duplociline - how safe is it?

Just back from the vet with Honey, and they have started her on duplociline injections, every 2 days the first week, then every 3 days. The vet did say it was really dangerous though. Wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this?

She is to take it with Septrin and Metacam, and if there is no advance then she is to go to D1ck Vet for an assessment there. I just wondered if it would be worth going straight for the assessment?

I have had numerous Rabbits on long courses of a penicillin injection with no ill effects. However, I would be asking about giving any oral antibiotic apart from Metronidazole, at the same time as treating with an injectable penicillin. I would feel uneasy about doing this I think.

As far as the referral goes, what would this hope to achieve ?

What is the diagnosis thus far ?

Thanks for replying Jane. The referral would be to give her a GA and take xrays, use an endoscope to check the nasal passages, and something else but I forget what . As well as a swab taken from high in the nasal cavity.

All she has had so far are nasal swabs taken while conscious. One taken when she wasn't on Septrin showed Bordetella bronchiseptica. Another slide taken while on Septrin just grew some bacteria.

Her symptoms are a snotty nose, which looks the same as the Septrin, and sneezing. She was treated for an abcess on her back before I got her.

weedug said:

Thanks for replying Jane. The referral would be to give her a GA and take xrays, use an endoscope to check the nasal passages, and something else but I forget what . As well as a swab taken from high in the nasal cavity.

All she has had so far are nasal swabs taken while conscious. One taken when she wasn't on Septrin showed Bordetella bronchiseptica. Another slide taken while on Septrin just grew some bacteria.

Her symptoms are a snotty nose, which looks the same as the Septrin, and sneezing. She was treated for an abcess on her back before I got her.

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For any swab to be reliable the Rabbit needs to have been off all abx for at least 7 days. So any swabs taken whilst on abx would really be a waste of your money.

What are her symptoms, exactly ?

The first swab was taken before any medication, so assume that one was accurate.

Her only symptoms are a snotty nose sometimes, with white discharge, and some sneezing. She has been sneezing ever since I got her last year. She is fine otherwise. No mouth breathing, eating as normal. Chest sounded clear at vet. Her temp was low side of normal. Breathing fine. If she is outside when it's a bit cold, she gets more snot.

Any ideas Jane?

I have had a few buns on depocillin now, only one of them had any side effects from it. Just watch out for any digestive problems, such as abdominal pain, loose droppings or a slow down of eating or passing poops. If they show signs of this you should speak to the vet before giving the next dose. Jack did have some problems with it, mainly ceacal dysbiosis after being on it for a few weeks but it helped with his RTI. His breathing would get worse and he would struggle badly without it but he would get gut problems when on it so I had to balance the dose and interval depending on his symptoms. Giving him fibreplex helped as did avipro in his water as it encouraged him to drink more. It didn't cause any lasting damage and he was eventually switched over to Alamycin LA after it appeared to help as well and it didn't upset his gut as much. Thankfully he is now off antibiotics

I've also had 3 RTI buns fully assessed under GA, with x-rays, endoscopy, swabs etc and nothing significant was found for any of them! With Jack the endoscopy showed he had quite a lot of mucus at the back of his throat so he was given daily bisolvon after that, which helped a little but not a huge amount. That's not to say that they wouldn't find anything with Honey though. I think if given the choice I would still ask for this to be done if any of my other buns had problems, just in case there is something that might be picked up on.

Another thing that helped Jack was nebulising him, I tried it with saline, bisolvon and F10, and the F10 did make a difference for him in the end, and I believe that is what helped him get off the antibiotics completely.

And one more suggestion, as strange as it may sound, one of my other buns Paddy responded extremely well to tiacil eye drops. He had a very bad upper RTI, the worst I have ever seen, he just constantly had thick pus coming out of his nose. The eye drops must have drained down his tear ducts and into his nose and helped fight the infection, he had been on depocillin for about two months previously without much improvement. He is another one that I managed to get off the antibiotics completely and he made a full recovery.

Thank you so much for this Pegasys. It's good to know that there is the chance that Honey could get well again one day.

I am trying to get organised with a nebuliser, as I hope this would help her more than just injections all the time. My vet has a number of different drugs he was going to try in it. We are just going with the injections just now because I will probably be going away in a few days for some time, and the person looking after her might struggle with getting her used to a nebuliser.

I will brief hubby on what to look out for with her, in case the injections aren't agreeing with her. He will need to take her back and forward to the vet for the injections, so they will be keeping an eye on her too.

Finley when first put on depocillin started to lose weight and his poo's got bit runny but the vet gave him some probiotic and he was right as rain again

After reading this thread I am even more convinced that B had a bad reaction to her eyedrops as your buns all seemed to be on antibiotics weeks before any improvement.B has only had 3 duplociline injections & there was a marked improvement in her breathing after just one but amazingly I stopped giving the eyedrops the day before she improved.She didn't have a runny nose but was making bad quacking noises,& nasal clicking & laboured,though still nose,breathing.Her breathing problems started the day after she started on the eyedrops & got better the day after I took her off them.Every vet ive asked,either on line or in person has said it was no way the eyedrops & I know people on here have used them successfully but a vet not long ago told me Caspers forepaw lameness was nothing to do with cylap & other rabbits are fine with it,so maybe B was just unlucky & did have a reaction.

Honey's snot was much better after only one injection. She's had 2 now, and for the past couple of days there has been no snot in her run. I'm just hoping that things stay so good for her.

I've also used loads of different eye drops on a different bun, and have never had any problems. Doesn't mean that no bun will react to them though.

Hope B continues to stay well.

If it makes you feel any better Grim is on long term penicillin injections and oral baytril. That and the nebuliser is keeping his snuffles at bay. He also has antibiotic eye drops. So that's three different types of antibiotics. I think he's actually made entirely of antibiotics now, just covered in fur.

Poor Grim . He is lucky to have a bunny mummy who will do all that for him.

The vet I saw talked about it like it was some sort of toxic substance :lol:. Whilst it may be bad for the bun to injest it, I don't think she needed to go quite so OTT.

weedug said:

Honey's snot was much better after only one injection. She's had 2 now, and for the past couple of days there has been no snot in her run. I'm just hoping that things stay so good for her.

I've also used loads of different eye drops on a different bun, and have never had any problems. Doesn't mean that no bun will react to them though.

Hope B continues to stay well.

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Thankyou.Thats good then,that your bun was also better after one injection.:thumb: