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Nosey - Jaw Abscess / Osteomyelitis

C

cherryredcutie

Young Bun
Hi all,

I wonder if you can give me some advice. My bunny Nosey has an about walnut big abscess under his throat, it's quite a hard lump. I have been to the vets and they have cut it open and lanced it, he is getting antibiotics injections every three days from now on and I have to flush the abscess with hibiscrub twice daily. The vet said the injections might help to shrink the lump, but she said it might not go away as it might come from the bone.

I have read that Manuka Honey is helpful for the healing and got some but I am not sure how to apply it properly. Do I just put it in a syringe and fill the abscess with it after I have flushed it with the hibiscrub?

I'de be very grateful if you could give me some advice on this.

Thanks,
Anne
 
Last edited:
Hi hun,is your bun on ceporex? As it is the best abx for tissue penetration.
You need 25+ manuka honey and you pack it into the wound then cover with a dressing every day.
 
Last edited:
Hi Maizey,

thanks for the quick reply :). I don't know what kind of antibiotics he is on but I will ask on Monday when he has to get his next shot.

Thanks again,
Anne
 
I didnt answer your question properly,Sorry.I dont think you will get the honey through a syringe.I would put it in to the hole or straight onto the dressing then cover the hole,the second option may be easier.Good luck and please let us know how your bunny gets on?
 
No problem, I am grateful for any help! I will see how I best get it into the wound. It's quite difficult to get into the cut (it's about 1 1/2cm) as the skin is quite thick and hard around it...it's not bleeding or oozing, it's pretty closed as it is, the vet didn't give me any dressing for it. Once I get the syringe in the opening the puss comes squirting out and I can flush it so it would be easiest if I could get the honey in with the syringe.
 
I hate abscesses,especially in bunnies as the puss is like tooth paste.If you can get the honey into the gap through a syringe thats brilliant.Can you get some sterile dressings from a chemist tomorrow?If yes after applying the honey cut a square from the dressing and put on top of the wound and then you need to put some surgical tape on,also available from a chemist.Good luck I'm sure some one else will have some more advice to give you:wave::wave::wave::wave:
 
I think I might still have some dressings and surgical tape in my medicine box, I will check in a bit, thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how I get on and how the bunny is doing :).
 
cherryredcutie said:
Hi Maizey,

thanks for the quick reply :). I don't know what kind of antibiotics he is on but I will ask on Monday when he has to get his next shot.

Thanks again,
Anne
Click to expand...

Is it a white liquid? As it's every third day it may well be Depocillin but my abcess bun is on a shot of Engemycin (oxytetracycline) every third day too...and that is a honey colour.

I find the best thing for packing Manuka in with is a cotton bud, but the problem I found was the manuka encouraged the wound to scab over very quickly meaning it was healing from the outside in when it must heal from the inside out so you can continue to flush the cavity.

To remedy this I inserted a wedge of surgical gause into the hole after packing it with manuka, it keeps the manuka in and stops a scab from forming. You can pull it out before the next flush top reopen the cavity.
 
Hiya,

I think the antibiotic was coloured like honey, I'll still ask on Monday what it is. The vet also said he might have to be on it for quite a while so she said she will show us how to do the injections ourselves so we don't have to go to the vet everytime.

I have managed to syringe the honey into the wound quite easily so hopefully it wil do its magic. There is a thin scab building on the opening but it's quite easy to open up.

I wonder if the lump will ever go away, it seems to have a really hard capsul around it? I have read up about abscesses a lot on the net and I wonder if he has Osteomyelitis coz the abscess seems to be pretty much right under the jaw.

Thanks and I will keep you posted :).
Anne
 
Whether he has osteomyelitis or not really depends on if the infection has engaged with the jaw bone and the best way for the vets to tell this is using x-rays. Was the abcess just opened up under GA or did the vet actually manage to excise the capsule?

Mack's third abcess had connected with his jaw bone near his throat but the vets were able to remove it nearly whole, and sent a cross section from the area where it had impacted on the bone for culture and sensitivity analysis, as this was the deepest point of the cavity.

It's not usual for there to be some swelling after the procedure but TBH there shouldn't still be a hard lump left behind, and the fact that there is makes me wonder if it has filled up again. :?
 
Sooz said:
Whether he has osteomyelitis or not really depends on if the infection has engaged with the jaw bone and the best way for the vets to tell this is using x-rays. Was the abcess just opened up under GA or did the vet actually manage to excise the capsule?
Click to expand...

As far as I know they just made a cut into the ascess and cleaned it out and didn't remove the capsule, it's still about the size of a walnut as it was before the operation, they put him under GP for it though. When I flush it there is still some puss coming out.
 
Hi guys,

I have been to the vet with Nosey this morning and he is getting Engemycin 10% every 3 days, the vet showed us how to inject it properly and in 14 days we have our next checkup. We're supposed to clean the wound until there is no puss coming out anymore and then let it heal.

Nosey is doing fine, he doesn't like it much when I flush the abscess but he is eating and drinking like normal so that is a good sign :).

I'll keep you all updated.

Anne
 
Just thought I post a little update about Nosey. When we flushed the abscess this morning my boyfriend and me both thought is was looking smaller/thinner than before. There is also only a little bit of puss coming out now. We gave him another injection yesterday, first time we did it on our own and it went well.

Nosey hasn't been eating a lot of his veggies yesterday though, he is drinking a lot instead. He still eats his banana, hay and a little dry food. I think I will get him some of his favourite herbs later to encourage him to eat a bit more. Apart from that he is behaving like normal.

:wave: Anne
 
I thought I take some pics of the abscess today and post them here. We're still flushing it everyday and there is still some puss coming out, we then pack the wound with Manuka honey.

The abscess has gotten smaller compared to when I detected it but it seems to heal very slowly and it has developed this red "bubble" type thingy on the left as you can see in the pic. The black part in the bottom middle is the crust.

IMG_0519.jpg


IMG_0523.jpg


We gotta go back to the vets on Monday for a check up. Any idea how long it takes for an abscess to completely heal if at all?

Anne
 
cherryredcutie said:
We gotta go back to the vets on Monday for a check up. Any idea how long it takes for an abscess to completely heal if at all?

Anne
Click to expand...

That is really odd, I've never seen anything quite like it. Mack's first abcess healed in two weeks (which was far too quick but I struggled to keep it open as it was so small)....numbers 2&3 have been open for about 8 weeks now I think, but are shrinking slowly & surely, I can tell because it's taking less time for the cavity to fill up during flushing.
 
Yes, it looks quite odd, first there was some flaky skin over that red bubbly bit but that came off. I dunno of he has been scratching it.

Okay, so it can take quite a while to heal then, well it's quite a big abscess I suppose. We only flush the abscess once a day now coz the procedure is very stressful for Nosey, he doesn't like it and it seems to hurt him somewhat when we squeeze the ascess to get the puss out, poor little chap.

Fingers crossed it keeps on healing.
 
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