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I'm worried :(

Oompa-Loompa

Warren Veteran
Boris has been on antibiotics for 3 days and I'm not seeing much improvement still :? I took him to the vets last Friday as he'd been coughing and breathing fast for a couple of days. He was examined thoroughly, they checked his teeth/mouth, his stomach, his heart and even took his temperature, but they could find nothing wrong except for the obvious laboured breathing. The vet suspected pneumonia and prescribed some antibiotics (Bactrim to be specific, which is apparently not as good as Baytril?). I think his breathing has improved somewhat, if only sligthly, he's still breathing fast but I do think it seems less laboured now. However this morning he had another coughing fit :( Which made me super worried and paranoid. What if he doesn't get better :cry: I can't stand seeing him cough like that, it just breaks my heart! I'm still a relatively new rabbit owner, Boris is my first rabbit ever and he's never had any health issues before except for the occasional tummy upset when he was younger. I was expecting him to improve almost overnight, which seems so silly now that I think about it :oops: But like I said, I'm still a beginner, I have no idea what to expect.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just worried right now :( Needed to get it off my chest.
 
Poor Boris :cry: You must be very worried about him. Three days isn't really very long in terms of a course of antibiotics, so although with something as strong as pencillin or a tetracycline (injected) I would expect some improvement by now, with other antibiotics this may not be the case. I'm not familiar with Bactrim but from a quick google it appears to be a trimethroprim combined with a sulfa drug. It's not one commonly used over here in the UK I don't think, but seems to be appropriate for Pneumonia from all the info, if this is what Boris has :?

Is his cough a dry cough then? Any sneezing or discharge from his nose? How is his appetite - is he doing ok? And his heart all sounded normal yes? What breed is Boris and how old is he? is his breathing very noisy still? Is there a possibility he could have aspirated some food? Is it definitely a cough or a choke or a sneeze?
 
Actually, just thinking about it, when your vet said pneumonia did he mention the word aspiration pneumonia? That would indicate that he thinks that Boris has aspirated something into his lungs. When my rabbit Poppy did this she was doing a sudden choking for sometime... that might appear to look like a cough :?

I'm wondering if a course of NSAID's would also be helpful for Boris to reduce any inflammation of his airways?
 
Thanks for replying! His breathing isn't loud at all, in fact he's breathing just like he normally does, just faster. No discharge from his nose or eyes. He's a 4 and a half year old dwarf cross (he weighs about 1.26 kilos). I'm watching him right now (he's sleeping) and his breathing seems almost ok from what I can see :) He's eating, drinking and pooing fine, being his normal cheeky self etc. But I'm really worried about the coughing :( The vet didn't mention the possibility of him having inhaled something :? It definitely sounds like a cough rather than a choke, but I'm not sure what the difference is. When he does it he has little fits, coughing maybe 7 times, and then goes back to normal. No mouth breathing or anything.
 
Oh, ok! And you need a prescription to get those, right? I'll mention it to my vet if he doesn't get any better :(
 
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