Please help...need advice re constant sneezing /wheezing :(

Feel so helpless. Ellie is nearly 2 and for the past 3 months she's been back and forth to the vets. 1st time her lungs were congested so had convenia and loxicom. Next visit was a week later, lungs clear but congestion in throat so just given anti inflammatory again and sent away. Had 3 more visits since then, 2 lots of Baytril, and marbocyl, and another convenia injection. That was last week, I'm sat with her now, she's sneezing a fair bit, and making sounds like when you wipe yr finger down glass, kind of quiet wheezing I suppose. This is every so often. She had some white discharge from her nose yesterday. We'll be back at the vets tomorrow but I need to know what else can he do? Different antibiotics, are there any to treat this? I feel so bad for her, she's a bit lethargic but eating ok. Its making be sad they cant make her better. Please can anyone shed any light?

Just to add she doesn't have runny eyes or a particularly wet nose, and last time we were there he said the only way to find out for sure what's going on is to sedate her and swab the back of her throat which he's not going to do. Need to get her better cos her vaccination is due in May!

With chronic respiratory problems sometimes a full cure is never possible and it is a case of managing symptoms

You could ask the Vet to refer you to a specialist who is likely to be more confident about running diagnostics.

There are several treatment approaches, but diagnostics and their results may provide a more 'case specific' picture to enable the Vet to prescribe the most appropriate treatment

Often the course of abx needs to be VERY long, months in some cases. Lots of short courses usually has no benefit and can risk causing abx resistance. So a referral to a Specialist really would be my advice especially as your Rabbit is so young and the problem may well be a life long one.

Thanks for the advice Jane, we're at the vets at 11.30 so will press for a referral. I know she's not happy but I don't know how much of it is the medication upsetting her or if its the sneezing etc.

One more question..does anyone know if I'm right in thinking the vet can see what abx she needs by culturing her sneeze discharge?? Have I dreamed that one up, cos I'm sure I've read it on here.

this sounds exactly like matt. the wiping your finger down glass is exactly how i described the noise he makes.

matt took a long time to get stable. but.. it can be done. there are alot of different things to try, it's just a case of swapping and changing until you find the right one though.

if your vet isn't rabbit savvy, switch as soon as you can. tell them you want a referral. it made so much difference when we swapped vets to someone who deals with it day in day out.

a c+s test can be done, sometimes shows a result, sometimes doesn't, but definitely worth doing. the other thing though is sometimes the meds it says should work might not due to swelling and mucus in the nose (sometimes at the back and in the spores) so nebulising is then a great option to get the meds to where they're needed and to help keep the nose as clear as possible. my bisc didn't have alot of discharge but still these methods worked well.

it does sound like your rabbit has some damage now that won't be fully cured. it will be a case of managing the condition.

long term metacam is usually given aswell to control any swelling/inflammation in the nose etc.

like i say, it can take a long time to get them stable and a routine that works, but it can be done. i remember being in such a state with it all, and now we have a great routine that works.

i have some threads as we were going through it all. both bisc and matt have this condition, but matt was alot worse. they're long but you're welcome to have a read and see if anything helps. x

Oh thankyou so much, you made me cry! No idea why, I'm just relieved that someone knows what I'm talking about. Thanks ( I think!) I'm sure the vet reckon I'm making it up and I'm some freaky bunny woman!! You are a star . Referral here I come x

LainiT said:

Oh thankyou so much, you made me cry! No idea why, I'm just relieved that someone knows what I'm talking about. Thanks ( I think!) I'm sure the vet reckon I'm making it up and I'm some freaky bunny woman!! You are a star . Referral here I come x

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oh bless you. i was in such a state with it all, and people on here helped me so much. there are quite alot of us with buns like this, so i hope some of those see this thread aswell. i think we all agree that nebulising is one of the best things we found for them.

our original vets was the same, i'm sure they made fun of me being obsessive, but i knew something wasn't right. and they kept giving these short courses of meds which would work for a while then it would all start again. the rabbit vet we see starts off with a 6 week to 3 month course! so they know how important it is to get it under control, including the infection deep inside the nose aswell.

whereabouts are you? hopefully someone can recommend a rabbit vet close to you. :wave: x

I'm in North Notts, Mansfield area. Just back...got a referral on its way. It was a locum today, was saying it could be an abscess up her nose somewhere thats burst and what's coming out is the puss eeeuuuwww! He also said the specialist would sedate her and do an endoscopy up her nose..that nearly made me cry again, surely not!! Bless her she's such a good girl there I just want her better before it does too much damage.

LainiT said:

I'm in North Notts, Mansfield area. Just back...got a referral on its way. It was a locum today, was saying it could be an abscess up her nose somewhere thats burst and what's coming out is the puss eeeuuuwww! He also said the specialist would sedate her and do an endoscopy up her nose..that nearly made me cry again, surely not!! Bless her she's such a good girl there I just want her better before it does too much damage.

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lets hope the specialist can get her back on track x