Has anyone cured snuffles with no recurrence?

My Elsa started showing mild symptoms of snuffles after a stressful visit to the vets a few weeks ago ages 8.5.

She was put on baytril 0.6ml for 10 days, my mum has been putting it on her pellets as I've been at uni. I'm so hopeful that I'll go home and find her cured but I've done a lot of research and am doubtful and concerned about recurrence... but aged 8 having never shown signs before and only showing mild symptoms (sneezing, slight nasal discharge) now I am wondering if there's a possibility that this course of Baytril will cure the snuffles and it won't come back.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Don't want my poor bun suffering!

Snuffles has a number of different strains and some are more easily controlled than others
Re your bunnies meds
Baytril is usually the 1st anti biotic a vet will prescribe for a rabbit, however many of us have found better results with others meds..so if your bun still shows signs discuss the possibilty of a differrent drug rather than just prolonged Baytril

Also when giving drugs for an illness you must make sure the bun takes it all, putting it on her pellets will not do this as she may noit eat them all..or the ones with the meds on..or it may run off into the bottom of her bowl.
The meds should be given as informed by vet, with Baytril this is usually orally by syringe

Hope you bun does manage to get better

honeybunny said:

Snuffles has a number of different strains and some are more easily controlled than others
Re your bunnies meds
Baytril is usually the 1st anti biotic a vet will prescribe for a rabbit, however many of us have found better results with others meds..so if your bun still shows signs discuss the possibilty of a differrent drug rather than just prolonged Baytril

Also when giving drugs for an illness you must make sure the bun takes it all, putting it on her pellets will not do this as she may noit eat them all..or the ones with the meds on..or it may run off into the bottom of her bowl.
The meds should be given as informed by vet, with Baytril this is usually orally by syringe

Hope you bun does manage to get better

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Although I agree, it can sometimes be very stressful to give baytril orally as it tastes so bad. And as snuffles is brought on by stress (a lot of the time) I think it can be counter productive. I always give Grim his baytril on bread because if I syringe it he gets so worked up she starts to get more nasal discharge. I'm not saying that I'm right, just giving my opinion.

Not cured permanently no. In our experience it tends to be chronic. It has been intermittent with some of the bunnies we have.

Sorry your bunny is suffering with this. Hope things improve.

Thank you for your replies and well wishes

Elsa absolutely hated the syringe and it was going all down her chin and she was grunting (perhaps I wasn't the most skillful at administering it.) And as mentioned I do believe it was triggered by stress. I'm confident she's eating all the pellets as she's only being given a tiny amount of them... but yes I'm sure syringing the meds would be preferable!

I'm going home tomorrow when she will have been on Baytril for 8 days so please cross your fingers for us! I'll then be at home for 4 weeks of TLC, have ordered a hay experts variety pack for her to enjoy too

ElsasMummy said:

Thank you for your replies and well wishes

Elsa absolutely hated the syringe and it was going all down her chin and she was grunting (perhaps I wasn't the most skillful at administering it.) And as mentioned I do believe it was triggered by stress. I'm confident she's eating all the pellets as she's only being given a tiny amount of them... but yes I'm sure syringing the meds would be preferable!

I'm going home tomorrow when she will have been on Baytril for 8 days so please cross your fingers for us! I'll then be at home for 4 weeks of TLC, have ordered a hay experts variety pack for her to enjoy too

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If you ask your vets about preparing a water solution- they will give you the correct dosages. This is preferable i believe to squirting baytril on pellets.

if you are giving any meds to a bun on a certain piece of food which you are hand feeding and can see they have taken and eaten, then fine
but if you are squirting it on a dish of pellets to be left with bun you cannot be sure how much they have had

When I got Eli he had snuffles. We took him straight to the vet as he'd been ill for at least 2 weeks before I got him where they gave him an antibiotic injection and sent me home with a course of baytril. All symptoms (runny nose, crusty eyes, sneezing) cleared up by the time the course was finished. I've not seen any symptoms since then, so just over a year, but who knows if it will reappear at a later date.

I agree with the suggestion of other meds if the baytril doesn't clear it up. I did a tonne of reading when Eli was showing symptoms and virtually everywhere said the best course of action is to do a (culture?) test to find out exactly what strain it is and decide which antibiotics are most effective against that strain. That's definitely what I would have done had the baytril not worked for us, if the money had been an issue I would have gone on suggestions from the experienced members on here.

Greenleaf Animal Rescue said:

If you ask your vets about preparing a water solution- they will give you the correct dosages. This is preferable i believe to squirting baytril on pellets.

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I would not recommend preparing a water solution, and neither does Sharon Redrobe who is possibly the most qualified bunny/exotics vet in the country! She quite rightly points out that it is impossible to correctly dose via this method, because you have no guarantee of how much a bun is going to drink - especially if the water tastes nasty, which in itself could cause the problem to get worse if the bun gets dehydrated. But perhaps more importantly, the efficiency of baytril is caused by its peak concentration in the blood, which means that it has to be given all as one dose for it to be effective. Giving it in water over the course of a day will not be effective because the blood concentration will never get high. Squirting on pellets is far from ideal but at least there's a chance that most of them will get eaten within a short space of time and therefore get nearer to the higher blood concentration.

Personally, I would suggest syringing it directly if you can, but mix it with something sweet like a little apple juice, pineapple juice or ribena to help take away the bitter taste.

Good luck, if your little one has got to this age without a problem, then hopefully it can be resolved with a good course of antibiotics xx

I hope you find that your buns symptoms are better.

My bun Benji has had snuffles since I first had him (he is now 1 and a half)

At the moment he is taking baytril by mouth (syringe) and has been for a few weeks now, and he has got a few weeks left.

Unfortunately has constantly had snuffles all his life, and the antibiotics just help dampen it when he gets stressed or has a possible infection.

He is also a dental bun, and I find it very difficult to find a hay that he will happily eat.

I find that his snuffles become worse when it is very hot and very cold, it is fairly manageable most of the time.

I would strongly suggest perservering with the baytril orally, if you could get someone to hold the bun, then nat the side of the mouth there is a gap where you can slip the syringe in and empty the plunger into their mouths. My bun hated this at first, but now he is used to it and is very good. As the taste is so bad you could also try adding a bit of diluted ribena to the syringe so it tastes better.

I hope this random information has helped in some way x

Two of my bunnies had snuffles, both with yellow discharge. It was not dental related.
Both went on several courses of Baytril (though as already said there are different strains of snuffles and different ABs work) 2xweeks Baytril which I gave orally with a syringe or when they got too stressed I put in basil leaves. I rolled several leaves put the baytril in and watched closely that nothing was spilled.

After 2wks of Baytril we paused for 1 weeks to prevent gut damage. Then again 2wks Baytil, 1week pause, and again 2 weeks Baytril.
Throughout the treatmemt both bunnies got Bio Lapis (Super important) to prevent gut damage. They also got some multi vitamins from the vet and Baytril injections and another injection (can't remember what is was).

Both bunnies sneeze occassionally (tiny sneezes) but they never had a runny nose again.
Little man has been fine for 8 yrs.

I don't think you can fully cure snuffles. Merlin had clicking on the lungs and snuffles when I first got him. He's been clear from symptoms for a year now but in times of stress it could come back. I've been using echinacea in his water and feeding immune boost herbs and wild plants.

don't know if this is helpfull but when my girl millie needed liquid meds and we struggled with the syringe our vet suggested putting it in a small amount of fresh pineapple juice to disguise the taste. she liked the taste so much that if we made sure it was a tiny amount of juice it was almost guaranteed shed finish it in one go.

also as a last resort i have mixed meds into a tiny amount of peanut butter then smeared onto the end of a carrot so that bunny is forced to eat if she wants the (spiked) peanut butter. i know its probably not good for them but when you are desperate its worth a try.

Tink had a very nasty bout of snuffles in her first winter with me (about 1 year old). She had about a months worth of baytril and *touches wood* it hasn't returned 2 1/2 years later. The vet did warn me that it was likely to be a recurring condition but the signs are optimistic so far.

Tink really doesn't like being handled and syringing meds for a month would have been a nightmare so I put it on food - my biggest challenge was making sure Rudy didn't pinch the food with the baytril on it!

My most successful way of getting Baytril into Artie recently was mixing the baytril 50/50 with with blackburrant juice and squirting it into just enough bread to hold the liquid. He loved it