myxi/scabby face/snuffles... i'm confused!!

Hi everyone :wave:

Just a quick post, I took my continental giant bunny, Thistle, to the vets this morning for a check up after his first appointment last week.... I took him in because he's had a snuffly nose for a little while and he knocked a scab and made it bleed.

He had a runny nose for a week or so before I first took him to the vet. Originally, I put the problem down to him being temporarily housed with my little fancy pigeon flock (the dust the birds create is very irritating to the nose!) so I moved him away from them and waited a few days to see if it would get better on it's own. At that point it was just a bit wet. When it didn't get better and the scabs started appearing, I decided to take him to the vet. The first time I took him in, the vet thought it might either be myxi (the less deadly variety?!) or snuffles, and she gave me a weeks supply of Baytril. Today, she thinks it's myxi as he's got a few little scabs around his rear.

I just wondered if anyone knew how likely he is to survive it? The vet kept telling me it was treatable but they also told me that about my little black and tan rabbit, Diego, when he had an inner ear infection and then backtracked when he got put to sleep a few months later, saying they hadn't expected him to live more than another few weeks (I think they're paid on commission!). :? If Thistle has a good chance of getting over it then obviously I will do whatever's needed to help him but if it's just going to cause him stress and upset and he won't pull through anyway....... Well, you know.

In himself, Thistle is being his usual food gobbling, friendly hoppity self. Not looking at all depressed or ill other than his obviously scabby nose (I can post a picture later if it might help?). I've left him in with his girlfriend as the vet said it doesn't get passed from rabbit to rabbit. Is this right? I'd hate for Jess to get it too :shock: but he's obviously happier with her for company plus it's playing on my mind that it could still be snuffles related and I don't want to remove Jess incase it stresses him.

Anyway, getting to the point... I don't know anything about myxi or snuffles so if anyone could answer any of those questions or give me a bit of advice I'd be very grateful!

And I should probably just add - I do get my rabbits vaccinated but quite stupidly, Thistle's went overdue. I moved house and the reminder got sent to the old address and I've been sat here thinking 'it must be due sooooon....'. Turns out it was due 6 months ago. Slapped wrists for me.

I'm sorry your bunny is ill.

Is Thistle vaccinated?

In terms of myxi, I would suggest searching for and reading threads on parsnipbun's Viola Mai (I think that's her name), StarlightsRabbitRescue's Autumn (RIP) and also caralion's Diesel.

Bunnies can survive, but equally, some don't. It really depends on how much immunity the bunny has in his system.

I hope that you can find some help and support here.

What medication is he now on?

Whatever the condition, if he could be moved inside (with his friend), then that would help.

'Snuffles' is a generic term of an Upper Respiratory Infection. I would urge you to use the search function for both myxomatosis and also URIs and see what you come up with.

Pictures would be good. Sounds more like syphilis than myxomatosis.

Sky-O - Thistle's vaccination went overdue and I didn't realise Medicine wise, he just has Baytril. 1.3ml twice a day (he weigh's 6.66kg! :evil: lol). I've also given him a capsule of Spot On this morning, after clearing it with the vet. I gave Jess Spot On too last week as I know myxi is transfered by biting insects and I didn't want her getting bitten by whatever yukky thing it was that must have got Thistle. He's just getting hay and his regular food at the moment as I know meds can give bunnies dodgy tummies. He lives in a log cabin down the garden, it's completely water and wind proof, light and very snug. I think he'd be better off down there as it's where he's used to and he'd have more space than if I bought him up here (I've already got three birds and a couple of baby chickens wedged in my room!). Plus as we've moved house, my dad has power saws and electric drills and all sorts going on and off here all day.

Mudgy - I have to be at work in half an hour but I'll get some pictures when I do his medicine this evening and get them up. Is syphilis worse than myxi?!

Thankyou both for your responses.

Riiiiight, this is Thistle with his scabby old nose.... sitting in his litter tray. :roll:



Does that look like a myxi-nose or something else?! :?

I would add syphilis to the list of possibilities to be honest. They can culture for that, so that might be worth doing.

Thistle is very handsome Doesn't look like myxomatosis to me. Maybe a mild case of Treponema cuniculi...rabbit syphilis. Are the scabs on his rear end, around his genitals?
Short course of pen should sort him out if it's syphilis.

