peppers abscess.....:(

Hi,

As you may know pepper has an abscess at the base of her ear, we took skull xrays in may and there is some increased density in the tympanic bulla. As we were given a poor prognosis for surgery and due to pepper not dealing well with anaesthesia we decided to palitate as necessary. She is currently recieveing ultrapen LA injections every 3 days ( which have been making no diffrence ) & metacam everyday to help with pain. She is now starting to lose alot of weight ( she was quite a chunky bun before at 3.1kg! ) she now weighs 2.65kg. Shes also starting to get sore from all the injections we are giving her

Im so stressed as I have no idea how to help her. And was just wondering if anyone had any ideas ?
would oral abx help ? I realise that I cant do anything about this abscess without surgery but I just want to make her as comfrotable as possible in the mean time....

What is her abscess like? Is it open, as in can you get pus out of it?

Oral abx just don't work well with abscesses at all.

Have you had a culture taken of it to check that you are using the best injectible abx?

Surgical removal is the best bet (if it can be done).

The best antibiotic I've found for ear infections has been oral Zithromax (Azithromycin)...which isn't licensed for animal use as far as I know, but your vet can prescribe it if required. Buns seems to really like the taste, so getting it into them isn't usually a problem. There isn't much info around on dosage, but I use anything from 1ml to 1.5ml once per day for a medium sized bun

millions of healing vibes for poor little pepper xx

are you meaning on the outside of the ear or an inner ear infection?

parsnipbun said:

are you meaning on the outside of the ear or an inner ear infection?

Click to expand...

You have replied before here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?341924-facial-abcess.....not-sure-what-to-do-(

binkybunnyox - from what I am reading I just don't think that the correct treatment is being done here. If the abscess is external and you can get access to it then you can treat it with Manuka Honey. It really does work VERY well. Also I see from the quoted post that you have not got a culture done, well I think you should consider this as it could result in you getting a different abx.

Thanks for all the replies

The abscess is at the base of her ear on her face so we have access to it and i have spoke about cutting into it and cleaning the pus out and doing a c+s while there. Have an appointment with the vet on wednesday so will see what happens. Edinburgh vet school had advised not to lance the abscess as we suspect that it is in the bulla pepper was given a prognosis of 2 months-1 year (at best), its now 2 months later and she is still eating/drinking&pooing, shes her usual self apart from losing weight which is seriously worrying me !

Kermit- I agree, she is not recieving the best/correct treatment. I feel as though we are just shooting in the dark I was actually thinking of changing vets ! Im terrified of doing anything to this abscess incase i make it worse and take away what quality of life she has at the moment ( silly, i know ) im a paranoid bunny mummy !

Is she has been to the D!ck Vet then you must be getting good advice, but I would be worried about just leaving the abscess. Even if you could get an incision into it, without lancing it then you could get some Manuka in there, it really cuts through abscess pus fantastic. I would maybe suggest this to the vets. Maybe they don't want to lance it and drain it too much, but even if you could get some pus out and some honey in then that could possibly help?

Obviously I am no vet, but just speaking from experience with Manuka and abscesses and I really rate the stuff.

(I use Manuka with the highest UMF that I could get, UMF 25+)

Abscesses at the base of the ear are most likely to be both internal AND external. They usually start off as a nasty inner/middle ear infection, and eventually come up as an abscess visible externally.

IMO there is no point just opening the abscess and cleaning it out without aggressive and effective antibiotic treatment. Penicillin (as pepper is on) is often a very good antibiotic to use. I'm not familiar with ultrapen, but I've used a variety of types/brands of injectable penicillin in rabbits and I've found that you need a fairly high dose every day until the abscess is under control. For me, the minimum dose for the penicillin I use would be something like 0.5ml per day. Penicillin is supposed to be long acting, but I've found that it doesn't really seem to last very long in a rabbit's system.

By the way, you shouldn't really see signs of sore skin from giving penicillin injections. It may be that Pepper has had some sort of skin reaction to it (probably to the base used rather than the active ingredient) . Perhaps get your vet to take a look next time you take her in?

abbymarysmokey said:

IMO there is no point just opening the abscess and cleaning it out without aggressive and effective antibiotic treatment. Penicillin (as pepper is on) is often a very good antibiotic to use. (probably to the base used rather than the active ingredient)

Click to expand...

Just to add, I wasn't trying to suggest cleaning out the abscess and using Manuka alone. Just in case my post was read like that.....sorry!

Thanks again .

Will be taken all your suggestions to my vet

Kermit- I've not had pepper at the vet school, but my vet and I have been receiving advice from them, they haven't seen her but I'm sure its good advice nonetheless I'm just getting very frustrated taking her for an injection every other day which isn't doing anything we have spoke about something similar to this except using iodine . Will suggest manuka to the vet as it sounds less risky than iodine !

Abbymarysmonkey - thanks for the advice about the penicillin. My vet & I had a slight disagreement as they wanted to do injections once a week we eventually agreed on every 3 days, would this be often enough ? Also she has had a reaction to cylap in the past (i was a silly bunny mummy & didn't do my research on the nasty stuff!) so the reaction to the base makes sense now you mention it ! I was concerned I was making her sore with all the injections

Sending good vibes to Pepper and hugs to you.

I know how scary it is to have a poorly bun!

Hope you get things sorted

K xx

binkybunnyox said:

Kermit- I've not had pepper at the vet school, but my vet and I have been receiving advice from them, they haven't seen her but I'm sure its good advice nonetheless I'm just getting very frustrated taking her for an injection every other day which isn't doing anything we have spoke about something similar to this except using iodine . Will suggest manuka to the vet as it sounds less risky than iodine !

Click to expand...

I use dilute iodine to clean the abscess out before applying the Manuka Honey. Basically I pick off any scab, squeeze out as much pus as I can, flush with iodine, then put Manuka Honey in the hole. Honestly, this process has worked wonders for me. If you decide / your vets decide to do it I could come and show you what I do if you like.

Could you not inject her yourself? I just get the abx injections home with me and do it myself.

Aww when they said iodine I was like iodine ?! didn't know they meant dilute iodine & thanks, that's very kind of you ! I was going to take them home with me but when she was spayed in jnuary it took 2 months before she would come near me she would come out & sit with my oh & give me the evil eye ! Didn't want her to fall out with me again haha . Seems like all I'm doing to her just now is things she didn't appreciate

binkybunnyox said:

Abbymarysmonkey - thanks for the advice about the penicillin. My vet & I had a slight disagreement as they wanted to do injections once a week we eventually agreed on every 3 days, would this be often enough ? Also she has had a reaction to cylap in the past (i was a silly bunny mummy & didn't do my research on the nasty stuff!) so the reaction to the base makes sense now you mention it ! I was concerned I was making her sore with all the injections

Click to expand...

I'm sure once a week won't be enough, even with a long acting penicillin. My vet only advises once weekly penicillin for rabbits who are currently fine but have a history of recurring infection or similar. I don't know enough about ultrapen to give an opinion on that medicine in particular, but for most rabbit-safe penicillin you'd administer it at least every other day for an active infection.