MRI scan for sneezing and snotty nose..is this right? u/d back from seeing new vet:)

My 2 year old Ellie has been back and forth to my vet since before Christmas, sneezy, wheezy, lethargic, a couple of episodes of white discharge from her nose. So tomorrow I'm taking her to a hopefully more rabbit savvy vet...but went to my regular vet to come clean, obviously the new vet needs Ellie's history. My vets exact words were 'I suspect she needs an MRI' which is a 90 minute journey to Birmingham. What is he thinking Ellie's problem could be?? She's had antibiotic courses but only 5 days, which clears her up a fair bit but never completely. The thought of her being sedated while she's so congested makes me want to cry.

Please help...what is he thinking with the MRI, I'm seriously worried what I'm up against now. Pls help, I thought I was going to join the SnuffleBun gang and all would be ok. Sad now.

I would expect them to do some microbiology on the nasal secretions first. It sounds like it could be pastuerella and that can cause abcesses on the lungs which I guess would show up on an MRI but I wouldn't expect that to be the first port of call. I also think the antibiotic courses your vet has prescribed are too short to deal with a persistent infection. I think you are right to be going elsewhere. Hope you get a result.

With those symptoms I have no idea unless he is thinking a clear image of all the upper respiratory tract will provide the answers. I wouldn't be thinking brain issues as such, just checking the shape and size of all the tubes and things that are in that area. I don't think he is thinking of anything sinister. Oh and 90mins seems VERY long for an MRI scan! A human one would take 20-30 mins!


Try not to worry, go to the savvy vet and see what they say. Ask any questions you have during that consultation and hopefully all will become clear

They're gonna take bloods tomorrow I was told. Its only 10 days since she had an and injection, will that affect the results? She's so fed up bless her

LainiT said:

They're gonna take bloods tomorrow I was told. Its only 10 days since she had an and injection, will that affect the results? She's so fed up bless her

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Injection of what? Has she had a recent vaccination? If so I would make them aware. I would push for culturing of the nasal discharge.

My Ginger has had snuffles on and off since last July and I recently changed to a specialist exotics vet, thanks to a recommendation by an RU member.

She did say that one possible course of treatment for snuffles would be to give Ginger an MRI scan to locate infected pus, followed by a procedure that apparently involves physically scraping it out (something like that). She said she wouldn't recommend this except as a very last resort because it's such an invasive procedure, but perhaps this is what your vet is thinking of? If so, from what my vet said, it really should be a last resort and not something you'd go for until all other options had been tried, including a culture swab to identify the bacteria causing the snuffles.

Ginger had a culture swab which showed bacteria which were resistant to the antibiotics prescribed by previous vets, and enabled the vet to identify an appropriate antibiotic to use. Others had advised us that this was the best course of action and the exotics specialist did this straight away, without me having to ask for it.

Having a rabbit-savvy vet has made all the difference to us. It seems a bit odd to me that your vet suggested an MRI scan without explaining why and it makes me inclined to question his knowledge. If you know a rabbit-savvy vet you can use, I'd definitely go to see them without worrying too much about what your old vet has said.

Good luck!

RedFraggle said:

Injection of what? Has she had a recent vaccination? If so I would make them aware. I would push for culturing of the nasal discharge.

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sorry, was out and the name escaped me. The 'and injection' should have
said abx injection but my phone corrected it. She's had Convenia on 6th March, for the 2nd time with no luck
I did try and discuss with the vet the feelings of folk on here, about it not working for long in buns but he said it should at least work for a week and hopefully by that time the job will have been done. I take it this may affect the tests tomorrow.

LainiT said:

sorry, was out and the name escaped me. The 'and injection' should have
said abx injection but my phone corrected it. She's had Convenia on 6th March, for the 2nd time with no luck
I did try and discuss the feelings on here about it not working for long in buns but he said it should at least work for a week and hopefully by that time the job will have been done. I take it this may affect the tests tomorrow.

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The joy of autocorrect! I wouldn't expect an antiobiotic injection to affect the tests but you should tell them what she's had recently so they know. The problem is, if antibiotics don't completely clear an infection you can get resistance to that antibiotic in the future. If they do the culturing from swabs as detailed above they can pick the right antibiotic for the job.

Thanks so much everyone. I do feel a bit more positive about tomorrow now. Hopefully we'll be getting somewhere soon. (But stick around...I may well need more advice in the near future :roll x

My lop bunny, Mimzy, has had nasal issues of various types over the years and more than one vet has told me he needs an MRI to diagnose the problem as it was not thought to be bacterial, but perhaps a malformation in the cartilage that would not show up on xray. Sadly I'd have to fly him to another city, 600 miles away so it was not feasible and we were only able to treat him with medications. But they guess he's got some kind of oddly shaped sinus from what they can see with methods available.
So yeah, it's not an unusual procedure. Hope your bun is feeling better soon. (((((((((((vibes)))))))))))

I have a bun, Honey, who has sneezed for ages and gets an intermittent snotty nose. The vet gave her a 5 day course of antibiotics, and when this didn't clear it, they done a nasal swab after she had been off the antibiotics for a bit.

The swab showed the antibiotics should be ok, so she had a month long course, with metacam to help reduce the swelling of the nasal passages. She still didn't get better so she went on injected antibiotics for about 2 months.

If she gets ill now, she just has a long course (6 weeks - 2 months) of Septrin and some metacam.

There's no point having a C&S test (culture and sensitivity) until 2 weeks have passed since the LAST dose of ABX, the results won't be valid.

I have a fair amount of experience in respiratory issues with buns, due to my Ginger having active pasteurella.

I've never heard of an MRI, seems a bit odd, but different vets do different things - is your vet rabbit savvy?

