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New vet, new diagnosis - so advice again pls! (pst 24)

giantbunnymummy

giantbunnymummy

Warren Veteran
I would appreciate some advice please. Daisy-Sunshine is ill again with another unspecified infection. Her temperature is 103 and she has a swollen lymph node on the left side of her neck (but not on the right side). She has weepy eyes.

She's back on baytril and has had some metacam at the vets today.

She's eating and drinking and pooing and weeing fine, and has plenty of energy, but as this is the second infection/high temperature in less than two months we're concerned.

Our vet is stumped as to what the infection is / why twice in quick succession / why only one lymph node swollen. He says Daisy's teeth are perfect.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
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Hi,has your vet checked her ears?It sounds to me like she has a bacterial infection.I would advise your vet doing a blood profile to see which bacteria you are dealing with.I have contis and the carry the staphylococcus aureus bacteria.I have written a thread under the title.
 
I've just read your thread on Staphylococcus Aureus. I'm so very sorry about your rabbits, it sounds like you went through a terrible ordeal :cry:

How are your remaining bunnies now? I hope they're ok.

I hope to god that Daisy isn't similarly affected. I will ask the vet to do a blood profile when we take her back for her appointment on Wednesday.

My o/h took her today so i don't know if her ears were checked or not.

She seems absolutely fine in herself, and we wouldn't have noticed anything odd if it wasn't for the swelling on her neck. I stupidly thought it was the start of a dewlap, but obviously not.
 
Thank you hun,my other buns are Ok at the moment.
I dont think Daisy has the same as my buns,She may have been bitten by an insect which has caused one of her lymph nodes to swell.As she is acting normally I wouldnt worry to much.I would still ask your vet to check her ears and lymph nodes to rule out anything sinister and get a blood culture done.
 
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We have loads of gnats around outside at the moment, so it's possible Daisy may have been bitten by one of them (o/h always having a crafty cigarette at patio doors even though I nag him not to cos of the insects :roll:)

Stupid question but what should I be asking the vet to look for in terms of checking Daisy's ears? :oops:
 
You can look yourself.If they are clean they are Ok if you can see yellow or whitish wax then she may have an ear infection.Im sure you would have noticed though as she would be shaking her head or have an ear down.Just ask the vet to have a look to be sure.When I get bitten by knats the lymph nodes in my neck swell up.Im just a bit concerned about her bouts of getting high temps
 
Her ears look ok although there is a bit of a red scratch in one ear.

Her high temp is worrying - last time it went to over 105 and she stopped eating and drinking, vet said it was touch and go whether she'd make it.

This time though she's still eating and is not obviously ill, so that's a relief, but it is worrying that she's got a high temp again so soon.

Poor Daisy, I just want her to be a happy, healthy bunny.
 
Daisy went back to the vets this morning for a check up. Her temp is lower but the vet is worried that the large lump on her neck hasn't decreased. He thinks it may be a tumour and will need to be operated on. :cry:

She's on Baytril for another week in case it is a swollen lymph node and responds to antibiotics.

Back next week to vets.

Can anyone tell me what the prognosis and procedures are with tumours in rabbits? Is it common for them to be benign?

Very scared now.
 
giantbunnymummy said:
Daisy went back to the vets this morning for a check up. Her temp is lower but the vet is worried that the large lump on her neck hasn't decreased. He thinks it may be a tumour and will need to be operated on. :cry:

She's on Baytril for another week in case it is a swollen lymph node and responds to antibiotics.

Back next week to vets.

Can anyone tell me what the prognosis and procedures are with tumours in rabbits? Is it common for them to be benign?

Very scared now.
Click to expand...

What a worry for you :cry:
The prognosis for Rabbits with 'a tumour' really depnds entirely on what sort of tumour it is.
Where abouts is the 'lump' located ?
 
Jack's-Jane said:
What a worry for you :cry:
The prognosis for Rabbits with 'a tumour' really depnds entirely on what sort of tumour it is.
Where abouts is the 'lump' located ?
Click to expand...

It's on the left side of her neck, under her chin - from some angles looks like a one-sided dewlap. It grew very quickly, over a period of a few days.
 
My bunny proudence had a large lump in her dewlap. It turned out to be a cyst. It was removed twice last year and so far has not returned. The stupid vet nurse threw the cyst away so we couldn't get it analysed but it was thought to be related to her lymph nodes.

Prudence's grew very quickly too so it could be a similar problem
 
I don't think it's attached to her mandible, it seems to be lower down. The vet didn't say it might be an abscess, but my o/h didn't specifically ask. I think that all the vet said is it's a swollen lymph node, either from an infection she's fighting (his diagnosis last week) or due to a tumour.
 
