Nebulsing questions U/D tips on technique?

As it appears that Willow has decided to take after his brother and develop a lower respiratory tract infection I'm after some more information about nebulising bunnies for this and similar conditions.

My vets haven't tried nebulsing bunnies before and so asked if I could find out what other people had nebulised their buns with & if possible the contact details of their vet so she could contact them and find out a bit more about it.

Responses by PM or on here would be much appreciated.

We (used to *fingers crossed*) nebulise Ginger daily, with an Omrom C24.

We made a nebulisation chamber out of a big plastic storage box, put in a towel, some hay and nebulised 1:200 F10SC.

The vet who recommended it was a referrals vet in Devon though, who you cant talk to without a referal.

Thanks Graham!

Do you think the referrals vet would talk to another vet though? It wouldn't be me contacting them.

KateB said:

Thanks Graham!

Do you think the referrals vet would talk to another vet though? It wouldn't be me contacting them.

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I dont think it works like that, they wont talk unless you get a referall :/

The vet however is Ian Sayers from Abbots Kerwell Vets if that helps.

He is also Yvette's regular vet, might give you an in roads perhaps?

Our vets speak to specialist vets on our behalf a lot and have even sent them xrays and blood results for advice. It means bunny doesn't have to travel but you still get expert opinions x

We nebulised Bluebell using this one:

http://www.evergreen-nebulizers.co.uk/omron/compairc28p.html

We cut a small hole in a storage box and poked the tube through, although he was so good in the early days he would sit in my lap whilst I held the mask losely infront of him.

My vet hadn't done it previously either so I'm not sure how much info they could shed on it but personally it made the world of difference to Bluebell, certainly he wouldn't of been with us as long as he was without it.

We initially used his daily baytril dose with some saline (if you do this use the injectable form not the oral one as the oral one foams and doesn't disperse very well).

Eventually he got used to the baytril so we changed him to other drugs and just used saline.

We nebulised him twice a day for about 20 mins.

Hugo's There said:

Our vets speak to specialist vets on our behalf a lot and have even sent them xrays and blood results for advice. It means bunny doesn't have to travel but you still get expert opinions x

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Thanks Liz - I had a feeling that vets might be able to talk to vets where we can't.

And thank you to Amy and Graham - I'll be passing this info on at our appointment next week. Fingers crossed that Willow won't mind being nebulised and that it will help him.

Thanks for the info - I had the opportunity to pass on the contacts to my vet yesterday and she's just phoned me and sounds positive about the idea, but we'll have to source our own nebuliser as the practice management won't go for buying one to rent to us. So....

..... recommend me a good nebuliser!

So now we have a shiny new nebuliser, and some F10 although still need to solve saline etc, and tips on how to nebulise buns without scaring them silly the first time etc?

Also, how do bonded partners react to their partner potentially smelling funny from the nebulising process?

I never had a problem with the bonded partner.

The biggest 'trial and error' element I found was getting the right amount of F10 in the nebuliser. If you use too little, it runs out before the time is up; too much, it bubbles up like bubble bath and doesn't nebulise properly. I'm about to go out but I'll try and dig out a photo of Santa in her nebuliser box later so you can see how I made it.

Santa said:

I never had a problem with the bonded partner.

The biggest 'trial and error' element I found was getting the right amount of F10 in the nebuliser. If you use too little, it runs out before the time is up; too much, it bubbles up like bubble bath and doesn't nebulise properly. I'm about to go out but I'll try and dig out a photo of Santa in her nebuliser box later so you can see how I made it.

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Thanks - that would be helpful.

Basically it's just a large kitchen storage box with a hole cut in the front to put the nebuliser inlet through. You can use a pet carrier and cover it over as best you can to prevent the mist from escaping.

This was to start off with - after I'd been doing it for a while I realised that the chamber needs to get quite 'foggy', because they are breathing it in passively rather than actively sucking it in like a human would. So I 'blocked' off the outlet (the horizontal tube to the far left, where the breath from a human breathing out through it would go) with cotton wool, so it wasn't airtight but so that the nebuliser mist was diverted into the chamber.

When I'd worked out the right level of stuff to put in the chamber, I marked it on the container in pen so I knew when it was at the right level. I also remember you have to pour the mixture very gently down the side as if you disturb it too much again it froths up and doesn't form a nice mist.

I had the actual machine as far away as possible as it was quite noisy, and I used to put it under a box and cover the box with a couple of coats to keep the noise down. For only 15-20 minutes it didn't overheat but I guess that would depend on the individual machine.