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A warning to people who inject with depocillin

B

bunnylover177

Alpha Buck
I am regulary injecting my house buns with depocillin as they have ear abscesses. I have been using injections for years with buns but I've done something really really stupid. On Thursday night they got their injections as usual but Ziggy jumped at the last moment and 0.15 mls of depocillin went on to his fur I didn't think of cleaning it off but unfortunately his companion did groom it off him:cry: Troy had lots of diahoera that night and hasn't been eating since. Diapocillin is extremely toxic to buns even in tiny amounts. I was at the vets today and have all the medicine I need to try to get his tummy working again. I've been feeding him critical care and, oddly, he is fairly lively and certainly strong enough to object to all the attention. He is not pooing or eating himself and my instinct is that he may not make it.:cry:
My vet agreed with me that this looked like the reason for the anoerexia especially becasue of the diahorea (he checked him for everything else) but he had never seen it before himself.
 
Poor thing, I hope he recovers and gets well soon, I send lots of vibes.:love:

That's why most of the medicine containing strong antibiotics incl. penicillin classes are injected, as rabbits do not tolerate them the oral way..
 
So sorry to hear this; do hope your little bun pulls through.

It's certainly a valuable warning; whenever I've "missed" with the depocillin my main concern has been for the bun who's missed his dose - it wouldn't have occurred to me to worry about somebun grooming him.

Really hope your little one makes it, and thank you for alerting the rest of us to the possible dangers...
 
Oh no Jill what an awful, tragic circumstance, it wasn't stupid on your part, it's just one of those unfortunate things :( Thank you for the warning - as Tinsel says, I'd have worried about the missed dose but wouldn't necessarily have thought of another bun being able to groom it off. Really hoping that Troy makes it xxx
 
Oh i hope your baby pulls through.

I used to inject Inca with penicillin and i used to get some on her fur from time to time. I did wipe it off, cos one time i left it and her skin went really inflammed.

Vibes xx
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Oh dear :cry:

Would your Vet consider prescribing QUESTRAN (Cholestyramine) which may 'mop up' the enterotoxins ?

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/questran.html


Or Metronidazole which would attack Clostridia overgrowth

http://wildlife1.wildlifeinformation.org/s/00dis/bacterial/Clostridial_enteritis_rabbits.htm

Are you giving SQ fluid therapy ?
Click to expand...

Really pleased to hear from you! We have him on zantac, probiotic, flagyl (is that a sort of metronidazole?). The vet gave us a prescription to get cholestyramine from the chemist but they are all out of it and don't know when they will get anymore becasue there is a supply problem with it. We have a chemist ringing round for us to see if he can find some. The vet said that there was no alternative to it. He said the fact that Troy is still going after 48 hours is a really good sign but FHB's book on it (p285) is really pessimistic although I suppose the assumption in the book is that the rabbit has been fed a larger amount of it.
We're meant to be flying off to Belfast on Thursday for Xmas with the family but are thinking that one of us needs to stay behind becasue of this :cry:

What is SQ fluid therapy? We're aiming at getting at least 100mls of critical care into him - do you think that is enough? If he gets lethargic I'll take him down to the vets to get an IV drip but think that for the moment he is better at home. He is just lying down stretched out (except when he is sitting up looking daggers at me which I reckon is a good sign!))
 
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i used to worry about this with bisc and matt. i always missed with the injection aswell and spent ages wiping off any on the fur. and then was paranoid for ages after when they groomed each other.

really hope your bunny will be ok x
 
Yes Jill, flagyl is metronidazole so that should do a good job at killing off any clostridial overgrowth which may occur because of the penicillin. I hope you are able to get hold of some questran and that Troy is ok xx
 
bunnylover177 said:
Really pleased to hear from you! We have him on zantac, probiotic, flagyl (is that a sort of metronidazole?). The vet gave us a prescription to get cholestyramine from the chemist but they are all out of it and don't know when they will get anymore becasue there is a supply problem with it. We have a chemist ringing round for us to see if he can find some. The vet said that there was no alternative to it. He said the fact that Troy is still going after 48 hours is a really good sign but FHB's book on it (p285) is really pessimistic although I suppose the assumption in the book is that the rabbit has been fed a larger amount of it.
We're meant to be flying off to Belfast on Thursday for Xmas with the family but are thinking that one of us needs to stay behind becasue of this :cry:

What is SQ fluid therapy? We're aiming at getting at least 100mls of critical care into him - do you think that is enough? If he gets lethargic I'll take him down to the vets to get an IV drip but think that for the moment he is better at home. He is just lying down stretched out (except when he is sitting up looking daggers at me which I reckon is a good sign!))
Click to expand...

SQ Fluids = subcutaneous fluids. I tend to give 20ml/kg after every episode of diarrhoea.

Re the CC feeds, I'd aim for 10ml/kg every couple of hours.

I really hope that he can pull through.
 
I hope he will be ok. Sorry I have no advice to offer but am really sorry for the accident and keeping everything crossed for you x
 
Sending vibes for Troy. I really hope he makes it xx

It's so easy to get penicillin on the skin/fur...sometimes you can't even see small amounts. I always make sure I have a good sniff of the bun's back after the injection...it's much easier to detect any traces by smell because it's got a very strong chemical whiff to it.
 
Oh Jill :( I really hope Troy pulls though..if there is anything I can do let me know..you are not to blame, these things can happen so easily :(
I know William will be doing all he can xx
 
We took him down to the vets this afternoon as he hadn't done any peeing for at least 24hrs (or pooing). I don't know if this was becasue 100ml of cc wasn't enough or becasue his kidneys were packing in... so I was worried about syringe feeding him as his tum felt like it was over expanded. Not much news since then although he has peed a bit. William is in tomorrow so at least I'll know he is in safe hands. My OH has had to deal with it all as I had a mad busy day at work - I woory about hospitalising him as it is such a large practice and I suspect that bunnies get 'lost' in there sometimes esp. if the bunny vet is not around they play a 'let's wait til William gets back' game and sometimes, in the past that has been too late. Probably just paranoid but this bun is very special for us.
Thanks a lot for the offer of help Louise - we know we're not alone.
Sorry for the delay in replying - no time today. Hoping for lots of snow and a school closure tomorrow:)
 
Oh no Jill, so sorry to hear that Troy is still poorly :( I really hope that he hangs in there overnight and that William works his magic on him tomorrow xxx
 
That was the first thing my vet told me when I was doing Lionels depocilin injections, I really hope your bun will be ok x
 
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