Maizey my buck,who has suffered from snuffles since he was twelve weeks old and found to be carrying the Staph bacteria,developed abscesses on his front paws.I took him to the vet and they were drained and I was dressing his paws every day with Manuka honey+daily injections with Baytril.I would watch his paws and there would be pockets of infetion spring up daily.After two months of no improvement my darling boy lost a lot of weight and lost the use of his back end.He had to be PTS.One of my other bunnies,Honey had a swollen paw which was inspected under anastetic.She had swabs taken and was also found to be carrying the Staph bacteria.She didn have an abscess just a lump.The lump dissapeared but she then got a swollen toe which had,Osteomylistis.The toe was amputated and she is fine now.
Barlie, who was Maizeys girlfriend,started licking her paw late October of last year on inspection I found an abscess.I took her to the vet the abscess was drained and I requested she was given ceporex injections.Swabs were taken and the staph bacteria was found.She was also having her paw dressed with manuka honey daily+pain relief.Within a few weeks her paw looked like it was being eaten away.I asked to be refered to the royal vetinery college at Langford,they have a special bunny clinic.I was desperate for a cure.They did every test possible and all they could find were Eosiniphil cells,which will be found after a traumatic injury.They said it was an auto immune condition which they have only seen in cats.This didnt make sense as it was spreading from bunny to bunny.Barlie was put on a lot of drugs and I had to dress her paw twice daily with,TRi-Adcortyl cream,a human steroid cream.The swelling went down in the paw but the patches of Eosiniphil cells were getting larger.MY vet then cut her toe nail and after five days the toe died.It seemed every time somthing was done to her paw it would start a reaction off.After five months of treatment and so many tears as it was one step forward and two back I decided the paw was getting worse and I took Barlie to be put to sleep.My vet refused and said that all she had been through she was still happy in herself and a fighter.Barlie had her leg amputated and she is doing fine now.
I love my bunnies dearly and have had buns all my life and have never come across this before.Ive searched everywhere I can for an answer/cure but cant find one.Has anybody come across this and found a cure?
Love Sarah

Hopefully a Mod will move this to 'Care' soon

Could we be talking about MRSA I wonder.....?

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/zoonoses/mrsa.htm

These are Animal Testing links so you may not wish to view them. No nasty photos, just details of treatments for MRSA induced Osteomyelitis in Rabbits

http://proceedings.jbjs.org.uk/cgi/content/abstract/87-B/SUPP_III/249-a


http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/55/6/995

Janex

Hello Jane.Im sorry but im not very good with computers.I did email you back in November about this prob,I dont know if you remember?
Im conviced that it has somthing to with MRSA.By the time I took Barlie to Langfords bunny clinic she had been on antibiotics for some time so nothing showed up on the skin cultures and biopsies.
My vet even contacted Francis Harcourt Brown and she said that we were doing all we could by fighting it from both ends.
Thank you very much for the links to the sites about MRSA,they are very interesting and may be of help if another one of my bunnies gets this. God forbid it happening again.I even bought some colodial silver the other day as thats ment to kill MRSA.

I guess the only other thing I can think to add is about cross contamination. If a number of bunnies have come down with this, it would suggest that there is a common source. Do they all live together?

Staph isn't a spore forming bacteria therefore it can be killed with boiling water. Obviously you can't do this anywhere near the bunnies but regular disinfection of their accommodation with a steam cleaner would help to prevent any build up of staph. It may be resistant to antibiotics but it's pretty easy to kill in this way 'outside' of a patient.

Hello, The bunnies all run round house and garden together.I thought about sterilizing every thing but got told the staff bacteria was every where and this would be imposibble.The staph bacteria can enter the blood stream and show itself in many ways.At first my vet thought the bunnies paws had been punctured and it had got in through a cut.This was not the case I would watch the abscesses swell up and there would be no puncture wounds.My first Bunny to get ill,maizey, had snuffles and was found to be carrying the staph bacteria.I have five bunnies at present of which three have had this problem and the others are fine.I think it might be down to how good their immune systens are.

What an awful thing to happen to your buns

I think I would stop the rabbits going on the grass, steam clean the house, and scrub the yard with Jeyes fluid.

Some organisms can live for years in soil...I don't know whether Staph bacteria can, but it's probably not worth the risk

Good luck and vibes to your poorly buns

Sodium hypochlorite is actually the most affective discinfectant for dealing with any staph infection. Bleach or sterilising tablets all contain this product. Obviously ensure that it is used in a well ventilated area.

Thank you for your help.The staph bacteria is pretty much like the pasteurella bacteria it can live in the rabbits nasal cavity and some bunnies are carriers.Fancis Harcourt-brown says that the severity of the disease is governed by host resistance and bacterial virulence.In rabbit colonies,staphyloccoccosis can cause serious losses.
I would like to put some pictures up of Barlies paw but Im so computer illiterate that i will have to get some around here to show me how.

Pictures of Barlies paw.The first two were taken four weeks after infection started.The last two were taken after treatment with steroid cream.The bad patch is Eosiniphil cells.The toe was them amputated and I thought the paw was going to get better but it went down hill again and thats when the leg was amputated.Im sorry the pictures look awful.It broke my heart to watch my brave girl go through this but i had to keep trying to get her better.She is so happy now and you wouldnt notice that she only had three legs.

I have been watching my buns for about a week now,as I'm so paranoid about their paws.Blue and Honey have been flicking their paws.After inspection I have found nothing.Today Honey was limping after inspection I have found a hard lump on the toe Next to the one that got amputated.This started exactly the same time last year with her.Please has anyone on here had anything similar because Ive tried everything I can to get to the bottom of this and I just don't know what to do.My vet has never seen anything like it Ive even been to The Royal Veterinary College at Langford and they have never seen it.Please can someone help save my bunnies.Barlie has got three legs so If she gets it again there is no hope for her.I'm so upset

Ive taken some photos

Found this link which mentions injecting the wound with something that prevented the abscesses. Maybe a vet will understand it better than I can as it's in medical terms: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15728933?dopt=AbstractPlus

This one might help too: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=245381

They might help they might not, they are in medical terms so maybe your vet will be able to have a look at them? No harm in posting them though.

Hope you find something to help and get to the cause of it all.

I cant help, but just wanted to say I hope you can find a solution to this nasty problem and your bunnies get better.

Bun Bun said:

Found this link which mentions injecting the wound with something that prevented the abscesses. Maybe a vet will understand it better than I can as it's in medical terms: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15728933?dopt=AbstractPlus

This one might help too: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=245381

They might help they might not, they are in medical terms so maybe your vet will be able to have a look at them? No harm in posting them though.

Hope you find something to help and get to the cause of it all.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply the thing is Maizey and barlie had abscess Honey develops hard lumps which then turn into osteomyelitis.I really hate this bacteria.Ive started to spray colloidal silver onto her paw as its meant to kill MRSA but with my buns Im sure it gets into the blood stream rather than getting in through a hole in the paw.

Hi. i feel so sorry for you, you,ve not gaven up at all on your buns, they are very lucky buns.I cant beleive the damage a bacteria etc does, its really heartbreaking. I really hope someone somewhere can help you, sending you loads of hugs, im just so sorry i cant give any advise to you.