Mudgy said:

Thistle is very handsome Doesn't look like myxomatosis to me. Maybe a mild case of Treponema cuniculi...rabbit syphilis. Are the scabs on his rear end, around his genitals?
Short course of pen should sort him out if it's syphilis.

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I agree

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171321.htm

Ohhhhh, ok, this is yet another illness that's new to me! :lol: So is syphillis less bad than myxi (that was really bad grammar! My brain's stopped working after sitting on my checkout all afternoon!). Will his Baytril help or will that be inefective? I assume penicillin would be stronger. And is there a risk of it being passed to Jess?

The scabs are around his genitals yeah, and he also has a little one that's only visible when his fur is parted on his head, just in front of his ear (although it looks more like a patch of dry/hard skin than a scab, I think it could possibly be unrelated and actually an old small injury of some sort).

I don't know if it's worth mentioning but ever since I first bought him, he's had flakey skin on the back of both ears, like bad dandruff. He went to the vets about it and they prescribed him ears drops for inside his ear - which made no sense to me as it's obviously a skin issue! In the end, the vets verdict was that he wasn't scratching it and it didn't seem to be doing any harm so to leave it be (I've had a lot of random diagnosises/medications from the vet here which is why I'm asking your opinions, otherwise I'd just take their word for it! LOL!). Anyhoooo, I'm just mentioning it incase it could have been an early sign of whatever he has now. This ear thing started over two years ago though so presumably it's not related?!

Right, I'm off to make use of Google! :lol: Thanks again guys. And Mudgy, Thistle says thankyou for the compliment but he's an ugly old thing really! (I love his grumpy old face!!) Hahahahahah! :lol:

From the photo it does look more like syphillis to be honest. In a way that's really good news because it's easily treated, whereas myxi can get very complicated and most rabbits who have not recently been vaccinated (i.e. within the last 6 months) do not survive it

I would be inclined to ask your vet about syphillis and if they aren't sure, to see if there is another vet on the island who sees more bunny things and is confident prescribing penicillin for rabbits that they could refer you to.

Treatment for syphillis is usually at least three (sometimes more depending on severity etc) penicillin injections one week apart. It is important that all animals in contact with this one are treated at the same time, as it is very contagious. The incubation is about 12 weeks so if they are not both treated it is likely that they will pass it backwards and forwards between each other. Baytril isn't effective against the bacteria that cause syphillis.

I had a rabbit here with syphillis that looked exactly like that to start off with, it was dealt with very easily with penicillin injections. Just to note also that penicillin must be given by injection and never, ever orally. Good luck xxx

I've just noticed the link Jack's-Jane left - thankyou for that!

That's taught me quite a lot in just two paragraphs! Although I found it a little confusing that it says in the first paragraph it's 'not transmissible to other domestic animals or humans' but then the second paragraph says 'All rabbits must be treated even if no lesions are present.' I can't work out if that's worded to mean 'all' as in alllll of my own rabbits or 'all' as in generally all bunnies that get the illness.

Guhhhhhh, what I wouldn't give for a brain that worked! :lol:

georgie_f said:

I've just noticed the link Jack's-Jane left - thankyou for that!

That's taught me quite a lot in just two paragraphs! Although I found it a little confusing that it says in the first paragraph it's 'not transmissible to other domestic animals or humans' but then the second paragraph says 'All rabbits must be treated even if no lesions are present.' I can't work out if that's worded to mean 'all' as in alllll of my own rabbits or 'all' as in generally all bunnies that get the illness.

Guhhhhhh, what I wouldn't give for a brain that worked! :lol:

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It means that it is transmissable between rabbits, but that does not extend to other species (like cats, dogs, people). It is a rabbit specific problem.

Yes, I think it means its not transmissable to other domestic animal ie, other than rabbits - cats, dogs etc but is transmissable between rabbits

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, that makes sense now!! *Smacks palm of hand against forehead!*

Right, I'm going to ring the vet in the morning (although I suspect they'll tell me to ring back on monday :roll: ) and ask if I can take Thistle and Jess in and see if they can do these penecillin injections. If not, I'll try another vet. The vet I'm using is the biggest on the island though so I should think I'll be a bit stuck if they won't do it.

If however, it is actually myxi, would the penicillin injections do then harm?

georgie_f said:

If however, it is actually myxi, would the penicillin injections do then harm?

