Any ideas to help Leela/ updated 15th feb/ dental OK, x-rays not good

Leela is struggling with a URTI on top of her chronic breathing problems. She is on antibiotics but they do not seem to be helping, they never do

Leela's breathing has always been noisy and I mean really noisy. Last night we could hear her over the TV when she was in another room and the noise can be so rasping it gives you goose bumps like nails down a blackboard

She is very slightly mouth breathing and when she is able to lay down she has her head up in the air. However she is able to eat well and is often munching hay

Her eye is slightly deformed and is always weeping. It is bathed regularly and has eye drops long term but we no longer seem to be able to stay on top of it. The skin around it is very sore and there is no improvement even with the antibiotics.

She has always had noisy breathing because of scaring from previous pasturella infections but this is somthing else ( all her littermates died ). She is now making gurgling noises in her throat and is doing little sneezes. There is no discharge of any sort, never has been, and her lungs are clear.

The vets has suggested that if the meds haven't helped by the end of the week we need to consider pts But also feels she is too lively for this too.
However she doesn't binky and when she is out she normally just munches hay and then lies down making choking noises. But she still loves her food and gets very excited for treats :?
Leela is currently living alone as Larry attacked her, we now don't know if that is because he was in pain or because she was getting sicker:? The vet has suggested that she remain a single bunny due to the possibility of being infectious

Sorry for the long essay But what we need to decide is if the meds don't help her to do we let her struggle on indefinately with her breathing problems which can't be at all nice? Or do we do what we did for Dumpling

neither of us can bear the thought of her breathing like this for any length of time, is is distressing for us to listen too so must be worse for her. But neither of can bear the thought of letting her go when she is loving her treats and food

What else can we try?

What meds is she on.
Have you tried corvental, a bronchiodilator and possibly an inhaler, again you could either use a bronchiodilator and/ or steroid treatments.

She is only on a very high dose of Baytril at the moment and metacam, We have tried other antibiotics in the past but they make no difference. The main problem seems to be scaring from past infections

I will definately ask about a bronchiodilator when we go back, thank you :wave:

Poor Leela sending lots of vibes. The only thing I can suggest is a humidifier. I use it for Merlin when he's a bit snuffly and it really helps.

Hope Leela will be ok, she's such a lovely bun.

Leela has been admitted today.

She had started to respond a bit better to her meds but we were still not happy with her progress.

Unfortunately she needs a dental and is also having her tearducts flushed, head x-ray and chest x-ray.


Obviously given her breathing problems and the general bad luck we have we are very worried about the GA.

Will be waiting by the phone again today

Lots of vibes to the beautiful Leela

I've got everything crossed for some good news. xxx

Have you tried giving meds with a nebulizer? I wonder if that might be more effective for the URTI.

sending loads of vibes xxxxx

Baytril often isn't very good for URIs...I've had success with the following antibiotics in the past:
Tribrissen (Trimethoprim Sulphadiazine)
Ronaxan (Doxycycline)
Depocillin

There are a lot of other antibiotics to try as well as those I've given above :wave:

The baytril was actually starting to work really well and has helped in the past with other flair ups. The problem is the amount of scaring left from previous infections before she was rescued and evey new infection adds to that They are also considerig tooth root involvement now.

Hopefully the x-rays will give us more info, and then if a change of antibiotic is the way to go we will give that a try.

i am also so worried about her eye as her face is very sore, but as the eye doesn't fit the socket properly I don't know if we will ever get on top of it. Must be so painful

Sounds like it could be tooth root related if her eye is bulging.

If there is URI infection present, I personally don't think you are ever going to totally get rid of it with baytril because it doesn't pentrate pus very well. What about Zithromax if you don't want to resort to giving her injections yet?

I have a rabbit with lots of scar tissue in her Upper Resp tract, but it doesn't affect her apart from snorting and mouth breathing when she is distressed.

Thats what I don't understand ther is no pus and never has been. She has never had any discharge of any sort, except from her eye. Her eye doesn't bulge at all it just seems to small for the socket so it weeps round the edge of the eye :?

We have used zithromax successfully in the past with uri's but the symptoms were completely different

Just wanted to add that she was with the rescue from a small baby, they were all in a bad way and all her litter mates died from their infections. She has a few anatomical abnormalities one of which is her eye. As it has always been like that it is not likely to be caused by tooth roots although they could now be making the situation worse. :?

vibes

Poor Leela

Sending millions of vibes for her. I'm sorry you have another day of sitting by the phone to face Liz Hugs.

Sending vibes for Leela xxx

Leela hs made it through the dental OK

The x-rays were not good.

Her tooth roots are very bad. The tops are pushing against her ducts so much that they could not flush them and her lower jaw is very poor too. She has had her teeth taken right back to gum level to try to slow down the root growth.

Chest x-rays revealed that her lungs are badly scarred and inflammed Her lung capacity is severely reduced. There is nothing we can do to improve her lungs.

So overall her out look isn't good. All we can do is keep her comfortable with Metacam and a maintenance dose of baytril to try to keep on top of any further infections which could be fatal.

So pleased she made it through the dental OK though, she is obviously a little fighter

Don't know whether to go ahead with bonding her now or not though???

awww poor little hunny, bet you cant wait to get her home

How is she doing now Liz? Home safe? sending vibes xx