Hugo's There said:
My bunny proudence had a large lump in her dewlap. It turned out to be a cyst. It was removed twice last year and so far has not returned. The stupid vet nurse threw the cyst away so we couldn't get it analysed but it was thought to be related to her lymph nodes.

Prudence's grew very quickly too so it could be a similar problem
Click to expand...

Thanks. Will definitely ask the vet whether it could be a cyst.

Hope Prudence doesn't get it back again.
 
I'm so sorry to read this,I really hope its not a tumour by the rate it has grown It sounds more like an abscess.Sending vibes Daisy's way
 
Hi all, thanks for replies.

Just had a very long telephone chat with my vet about Daisy. Would be interested in people's thoughts:

1) He says he's 99% certain it's not an abscess because of its position relative to teeth roots - too far behind the mandible, and the way it looks/feels

2) He's 99% certain it's not a cyst because it's subcutaneous

3) He thinks that it's a reactive sub-mandible lymph node because it hasn't grown since we started on baytril, which indicates it might be responding to antibiotics

4) I asked about doing a blood profile re: staphylococcus aureus / other bacteria present - he doesn't think it's necessary at this stage (he explained why but my notes are illegible for that bit :oops:)

5) If it doesn't disappear within two more weeks of baytril and if Daisy's health deteriorates in any other way we need to think about investigating, and either:

a) biopsy (but he's concerned over risks of invasive surgical procedure)

b) fine needle aspiration (but although less invasive can give false negatives/false positives if cells are damaged during procedure and not necessarily reliable)

We didn't get on to prognosis / treatments if a biopsy showed 'a more sinister' reason for the lump as he had his next appt due. Said I could call back anytime though, which was nice.

BUT here's the bit that everyone will hate - his position on spaying rabbits is that the risks of post-operative adhesion outweigh the benefits. (I asked him whether, if we need a biospy, it would be advisible to do one while spaying to limit GA risk, and he said his position on spaying had altered in past couple of years after advice from a rabbit specialist colleague).

Any thoughts?

ETA - I've tried to write this as accurately as poss, but any glaring errors are likely to be my misinterpretation/bad notes:oops:
 
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giantbunnymummy said:
Hi all, thanks for replies.

Just had a very long telephone chat with my vet about Daisy. Would be interested in people's thoughts:

1) He says he's 99% certain it's not an abscess because of its position relative to teeth roots - too far behind the mandible, and the way it looks/feels

2) He's 99% certain it's not a cyst because it's subcutaneous

3) He thinks that it's a reactive sub-mandible lymph node because it hasn't grown since we started on baytril, which indicates it might be responding to antibiotics

4) I asked about doing a blood profile re: staphylococcus aureus / other bacteria present - he doesn't think it's necessary at this stage (he explained why but my notes are illegible for that bit :oops:)

5) If it doesn't disappear within two more weeks of baytril and if Daisy's health deteriorates in any other way we need to think about investigating, and either:

a) biopsy (but he's concerned over risks of invasive surgical procedure)

b) fine needle aspiration (but although less invasive can give false negatives/false positives if cells are damaged during procedure and not necessarily reliable)

We didn't get on to prognosis / treatments if a biopsy showed 'a more sinister' reason for the lump as he had his next appt due. Said I could call back anytime though, which was nice.

BUT here's the bit that everyone will hate - his position on spaying rabbits is that the risks of post-operative adhesion outweigh the benefits. (I asked him whether, if we need a biospy, it would be advisible to do one while spaying to limit GA risk, and he said his position on spaying had altered in past couple of years after advice from a rabbit specialist colleague).

Any thoughts?

ETA - I've tried to write this as accurately as poss, but any glaring errors are likely to be my misinterpretation/bad notes:oops:
Click to expand...

Personally I do not agree with his view on spaying. Whilst post surgical adhesions can occur I believe that the risk of UC is much, much greater.

Out of over 50 Does I have had spayed only 1 developed adhesions. And that was many years ago (1999). The entire op' was a complete :censored: up and the Vet I went to to try to repair the Rabbit asked if a Butcher had spayed her :shock: :cry: :cry:

I cant tell you what to do but if it were me I would ask for a referal for a second opinion. Not to the other Vet who is against Rabbit spays though :?
 
Thanks Jane. I'm really confused as to what to do now really, because he seems knowledgable and has been good with Daisy (especially when she was really ill with the high temp in January) and very friendly/helpful to me and o/h ... but the anti-spaying bit makes me worry about all the rest of it.

He did say he wasn't particularly interested in/didn't have specialist knowledge on rabbits, and (as I told him about the forum) said he'd like to hear updated info on risks/benefits of spaying. He said he used to do a lot of spays, but less and less in recent times. :?
 
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