Mimzy's Vet Visit Recheck December 7 - good news! post 22 :)

I could tell my day wasn't going to go particularly well when I dropped my new cellphone right off the bat. Luckily the glass didn't break.
But my son overslept and so couldn't drive in with me. I've had what I think might be blood sugar issues lately so the extra stress didn't help. I did manage to get in and out without an accident although a lady almost hit my car in the Petco parking lot.

Mimzy is a bit of a mess though. He's lost a bit of weight and has yeast infections in both ears. He also has, on his right front foot, some kind of injury or blister that has become infected and so he's on Baytril for the next month. Dr wants to see him back in two weeks because she found worrisome cells on the slide. She didn't want to say it might be a tumor, but I guess I dragged it out of her.
I am hoping it's just a benign growth if anything, or nothing at all. Doing my best to keep from freaking out because Mimzy has survived a year and a half longer than I ever expected him to after his tilt, but I only hope it's nothing so that he can see another spring at least.

He did get a nice nail trim and bum shave, which he really needed. Being at the vet's office makes me realize how bad the lighting is in my home because I can see all sorts of things on Mimzy that I can't tell at home. My poor guy looks so tatty I fear the techs wonder if he's got a skin disease. They take good care of him regardless, and I'm grateful because I can't manage even these simple things these days.

Could we have any spare vibes that his next appointment turns out well, please? He goes back on the 26th. And I could use some vibes for easy bunny wrangling because I have to try to get him to cooperate when I have to look at the bottom of that foot every few days. He is VERY touchy about his feet and will nip me if I try to touch them.
Many thanks in advance.

Oh goodness, masses and masses of vibes coming your way and big hugs to you, really hope they out beautiful Mimzy xxx

Sending vibies for his next visit. I hope there will be positive news re weight gain and general condition etc etc and that nothing serious is going on for him.

Oh no, poor Mimzy i do hope it isn't a tumour sending millions of vibes for your little boy xxx and Olly sends some licks for his long lost bro xxx

Oh no lots of vibes for Mimzy. xx

Sending lots of vibes for Mimzy xxx

Lots of {{{{{vibes}}}}} !

MM, do you think his appearance is a bit to do with difficulty grooming himself? Either from his arthritis or dental condition?
Jersey was pretty grotty before she last had teeth done. I did notice an improvement after. Though outside of ears still feel crusty-furred.

Im hoping the thing in his foot disappears and is nothing to worry about. Important thing is its been attended to. : ).

sending a massive amount of vibes xxx

Sending lots of vibes for Mimzy xx

Thank you so much for the vibes, everyone.

jerseygirl said:

Lots of {{{{{vibes}}}}} !

MM, do you think his appearance is a bit to do with difficulty grooming himself? Either from his arthritis or dental condition?
Jersey was pretty grotty before she last had teeth done. I did notice an improvement after. Though outside of ears still feel crusty-furred.

Im hoping the thing in his foot disappears and is nothing to worry about. Important thing is its been attended to. : ).

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Hey you! :wave:
His appearance is partly due to difficulty grooming (but he won't let me groom him without a huge fight and a lot of stress on his part) and due to his having a small mite problem in the last few months. He's on treatment for this also. But in general all the bunnies' coats are rough and so I have to wonder if it's a nutrition thing with them all. Plus they are all about the same age and not getting any younger.
Mimzy just had a dental in August and the vet didn't find anything wrong with his teeth yesterday. But probably by Thanksgiving he's going to need another one as that seems to be the limit we can go currently.
His ears are kind of dandruff-y but she thinks that has to do with the yeast infection.
She didn't find anything crawling on him, but we're keeping up the treatment because we know stress will bring it out. He is not well so he'll be stressed.
What surprised me was the growl and oink he gave out when she got to the wound on his foot, which I couldn't see unless she pulled his fur way back. I thought for an instant he was going to bite her, which is not like him. So it's a sensitive spot. But it is on the foot opposite the one that he's been favoring, so I was really shocked to see how it hurt him.

The comforting thing is, he tolerates baytril well and it even enhances his appetite, so I was happy to see this morning a little more hay was missing than usual. So I am hopeful.
Thank you for popping in to say hi and send vibes, Jerz, I've missed you. Did you even get your Halloween stuff sussed?

Update for Oct. 14 - drinking more water

Well after just a day and a half of taking his meds, it is seeming to go pretty well.

He really doesn't like the ear drops, but that's nothing new. He is taking his baytril like a good boy and seems bright and lively when awake. His appetite seems good and what really struck me this morning was that his water dish was greatly depleted. Now he's had trouble drinking water for the whole year and a half since his tilt, so usually I keep him stocked on veggies or forage. But this morning I got a shock when it appeared that his bowl was empty! I immediately thought, oh you fool, you didn't refill it when you finished cleaning him at stupid o' clock this morning...but as I poured more I realized he'd drunk half the bowl! :shock: What's more, when I topped it up he went and had another long drink, so I can't tell you how chuffed I am that he is doing this again! I imagine that if his ears were hurting him from the yeast infection that he wouldn't want to drink much.

To add to this, his wee isn't as concentrated (natch) and doesn't smell as bad as it did the other day. So perhaps he actually did have some kind of UTI as well as this wound on his foot? He'd had his wee tested when he had his dental in August and supposedly the vet didn't find anything wrong with it, even though it was stinky back then. She presumed he was dehydrated so gave him some sub q fluids. It helped for a few days, then he was all cloudy and silty again.

What always gets me is how little baytril they give you. It's supposed to last for 21 days, but I know from experience that the thimbleful of liquid in the bottom of the vial is going to go for maybe two weeks max. It gets stuck to the lid, or the inside of the syringe or just in general gums up and shrinks and then I have to go get more. If that happens, I need to remember to ask them to make a special suspension with fruity flavour because this one has a foul scent to it that is no doubt either tuna or beef and he really doesn't like it, but he takes it for me. He's such a trooper.

In another day or so I need to look at the foot and see how it's doing. I am really hoping that the meds are working to make his bladder feel better because I usually get baptised every time I put him in my lap. :roll: We do a LOT of laundry in this house, needless to say! :lol:

Hope everyone is having a lovely evening, or morning, whatever time it is there.
Bless xxxx

So pleased Mimzy is feeling a lot better.

Never noticed a smell with baytril but then I didn't think they may use different ones for cats or dogs. The tuna one sounds awful. :lol:

I'm sorry I missed this! Sending loads of vibes for him, glad he's doing a little better.

Baytril is vile! Will they not let you try another antibiotic like septrin or metronidazole?

That's interesting that he's drinking more. Especially when only a day on meds. It's a good thing hes managing it though. Hope medicating continues to go well. x

Did you even get your Halloween stuff sussed?

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Haha yes. It wasn't for Halloween though. Just someones birthday. Kylie let me down so I went with George after all

so glad mimzy is feeling better xxx

I am sorry I missed this MimzMum but I am so glad to read Mimzy is feeling better , would love to see more pictures of the beautiful boy

Thanks Jack, I'll do my best to try, but my lighting is terrible in my home and my photography leaves a lot to be desired.
He's a little self-conscious of his bare patch on his nose, he moulted all the fur off of it in the vet's office while I waited for test results. It just falls off him. I really hope that when he is feeling better his fur will stick a bit better. I'm guessing a lot of it is stress.

Thanks Jenova, really for Mimzy Baytril is the best choice for low level infection. He even does better as far as eating and drinking and toileting while on this drug. I don't know what it does for his system, but he tolerates it really well and as long as the course is long enough it clears up whatever is ailing him.
I did try to see his foot last night but it's still pretty sensitive. I took the swat he gave me with it as a "No, not ready for that yet, be patient."

BYB and biscandmatt, thank you for your vibes and kind words.

Jerz, aha...I am trying to imagine that costume. Did you take pictures?
I am currently driving Jenna mad with a few new t-shirts/outfits that I want to show her off in the next time we go to town; just today she's had to suffer through being the Queen of Hearts, complete with crown. (I absolutely love Alice In Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass...fave books as a kid.)
Only for photos atm, then it comes off. :roll: She's infinitely happier in her birthday suit. And a lot more acceptable in public for the wee pup than for any of us I imagine. :lol:

Yesterday's recheck

I took Mimz in for his recheck yesterday. Dr. H and I were so pleased to see his right front foot had healed....
Then we lifted up the left front because I'd seen him worrying it. There is an almost toe-sized, bloody....something in between his toes there.
I'd already gotten him more baytril as we'd run out before his appointment. He's to continue it till she can see him again in November, plus I need to try to wash the foot in either betadine solution (very weak) or saline. Yeah good luck with that, he won't let me touch them and gets very stressy if I do. (She wanted to have him seen in two weeks, but it wouldn't be with her and my OH will be dealing with his friend's funeral and weather will be bad, so I couldn't bring him in then.)
I am devastated. His rear feet are fine but the front paws have these lesions on them. She did another slide and there's little to no sign of the rounded cells she saw on the other foot earlier in the month that she feared were tumor cells, so she thinks it's just infection.

Eosinophilic pododermatitis. It's big in cats and dogs but no mention of it in rabbits from the literature she's read. Can anyone shed some light on this?
I am afraid it'll turn into mast tumors, which my dog Shadow had all over his face and neck. If it is, then it's just a matter of time before we find more.
I give him nice, soft towels to live on. I wash them every day. I use only the gentlest of soaps, but I do bleach them to be certain to kill off any bacteria. I suppose I could put some kind of padding underneath them to make it softer, but I can't put bedding in with him because he eats it. :roll:
To add to my worry yesterday, just before we left for town, he began sneezing and gagging. I was horrified and ran over to be certain he didn't have something lodged. He managed to get whatever it was out but he was shaken. So was I. He has never choked on anything before. I had her listen to his chest and also check in his mouth, look at his molars with the otoscope and all looks well. He didn't do it any further since and we were in the car almost the whole afternoon. He was right stroppy for having to wait for me to complete my shopping and errands and when we got home, trundled right out into his exercise area and went to eating hay, then plonked down for a long nap.

He was pretty stressed at the vets though, you can tell he's tired of having to go there. He does like his vet but she dug in his ears again to see how well his drops have been working and he is never happy with that. His down ear is beautifully clear but his up ear is still full of gunk.

Otherwise he is doing well. I am having to weed through his herbs/greens as it seems some of them are starting to cause him more distress than they used to. (Parsley is a big culprit, his wee was so much better during the first week of baytril, then I gave him some Italian parsley and it's back to sludgy again. )

If anyone can help me regarding Mimzy's feet and what this might be that's causing these bloody lesions, I would be most grateful. My vet is rabbit experienced, but we are still learning together what strange things can ail them. And if there's any vibes going spare, we could use them for my boy and happily. Many thankies! : xxxx

P.S. Sorry Jack, I just saw my last post and realize I've forgotten to take more piccies. I'll try to remember this week!

What a horrible and stressful time for you and Mimzy. I have no idea about the lumps on his feet I'm afraid but they sound horrible. Lots of vibes for his recovery and that you and the vet can get him back in better shape.

As the new lesion is on a front foot it may be due to him taking more weight on his front end whilst his hind feet were sore.

The other possibility is Staphylococcus aureus;

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Bacterial/Staphylococcosis.htm

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Miscellaneous/Ulcerative_pododermatitis_rabbits.htm

Staph A is sensitive to enrofloxacin (Baytril) but as Mimzy has had a lot of Baytril in the past it may be that an injectable penicillin would be necessary.

Hope his sore feet improve very soon xx