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Daily injections for 6 weeks please advise

C

chookmom

Young Bun
Hi
I have posted on here before about my rabbit who suffers with snuffles.
Last year he had outbreaks (noisy breathing, damp nose, chest clear) in May, October, December (2010) and now again in Feb. Each time he is treated with antibiotics.
He had Baytril originally then this became ineffective and he had 2 courses of Oxytetrin (every 3 days for 6 weeks) which cleared it up but it came back again after only 6-8 weeks.
My new vet is trying a different strategy.He is now 4 weeks into a 6 week course of a daily injection of Depocillin.
I hate doing the injections (even though I'm a nurse!) but am persisting with it but am feeling more and more uncomfortable about injecting him in the same site every day for such a long period. Doesn't it become sore?
He is less obliging with it. He used to be content to be held and eat a piece of apple while I did it but now won't and sometimes jumps.
The Vet reassured me it was fine.
Have others had to inject for such a prolonged period and do you think it will help?
Thank you
Nicky
 
Last edited:
I have done in the past with a reoccuring abscess :( and to be honest I would be reluctunct to do so again, so would have to think long and hard about it.

Yes he got sore, but he also eventually had liver failure, and though we never knew for sure the constant injection's contributed to it, in my mind I believe it did :(

Sorry to hear about your bunny, I sincerely hope he starts to show some improvement very soon.
 
Thank you for your replies.
Worrying.
Anyone else with experience of injecting anything daily for this length of time? Please
With people we would vary the site at least but I wasn't given that option.
 
I was previously injecting Poppy for several weeks at a time with depocillin.

The first course was fine, I had no problems but I do agree with you that I wasn't keen on doing it in the same place each time, although she didn't even seem to flinch I did try and move it around her neck as much as I could (don't know if this is the right thing to do, was just my instinct).

The second time for a while it was ok but then she developed an injection site reaction, she developed a mass under the skin and had to have surgery to remove it, it was quite a big lump and she had a substantial wound and stitches.

I think she was probably an unlucky case as I haven't seen any other reports of that kind of reaction on here, perhaps something to be mindful of though and check for. I hope your bunny is much better soon.
 
we are at the start of what will be a long series of Duphapen (penicillin) injections - we are actually taking Parsley into the vets to do it as it is so difficult to do (it clogs all the time!).

Last time he had a series of jabs when he broke his leg Parsley ended up getting lots of small lumps as a reaction . . though we are not sure which meds he reacted to.

However - in our case its injections or rampant abscess in inner ear/brain area - so we will be sticking with injections. So far he has not had a reaction this time and seems happy with them.

I know when they were injecting another bun of mine they would do one side and then the other alternate days - making sure they recorded each day which part o fthe bun they had injected in the day before.
 
I have to give my Grimlock injections on and off for various reasons. I would swap the side each time and inject him a little further down his back or down his side. Just as long as I could do it in the scruff. He had absolutely no problems. :)
 
I have injected Inca for two courses of 6 weeks. She has Ceporex (penicillin) injections when she first got EC.

Like Grin, i just changed sides when injecting her. I did find that it made her skin very dry, i first thought that she had mites, but the vet examined a skin scrape and she had mites treatment, but she still had it, so it was confirmed as dry skin from the injections (just near the injection site).

She is a great bunny and just sits there and lets me do it.
 
We had one bun who was on long term Depocillin every 3 days for almost 2 years. Even the vet had problems on the occasions he did the injections and said his skin had hardened like leather, even though we rotated all around the scruff from front to back and side to side.

It is difficult when it seems as though we are causing hurt but the alternative to not doing the injections is not really feasible.:(
 
Lobo said:
We had one bun who was on long term Depocillin every 3 days for almost 2 years. Even the vet had problems on the occasions he did the injections and said his skin had hardened like leather, even though we rotated all around the scruff from front to back and side to side.

It is difficult when it seems as though we are causing hurt but the alternative to not doing the injections is not really feasible.:(
Click to expand...

That is realy long - what was it for? and were there any side effects?
 
I've injected Vernon every other day since about July 2009. He doesn't like having it done, but he tolerates it because he gets some tasty metcam and a treat afterwards.

His skin is rather thickened on his shoulders due to the injections, so I try to vary the site each time. Sometimes the needle doesn't quite get through his skin and a bit of the penicillin gets on his skin/fur, but I wipe it off with a damp cotton wool ball and dry it with a piece of kitchen towel. He hasn't had any skin reactions so far.

I've also got Tufty who has had injections every other day for nearly a year. He's easier to inject because his skin is quite thin. He hasn't had any problems either.

It's tough when you know they need injections for the rest of their lives, but I don't think buns dwell on the thought that they'll have another injection the next day, or the day after that...they live in the moment, unlike us humans

Good luck :)
 
parsnipbun said:
That is realy long - what was it for? and were there any side effects?
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

The Depocillin was for recurring mandible abscesses. There were times when the injections were stopped but the abscesses invariably returned requiring daily injections then reducing the frequency back to two then three days. Anecdotally we found that any longer than three days between injections was too long. Over the period from 12/4/2007 to 5/11/2009 he had a total of 240 Depocillin injections.

He seemed to tolerate the injections with the side effect of toughened skin but ultimately the day after his last injection he was put to sleep as an abscess at the back of his jaw had grown into his throat making swallowing almost impossible and he was almost 9 years old and too weak to undergo any further surgery.
 
Thank you.
That has at least reassured me thats it's not unheard of and can be problem free.
I will make more of an effort to move around the scruff. I will admit I have been more concerned about getting the injection in the right place (that triangle that the vet showed me) and so have been going for central area but I see now that there is more scope and so that has been helpful.
I hope it has some beneficial effect after all this and is not back in a couple of months.
 
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