Oompa-Loompa
Warren Veteran
(maybe I should've put this in the Health section....
but here goes, long post alert)
Boris has had episodes of coughing + sneezing and laboured breathing since September. Each one has been successfully treated with Septrin, but his symptoms have always come back eventually. The first few courses of abx he had were very short ones (7-10 days) so I put it down to them not being long enough to be effective. After much debating with my local vets, who admittedly don't know a lot about rabbits, he was given Septrin for roughly a month. He's been examined twice and they could find nothing obviously wrong. Heart & lungs sounded good. Temperature was normal. He had no other symptoms of anything being wrong.
Well, he's been doing great since. For 4 months he's been almost completely back to normal, apart from a somewhat increased breathing rate (I suspect that this is due to scarring in his lungs). He's been coughing occasionally when stressed out but then he's been fine. Cheeky and inquistive with a huge appetite. And now, a few days ago (not more than 2 days I'd say) the symptoms have started to come back. Today he's breathing very quickly and having coughing fits. He's still active however and doesnt appear to be in any discomfort.
Initially my vet suspected pneumonia but from what I've read it usually makes bunnies VERY poorly. He's never been very poorly. He's been pretty under the weather, yes, but he never stopped eating etc. This made me think that it was, in fact, the dreaded pasteurella. But given his unusual symptoms I've never been 100% sure of this.
An interesting observation I made however, is the fact that he was on Baytril for 7 days in the beginning which did not help AT ALL. Whereas Septrin has usually started to kick in after only a few days. This to me points towards a respiratory infection caused by bacteria (Would appreciate if someone could confirm this or clear this up if I'm mistaken, but isn't Septrin USUALLY more effective for that type of problem)
Which, again, COULD = pasteurella.
Please, RU, I need your advice on what could be wrong with my little man. Having talked to my vets today, they don't sound too optimistic, they insist it isn't pasteurella because he doesn't have the typical symptoms, but what else could it possibly be? I'm getting really desperate They're telling me to take him in and get him x-rayed, which they've never even done with a rabbit before. I'm not sure they even realise they'd have to sedate him, which would be risky with his breathing being so bad. But that's the only thing they'll suggest now. They seem very reluctant to giving us any more Septrin since according to them, he's had enough and putting him back on it again would be dangerous as he could build up a resistance to it etc. (I need advice on this as well, do they have a point here or are they only saying this due to lack of knowledge?)
Any advice would be much appeciated, I really don't know what to do at the moment!
but here goes, long post alert)Boris has had episodes of coughing + sneezing and laboured breathing since September. Each one has been successfully treated with Septrin, but his symptoms have always come back eventually. The first few courses of abx he had were very short ones (7-10 days) so I put it down to them not being long enough to be effective. After much debating with my local vets, who admittedly don't know a lot about rabbits, he was given Septrin for roughly a month. He's been examined twice and they could find nothing obviously wrong. Heart & lungs sounded good. Temperature was normal. He had no other symptoms of anything being wrong.
Well, he's been doing great since. For 4 months he's been almost completely back to normal, apart from a somewhat increased breathing rate (I suspect that this is due to scarring in his lungs
). He's been coughing occasionally when stressed out but then he's been fine. Cheeky and inquistive with a huge appetite. And now, a few days ago (not more than 2 days I'd say) the symptoms have started to come back. Today he's breathing very quickly and having coughing fits. He's still active however and doesnt appear to be in any discomfort. Initially my vet suspected pneumonia but from what I've read it usually makes bunnies VERY poorly. He's never been very poorly. He's been pretty under the weather, yes, but he never stopped eating etc. This made me think that it was, in fact, the dreaded pasteurella. But given his unusual symptoms I've never been 100% sure of this.
An interesting observation I made however, is the fact that he was on Baytril for 7 days in the beginning which did not help AT ALL. Whereas Septrin has usually started to kick in after only a few days. This to me points towards a respiratory infection caused by bacteria (Would appreciate if someone could confirm this or clear this up if I'm mistaken, but isn't Septrin USUALLY more effective for that type of problem)
Which, again, COULD = pasteurella.
Please, RU, I need your advice on what could be wrong with my little man. Having talked to my vets today, they don't sound too optimistic, they insist it isn't pasteurella because he doesn't have the typical symptoms, but what else could it possibly be? I'm getting really desperate
They're telling me to take him in and get him x-rayed, which they've never even done with a rabbit before. I'm not sure they even realise they'd have to sedate him, which would be risky with his breathing being so bad. But that's the only thing they'll suggest now. They seem very reluctant to giving us any more Septrin since according to them, he's had enough and putting him back on it again would be dangerous as he could build up a resistance to it etc. (I need advice on this as well, do they have a point here or are they only saying this due to lack of knowledge?)Any advice would be much appeciated, I really don't know what to do at the moment!
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