Cleaning the bun's ears.

Hi there

I have a question. Mandy is still under antibiotic treatment for her snuffles. When we finished the Azitrmicyn, a little bit of eye gunk returned, and a few sneezes, so we started Enrofloxacin, to finish off the ones that resisted the other antibiotic.

A few days ago, she started shaking her head, lots, and it was lot worse today. I decided to take a peek inside her ears, and there seems to be either ear wax, or dried up pus from the previous infection. While its a clear tone of pale yellow (suggesting its pus), its totally dry (so I guess its not "new" pus, just old one), and very visible, as its right where the ear connects with the head.

I managed to get a little piece out with a q-tip and a powerful led light, but she moves her head around too much (must tickle her as all hells) so I was unable to take out the rest.

And while I will be calling my vet on Monday, I *REALLY* *REALLY* don't want to take her, cause the stress from the travel makes her jump into stasis, without fail, and she is just recovering from the stasis of the last travel to the vet.

Anyone here with experience in ear cleaning?

Cheers!

I would not put anything into the ear canal until a Vet has examined her. If the ear drum has perforated putting anything into the ear could be disastrous
Given her recent history of both otitis and a RTI I would be especially concerned re the risk of infection establishing itself within the middle/inner ear.

So I am afraid the only advice I can give is to take her back to the Vet, or ask the Vet for a Home Visit

Good luck

I would at least ring the vet, because you need to find out WHY she has pus in her ears, not just mask the symtoms.

edit: And just in case your vet hasnt made it clear, unfortunately you will not be able to 'finish off' the snuffles, as it is incurable, but you can control flare ups, which is what you're doing now. I've found Bisolvon on its own or alongside antibiotics really helps, my bun is on bisolvon every day.

I agree with Jane, I wouldn't touch it at all without a vet's instruction. Really sounds like she needs to see a vet again.

The *why is there pus* is quite clear, she did have an ear infection caused by Pasteurella, and yes, we are very well aware that it can't be fully cured, we need however, to kill as much as possible until her immune system can take control of it, and while its almost there, she still needs to move on with her treatment for a bit longer. If you look at her right now, you would just say its a healthy bunny, breathing is perfect, no sneezes and very little to none eye gunk. We just need to go on with the antibiotics to make sure it doesn't return right away after cutting the meds off.

Sadly, the vet doesn't do home visits (first thing I asked ). I am borrowing a car with AC tomorrow so that she doesn't fry on the way there, and maybe make the trip a bit more relaxed.

The last check she got was when we got started on Azitromycin 3 weeks ago, and the vet just said "her right ear was a bit red, but nothing to stress about, it should go away with the treatment". Her left hear was perfect, and I can see pus in both of them now. But its like, JUST THERE, below the pus area, deeper into the ear, it all looks perfectly clean, which is weird. I don't know maybe its a weird wax color caused by the antibiotics, and I am obsessing over nothing, but its clearly bothering her, so its going to have to come out.

I really can't imagine its an actual ongoing infection, specially after all the antibiotics she been having, but we'll need to see what the vet says.
Mandy is sure giving me one hell of a ride.:?

Always in a weekend...its like she knows.

Could you try something like Rescue Remedy or cammomile to calm her before the journey? If she goes into stasis from taking her to the vets you also may want to get the vet to give her a gut stimulant, and buy some recovery food, fibreplex and metacam whilst you are there.

Hope it goes well tomorrow!

nessar said:

Could you try something like Rescue Remedy or cammomile to calm her before the journey? If she goes into stasis from taking her to the vets you also may want to get the vet to give her a gut stimulant, and buy some recovery food, fibreplex and metacam whilst you are there.

Hope it goes well tomorrow!

Click to expand...

Oh, I have an unlimited supply of gut stimulants, you can choose any flavour! Metoclopramide, Cisapride and Domperidone

She has a chronic gut problems (poor innervation) so she is always on domperidone, everyday, and use the other two as an extra kick when things start to go slow, to get her back on track. I used to have to inject her Metoclopramide myself, twice a day for like 6 months, till I found about Domperidone here in this forum (Thumper takes it too).

After fighting her guts problems for a year, my house pretty much looks like a drug store, I have boxes full of gut stimulants, metacam, probiotics, anti inflamatories and pain killers, and antibiotics too. One of my best friends is an engineer at a big laboratory, so I can get any amount of any drugs without a vets prescription, which is good, since Mandy is going to be taking some of them for life. If I had to pay a vet for a prescription every time Mandy takes some medicine, I would have sold one of my kidneys by now

All the emergencies happen on the weekends, and I want to be ready for anything. I lost a guinea pig 3 years ago, waiting for the vet to open (this was another vet). The poor thing died in my arms 10 minutes before the doctor arrived.

I never give Mandy anything without consulting the my vet first, but its also good to know that your pet's life doesn't depend on the vet's schedule for that weekend, or on if you can find a place that sells a very specific rabbit drug on Sunday at 3am.

So yeah, good call, I might need to give her some extra gut help before the trip.