If its been going on this long, its possible that the infection has got deep down into the LRT (Lower Respiratory Tract) and so is effecting her a lot worse than if it was just URT (Upper).

It's possible that she is going to need a LONG and HARD dose of antibiotics, over the course of weeks, sometimes months to fight this off - but be warned, it can't always be got rid of completely - Ginger for example has it for life and has the occasional flare up of it being really bad.

Personally, I would stay off the abx for 3 weeks if possible, have the C&S test done - wait for the results and if they come back conclusive, go with the ABX that the test suggests (may be depocillin, or something similar, or even Azithromycin or similar). If the results come back inconclusive, it doesn't mean its not treatable, it just means its not susceptible to a specific abx. I would take a rabbit savvy vets suggestions, but can personally recommend Azithromycin/Depocillin as both worked pretty well on Ginger, but don't cure her, that's not possible.

If you feel you want to go further, and your vet has no further ideas, I would recommend getting a referral to a specialist as many people, including myself have done. It's costly, but was worth it in our case, just for someone to say "we cant fix this, but lets do this to make bun feel better".

Nebulisation can be done, an NSAID (metacam, for example) can be given as it is an anti-inflammatory, so opens up the nasal passages etc to help bun breath and get rid of all the **** in the system (white snotty stuff) and also, may be worth looking into Echinacea (natural immune system booster) and bisolvon (helps thin the mucus) to put on food/give to bun.

Good luck - be ready for the long hall, as it is possible!

Good luck for today :wave:

The vet you will be seeing today is one who was involved in the treatment of my Nutmeg, Saffron & Pepper who had pasteurella in their lungs. That was in December 2011 and so far all three bunnies have remained clear of further flare ups.

Hope he manages to get to the bottom of little Ellie's problems. xx

Good luck from me too!

i haven't heard of an mri being used either, but if it is, it might be further down the line. matt did have xrays to check his whole skull area, to see if anything could be causing it that way, but there wasn't anything. whilst under, the vet checked his nose, his throat, and generally that whole area. it was found that the back of matts nose was very inflammed and had a 'pool' of mucus there, which the vet drained. this had to be done again a while after as it was building up very quickly, but after the second draining, we started to get a head start on it then, and metacam was given to reduce the swelling.

i posted on your other thread so i won't type it all again, it seems to be the same as other peoples replies anyway, but again, i just wanted to say that nebulising was the best thing we ever started. because even when you haven't yet found the right medication, or combination of them, it keeps the nose as clear as possible in that time, and they feel so much better. matt loves being nebulised.

just be aware that things can seem worse before they seem better. the amount of mucus matt shifted at the beginning (it took a year and a half to find a combination that worked) was mad. and he looked awful after the draining and xrays etc, but he must have felt so much better.

in contrast, bisc gets nebulised and is on daily metacam, but for him, penicillin injections for three months was all it took to get him stable. he never needed any other tests. and now he snores and snuffles/whistles etc because of scar tissue, but nebulising and metacam is all he has. he doesn't even need an antibiotic nebulised, just saline. so sometimes they become stable quite easily, and other times not, like matt, but i never ever thought we would get matt to the point he is at now but we did.

lots of luck with the rabbit vet :wave:

Thanks so much everyone, its so reassuring to know that this is hopefully treatable. I'm ready for the long haul, I just feel so sorry for her sneezing and snorting. She's progressed from the squeaking yr finger down the side of a glass noise, and now sounds like a whooppee cushion when you flatten it really fast. (My son is 9, I know these things:roll::lol

Tracy I've had to cancel my appointment at 12, remade it at 5 with Hanna. I'm never ever EVER ill and I've woken up this morning with some sort of sickness thing. I cant believe the bad timing. I will be there at 5 though hopefully, me, my buns and my bucket will soldier on. Its only me who handles the buns, its only me who knows Ellie's history so its not even like OH can take her. I will WILL be there. :evil:

LainiT said:

Thanks so much everyone, its so reassuring to know that this is hopefully treatable. I'm ready for the long haul, I just feel so sorry for her sneezing and snorting. She's progressed from the squeaking yr finger down the side of a glass noise, and now sounds like a whooppee cushion when you flatten it really fast. (My son is 9, I know these things:roll::lol

Tracy I've had to cancel my appointment at 12, remade it at 5 with Hanna. I'm never ever EVER ill and I've woken up this morning with some sort of sickness thing. I cant believe the bad timing. I will be there at 5 though hopefully, me, my buns and my bucket will soldier on. Its only me who handles the buns, its only me who knows Ellie's history so its not even like OH can take her. I will WILL be there. :evil:

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Hanna is lovely. She is my main vet and is always my first choice. :thumb: She looks after all my bunnies and cats. She is the one who did wonders with Herbie's teeth and gave him such a long and happy life.

Back from a new vet ( Tracy thanks for the recommend, Hanna is lovely ) Starting off with a 3 week course of Baytril...3mls, dreading DREADING trying to get that down her, she holds it in her mouth and lets it dribble out rather than swallowing it :evil: She does seem to get a bit better with meds but we've only had 5 day courses....so fingers crossed. Next step is swab of her nose if no better after this. Fingers and paws are crossed.

Good luck!

I put medicines on a little bit weetabix and keep a close eye that it gets all eaten. Usually the buns scoff all the weetabix and get their medicine stress free!

weedug said:

Good luck!

I put medicines on a little bit weetabix and keep a close eye that it gets all eaten. Usually the buns scoff all the weetabix and get their medicine stress free!

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Hi and thanks, Think I'm going to have to be sneaky like that :roll: I've seen people on here use shreddies too...will see what works, 3mls is a heck of a lot of liquid!! I've tried the banana thing, nope, I've tried it wrapped in a basil leaf, nope, I've tries mixing it with blackcurrant or apple, nope. She's just a :roll: