Still worried about Bebe

Bebe had an operation yesturday to lance an abcess on her jaw. I've been advised to flush her wound with water (boiled and cooled) and she's also on 0.4ml of Baytril as well as some Metacam.

I'm concerned because I assumed her abcess wound would remain open so that it could heal properly. But the wound has already closed up. I'm worried about the infection still being in there. If there was still infection in there would her wound have healed up so quickly? She is now eating a little bit but won't touch anything thats hard and she is quite active, running around, grooming etc.

Any advice would be useful regarding the wound.

Helen xx

Sorry only just seen this and that noone has replied yet so this is a 'I have no experience but will try' reply and a little bump as well!:wave:

Does the wound open to the surface and go all the way through her jawbone? Or is it just an open wound (which has closed over quickly?) If you have ben advised to keep it flushed then to prevent it closing I think you will need to do this several times a day and manufacture some way to keep the wound open. Packing the wound with a high UMF (25+) Manuka honey but leaving in a piece of gauze sticking out I have heard can help you to reopen the wound when you come to flush it out again. Yes they can heal over even though there is still pus/infection in there - in fact the body will keep trying to do this as it's part of the body's natural response to sealing off the infection.
I think you can flush with sterile water or saline.

I hope that Bebe is on a good dose of Metacam as jaw abcesses are very painful. I don't think that baytril is at all suffficient however :? When the abcess was surgically removed did the vet take a sample of the abcess wall for c+s testing to find the most appropriate abx? Osteomyelitis and abcessation of the jaw RARELY responds to baytril. I really do feel that Bebe needs much stronger injectable abx such as penicillin alongside perhaps some metronidazole to both protect her gut and act on any anaerobes in her abcess. Metronidazole is used a lot for human dental infections and has been found to be equally helpful for rabbit dental infections.

Poor Bebe sounds like you have got your work cut out. Good luck with it all and do seek a referral or request your vet to make their own fax/email referral to an exotics specialist for further advice re. correct abx if they do not feel comfortable prescribing off-license abx for Bebe. x

I've cleaned her abcess twice so far today. I used a warm wet cloth to loosen the scab that had formed and its now not there anymore, so the pus can drain more easily. Since we've done this she seems a lot happier and I'm going to flush it every 3 hours to keep it open.

The vet didn't sample the pus. He said if the bone was infected she'd need something a lot stronger to get rid of the infection, but we'd try the baytril first and see how it went. She's booked into seeing the vet first thing this monday morning. She just has a 5mm incision where the abcess was lanced and drained so it wasn't removed. I can't see bone when I clean it as it was only a small abcess which was caught early. I will definitely ask about packing the wound with some manuka as I've heard its brilliant for things like this.

She's on a dose of metacam suitable for a 3kg animal and she gets one dose per day, I don't know if it could be increased anymore but I don't think she's in a lot of pain as she's acting quite normal bar her appetite isn't quite back yet. The vet said that she should feel much better now that the pressure of the abcess has gone and she is picking at her food now and is able to eat grated carrot and small things, but she's avoiding her pellets and hay so far

I feel a lot better that the wound is back open again and she seems a lot happier now it is, as she's not getting a build up of pressure. So hopefully she might start trying to eat like she normally does.

Thanks for you help PL!

Helen xx

I had a bunny who had several episodes with a mandible abscess. As prettylupin has suggested, they were treated with a combination of Depocillin and Metronidazole to generally good effect. Our vet always maintained that the abscess and its capsule needed to be fully removed to avoid recurrence and he would also pack the wound with antibiotic beads.

They are truly awful things to see your bunny with, but I don't think they are as painful to them as an equivalent abscess is to humans, although metacam is good insurance anyway.

An extract from FHB's book regarding treatment and the use of Manuka honey:

http://books.google.com.au/books?id...wBw#v=onepage&q=rabbit abscess manuka&f=false

Thanks for the link Lobo. I'll definitely go buy some honey for her tomorrow and use it in her wound and I will mention the drugs to the vet also if the infection hasn't gone away by monday.

Helen xx

Hi I know it's totally different but my dog has had lots of lumps removed over her short life. Each time her body reacted badly and they became infected. This is in spite of keeping her area scrupulously clean and putting down clean towels every time the towel became soiled with seepage. The last time the skin around the area died meaning she had to have it cut away. Please go back to the vet if you become concerned I called mine with any question, I didn't care if they thought me stupid it shows that you care about your animal and it is what the vet is there for any way.