Ear abcess - and any vet recs Devon/Cornwall

My rabbit Joop has an abcess inside his ear. My vet first prescribed Baytril for 5 days, which didn't help at all.

They have just flushed the ear out, and have sent him home with a broken eardrum and more Baytril, to come back on Sat. I also have some Gentamicin ear drops, to be administered 3 times a day. He has also had injections of Antisedan, Baytril, and Rimadyl. They said he had a poor prognosis 'because the abcess was advanced'. It would have been less advanced, of course, if they hadn't sent him home for 5 days....

Having looked at some of the other abcess threads here and elsewhere, I am not convinced that they are taking this problem seriously enough.

Has anyone experienced a deep ear abcess in a rabbit being treated successfully, and if so, what was done?

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a really experienced rabbit vet in Devon, Cornwall, or at a pinch Somerset?

Hello :wave:

Iv experience with ear abscesses (about 4 now :roll. My molly has had 4, surgery 3 times and flushing and lancing. He now has a reconstructed ear canal which is called the zepp procedure which allows air to circulate through the ear canal, which hopefully stops the bacteria from multiplying.

Did your vet take a swap of the pus? this can be done and sent to a lab so the best antibiotic can be prescribed. I also requested a full head xray, so they could locate the source of infection. Luckily it hadn't spread to his middle ear.


In my experience, baytril is useless for ear abscesses, let alone 5 days. My bunny was on penicillin injections in the end because I was fed up with the prescription of baytril for a week. This also meant I had to change vets as my old vet said if the abscess returned a second time it may be time to 'let him go'. :roll: Well a year later my bunny is very happy although we are still treating him as the infection is still not cleared.

I know that because of the location of an ear abscess its very difficult to eradicate. The best way in my experience is to surgically remove the abscess en bloc, as if it were a tumour, followed by long term antiobiotic use.

I would definately get a second opinion, in my experience, flushing and 5 day course of antiobiotics does nothing. Not sure about the ear drum though that sounds painful :?

hope bunny gets well soon lots of vibes xx

They didn't say anything about taking a swab. This is so difficult, I feel like the only way I can get him proper treatment is to give the vet step by step instructions, and I'm just not qualified!

They asked if I wanted the ear flushed, or if I wanted to go on with the Baytril a bit longer. Why would I want to go on longer if it obviously wasn't working???

This is my second vet practice recently, and it seems to be no better for the rabbits. There just aren't that many practices round here!

Don't worry, mine didn't either the first time Molly had his abscess removed :roll: I didn't know anything about it until I came here and then demanded it the next time it came back. It came back as sterile anyway so it didn't help whatsoever.

Baytril is a strong antibiotic, trouble is the abscess wall is so thick that the antibtiotics cant penetrate the wall, hence why they are so difficult to get rid of. Baytril to me is ineffective in treating ear abscesses, the only way to manage the beasts is to surgically remove them and have bunny on long term antibiotics. How are you flushing the wound? Did they leave a hole open? I packed the wound with manuka honey, although it didn't help in my case I know that it has helped a lot of people whose buns have facial abscesses.

The only way to get effective treatment is to find a vet who is willing to treat the abscess aggressively. You will find a lot of vets who want to give up as soon as they hear the word 'abscess'. I'm sure someone will be along soon with a vet recommendation, I recommend my vet but shes up in the midlands :wave:

xx

There is no obvious wound, I assume they must have flushed through the ear hole.

The notes they sent with him say: canals full of inspissated pus, tympanic membrane ruptured, middle ear full of purulent material, lavaged thoroughly, instilled genticin ear drops, lavaged with pain relief and antibiotics.

The language is a bit odd : the vet was French I think.

Yes I would definately get a second opinion. I would personally have a full head x ray done too so they can see the extent to which the ear is damaged. How much pain relief have they given

I don't understand how they would leave the ear full of pus with no hole so you cant flush it all out? Usually, they leave a hole open in the ear so you can flush the wound and get the pus out.

That note in other words is ear canal full of pus, ear drum ruptured, middle ear full of pus, flushed thoroughly, given ear drops, given pain relief and antibiotics. :roll:

I don't understand though how do they know if the ear drum is ruptured and the middle ear is infected without doing an xray or opening up the ear?

They didn't say anything about flushing out the ear, nor did they give me anything other than the ear drops and Baytril - no pain relief. i queried the Baytril, but it didn't occur to me to ask about pain relief, I should have.

I only picked him up at 6pm so didn't have a chance to do much this evening, but first thing tomorrow I will try ringing the local rescues that have rabbits and see if I can pick up a recommendation for a vet that way.

I'm not very sure about the ear abscesses... muy bunny has never had any abscesses in the ear. Can you post a picture of the eye abscess? My bunny has active EC and soon I'm going to post a picture for people to see how it looks like when the eye is affected (it's a white spot, pus, basically). We are treating her with panacur for the EC and putting Gentamicin in the eye. Anyway, you should get a second opinion and see a different vet. Good luck!