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treatment for retrobulbar abscess - please help!

vick

Alpha Buck
Can anyone tell me if a daily 2.4ml dose of Baytril is sufficient medication to treat a retrobulbar abscess? As I mentioned on my previous post about Daisy
the vet could not confirm if it is an abscess but I think it's looking quite likely. She is being treated with Baytril, Metacam and eye cream and I am concerned that this is not enough as I've had a rabbit with a jaw abscess before and know that treatment had to be aggressive from the start.

Is there any medication I should be asking for? What about duphapen injections? How can the vet know for sure that it is an abscess - will she need to be x-rayed? I don't want Daisy to have to undergo another general anaesthetic so soon as I fear she won't make it, she takes so long to start eating by herself again afterwards.

I suspect it is an abscess as her symptoms started the day after her infected molars were removed. I noticed her third eyelid was exposed and was quite red and that her eye was discharging. The next day it was slightly worse which I put down to Harvey aggravating it by trying to clean her up. I've had to separate them again unfortunately to give it a chance to heal and for the cream to work. It is causing her quite a bit of discomfort in fact she will even flinch away if you put your hand anywhere near that side of her head. At the moment the eye looks less bulgy but it doesn't look right. I could take a photo of it tonight if that would be useful for anyone.

On a positive note she is still eating quite well (softened pellets and grated apple) and her poos are normal. I haven't had to syringe feed her once thankfully.

Can anyone advise me on what I need to do?

Huge thanks

Previous post on Daisy: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=130979&highlight=daisy
 
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Awwww I am sorry to hear about your worries re little Daisy.

Just a thought but you could talk to your Vet about Engemycin - I think its available both as injections and oral, Both Buffy and Cagney have injections every three days and it has worked really well at keeping their Abscess problems at bay.

Buffy particularly has had some severe Abscess problems around her eye and she now has several others which are smaller around her face - but the injections have kept these at bay for 12 months now, so you never know the injections may help Daisy and they are easy to give with a little tuition from your vet.

I'm not sure Baytril will be effective enough on its own but there are loads of knowledgeable folks on here regarding Abscess problems to help give some more thinking details.

Good luck and snuggles for Daisy;)
 
Maa had her eye removed, the abscess cleaned out as well as they could (considering the pus went right into her head - it's very tricky for nerves etc. round that area) and the swab sent to the lab showed what bacteria it was and what to kill it with - we used metronidazole as it showed baytril to be totally ineffective. Really without a swab it's impossible to say which bacteria is involved, so it's hard to say what will be effective against it :?
 
Really without a swab it's impossible to say which bacteria is involved, so it's hard to say what will be effective against it :?
Can they take a swab from the discharge coming out of her eye - is this the pus? Can they only be sure it's an abscess by putting her under GA again?

Her eye actually looks better tonight, she has been separated from Harvey for a day and the third eyelid seems to be moving back to it should be. She seems brighter and generally looks quite well BUT (there's always a but!) I have just noticed her doing something odd with her head. At first I thought she was sleeping and riding the 'bunny rollercoaster' but I can't be 100% sure. She only seems to do it when relaxing so maybe I am worrying over nothing!

I've uploaded a video of her doing this. Don't be alarmed by the strange yellow dye on her fur! It's just from the eye ulcer test the vet did.



It's so hard to know what to do for the best. She seems a lot better and I don't want to upset her by taking her back to the vet but what if there IS an abscess and it's getting worse whilst I'm just pumping her full of Baytril........ :?
 
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