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Difficult to tell really, I wouldn't have thought it would do any more harm than any other antibiotic. To be honest though if your current vets say anything along the lines of "what's syphillis" I'd suggest asking for a second opinion anyway. I appreciate you've got a fairly limited pool of vets on the island but hopefully there will be at least one who has a good experience of rabbit ailments! The largest vets doesn't necessarily mean the most experienced when it comes to rabbits - although you may find that actually just asking the question means you get referred to a different vet at the same practice who does know about these things!

Good luck xx

Oakey dokie. I guess if it was likely to do them harm , the vet wouldn't do it anyway!

Sometimes our vets are brilliant, there's one man in particular that I really like and he's a small animal specialist, but he's partially retired and only seems to work days when I'm at work myself! Typical! The vet that looked at Thistle was very nice but I get the feeling she'd only just finshed training so I guess she might not have seen syphillis before and just gone for the more obvious problem. I always have terrible problems getting my birds treated at the vets here too. None of the vets seem to stock the most basic of bird medicines and the last time I took a bird in, Airbus the pigeon, the vet actually seemed scared of him. :shock: I mean, I know a lot of people don't like pigeons but you'd think a vet would be willing to at least get one out of a box!

I'll keep you all updated about how Thistle and Jess get on!

I'm so glad i found your thread!
I have had exactly the same experience, my male rabbit Dewi developed runny eyes and a crusty nose, the vet couldnt diagnose it so gave him Baytril which had no effect, it cleared up by its self, Daisy (who is bonded with Dewi) then developed the crusty nose, the vet we saw with her immediatly said it was Syphilis and gave us Baytril again no effect, we took her back when it was time for their next Myxi vaccination and this time the vet said it was Chronic Myxomatosis, it cleared up after about 1year by herself as well. Daisy is now re-developing it and looking at pictures and asking on various forums I am sure it is Syphilis, she looks just like how ur rabbit does. I'm stuck though because I know penicillin is the most effective cure for Syphilis but I can't find out if penicillin is avaliable in the UK, because some people say no and others say yes! Does anyone know if vets are allowed to prescribe it in the UK?
This is Daisy and how her nose looked when she had it the first time-hope the pic works but it might not

DaisyDewi said:

I can't find out if penicillin is avaliable in the UK, because some people say no and others say yes! Does anyone know if vets are allowed to prescribe it in the UK?

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Yes that does look like it could be syphillis too.

Penicillin is absolutely 100% definitely available for rabbits in the UK It's not licensed for use in rabbits but vets are allowed to use it so long as it's the most suitable treatment. It is widely documented that injectable penicillin is the correct treatment for syphillis in rabbits so that shouldn't be a problem.

You may be getting confused with bicillin, which is a penicillin combination drug and is not available in the UK, but bog standard normal penicillin most definitely is

DaisyDewi said:

I'm so glad i found your thread!
I have had exactly the same experience, my male rabbit Dewi developed runny eyes and a crusty nose, the vet couldnt diagnose it so gave him Baytril which had no effect, it cleared up by its self, Daisy (who is bonded with Dewi) then developed the crusty nose, the vet we saw with her immediatly said it was Syphilis and gave us Baytril again no effect, we took her back when it was time for their next Myxi vaccination and this time the vet said it was Chronic Myxomatosis, it cleared up after about 1year by herself as well. Daisy is now re-developing it and looking at pictures and asking on various forums I am sure it is Syphilis, she looks just like how ur rabbit does. I'm stuck though because I know penicillin is the most effective cure for Syphilis but I can't find out if penicillin is avaliable in the UK, because some people say no and others say yes! Does anyone know if vets are allowed to prescribe it in the UK?
This is Daisy and how her nose looked when she had it the first time-hope the pic works but it might not

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That is a GORGEOUS bunny! Crusty nose and all! I hope you manage to get Dewi and Daisy sorted out too. It's always a bit of a worry when you're not sure what the problem is so I'm glad you found the thread too!

I have a vet appoinment for Thistle AND Jess this morning. I've managed to get an appoinment to see that vet I talked about in my last post - and he's in the branch that's just down the road from me today! YEEEYYYYY!! I'm hoping he'll be able to work out whether it's definately syphillis or not and sort it out. I'll let you all know how it went when I get back! Keep your fingers crossed! :wave: