Scrappy's Little Helper
Mama Doe
Hi all :wave:
As some of you may remember, one of my bunnies Peanut Butter was diagnosed as having abscesses in both ears following a bout of stasis back in November. Just thought I'd give an update on how we're getting on.
He's been on penicillin injections for the past five weeks and yesterday he had surgery to have them excised as my vet thought the antibiotics alone wouldn't be enough to deal with them. It seems that the penicillin had almost completely obliterated the one on the right hand side, which had always been smaller and more "fluid". The one on the other side had formed a much bigger and harder lump so needed to be removed. The original plan was to excise the entire capsule but unfortunately the vet was unable to do that as it was sitting too deep to fully excavate (I think I've got that right - she did draw me a diagram!) and the "root" of it seems to actually originate much further down. So she cleaned out and removed as much of the abscess as she was able, though it does sound as though she got most of it out. We're going to carry on with the penicillin injections in the hope that will kill off the remainder of it. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be going anywhere near his middle ear.
He also had a dental as well. He's not doing too bad at the moment. He was quite out of sorts last night and first thing this morning, he looked a bit shell shocked actually! He was struggling to eat, he would pick up bits, go to chew and then drop them. Not surprising really as I imagine he is feeling quite tender and chewing must be really uncomfortable. Poor little mite, his whole head must hurt
The vet has given me metacam to administer at home so hopefully that will make him more comfortable. I also softened his pellets, mixed in some recovery food and fruit puree and he's managed to eat that ok without needing to be syringe fed. A short while ago he also managed to eat some dandelion and readigrass and - just as I started to type this out! - a few strands of hay!
I booked today off work so I can monitor him. I'll keep an eye on how he's eating and will carry on giving him mashed up food if he needs it just to tide him over the next couple of days.
As some of you may remember, one of my bunnies Peanut Butter was diagnosed as having abscesses in both ears following a bout of stasis back in November. Just thought I'd give an update on how we're getting on.
He's been on penicillin injections for the past five weeks and yesterday he had surgery to have them excised as my vet thought the antibiotics alone wouldn't be enough to deal with them. It seems that the penicillin had almost completely obliterated the one on the right hand side, which had always been smaller and more "fluid". The one on the other side had formed a much bigger and harder lump so needed to be removed. The original plan was to excise the entire capsule but unfortunately the vet was unable to do that as it was sitting too deep to fully excavate (I think I've got that right - she did draw me a diagram!) and the "root" of it seems to actually originate much further down. So she cleaned out and removed as much of the abscess as she was able, though it does sound as though she got most of it out. We're going to carry on with the penicillin injections in the hope that will kill off the remainder of it. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be going anywhere near his middle ear.
He also had a dental as well. He's not doing too bad at the moment. He was quite out of sorts last night and first thing this morning, he looked a bit shell shocked actually! He was struggling to eat, he would pick up bits, go to chew and then drop them. Not surprising really as I imagine he is feeling quite tender and chewing must be really uncomfortable. Poor little mite, his whole head must hurt
The vet has given me metacam to administer at home so hopefully that will make him more comfortable. I also softened his pellets, mixed in some recovery food and fruit puree and he's managed to eat that ok without needing to be syringe fed. A short while ago he also managed to eat some dandelion and readigrass and - just as I started to type this out! - a few strands of hay! I booked today off work so I can monitor him. I'll keep an eye on how he's eating and will carry on giving him mashed up food if he needs it just to tide him over the next couple of days.
