Abscess advice please

Hey,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some bunny advice?

I have a lovely mini lop called Dot who I rescued in November. I don't know how old she is (most likely between 3 and 5 years old) or much about her history except that she was basically neglected her whole life until we took her. Because of the neglect she has many dental problems; her teeth grow at weird angles and she has problems with her back teeth. As a result of this she is on daily metacam drops.

About 6 weeks ago I noticed a lump on her chin, the vet said it is a dental abscess. He prescribed some baytrill which unsurprisingly didn't work. I came on this forum and read lots of posts about penicillin injections so I requested those. The vet hadn't heard of using them but said sure. She's had 4 injections (1 every 2 days) and has 4 more to go, she's also still having 0.4mg of baytrill each day (and the metacam with an increased dosage for the pain). I have to take her back to the vets next week when she runs out of injections.

I'm concerned because the abscess has got a lot bigger over the past few days , before the injections it was the size of the end of my finger and now it is the size of a ping pong ball. She is still eating and seems perfectly happy (whereas before the injections she seemed a little subdued and wasn't eating as much as normal).

I was wondering if anyone knows whether the abscess would get better because the injections are working, or if it means they are definitely working, or if she's not been on them long enough yet?

Sorry for the ramble. I am very worried about poor Dot, she is so lovely. And my other bunny Sweep would be heartbroken if anything happened to her

I would really appreciate any advice!
Thanks, Fiona x

Hi Fiona :wave:
I have 2 bunnies with abscess's due to tooth root problems.
We got Minnie in november knowing she had these problems. When we took her to our vet he said she had an abscess. We didn't think she would make christmas but we have been treating her with Convenia injections. She was having them every 5 days to start with but now has them weekly and it seems to be keeping the infection under control.
At the end of March Floppy had a lump develop under her chin. She has had it drained twice and is on a Convenia injection weekly.
Hope this helps a bit.

I am by no means an expert on abcesses but unless it is too tricky to remove the abcess - the best chance of recovery comes from surgical removal of the abcess and debriding the area, and often antibiotic beads for example placed into the cavity. Rabbit pus is very thick and the abcess walls are very difficult for antibiotics to penetrate so surgical removal or draining the abcess really is the best thing rather than antibiotics alone. I also understand that removing the offending tooth and root is often preferred as well.

It doesn't sound like your vet has a great deal of experience with abcesses in rabbits. Perhaps they would be willing to get referral support from an exotic specialist?

prettylupin said:

I am by no means an expert on abcesses but unless it is too tricky to remove the abcess - the best chance of recovery comes from surgical removal of the abcess and debriding the area, and often antibiotic beads for example placed into the cavity. Rabbit pus is very thick and the abcess walls are very difficult for antibiotics to penetrate so surgical removal or draining the abcess really is the best thing rather than antibiotics alone. I also understand that removing the offending tooth and root is often preferred as well.

It doesn't sound like your vet has a great deal of experience with abcesses in rabbits. Perhaps they would be willing to get referral support from an exotic specialist?

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I second that - the abscess really needs removing for the bunny to have the best chance. Its good your vet listened about the penicillin antibiotics, maybe they'll be ok to get you a referral to a vet confident to do the op too?