It just gets better and better UPDATE been to vets

So not only did my little loves destroy my house - Milo is sneezing like crazy today. I've just been to check him out and there is some very thick white gunk coming out of his nose. Straight to the vets it is :'(

Oh dear, I'm sorry Sending positive vibes for quick recovery for Milo x

Ok talk me down guys I'm barely holding it together! He's ok I think. Most likely an upper respitory infection. She checked his teeth and he has some spurs (I don't know what that means) and she suggests I don't feed pellets or veg till eve to encourage more hay eating. She says it's most likely caused by me being away and that stressing him out I feel like the worst mummy ever...she has given baytrill and meta cam with a warning that they don't know what damage metacam can cause in bunnys. She says if there is no improvement in a week she will want to put him under and investigate his mouth further and send swabs off (the swabs are £90!!!!!)

Pip&Milo said:

Ok talk me down guys I'm barely holding it together! He's ok I think. Most likely an upper respitory infection. She checked his teeth and he has some spurs (I don't know what that means) and she suggests I don't feed pellets or veg till eve to encourage more hay eating. She says it's most likely caused by me being away and that stressing him out I feel like the worst mummy ever...she has given baytrill and meta cam with a warning that they don't know what damage metacam can cause in bunnys. She says if there is no improvement in a week she will want to put him under and investigate his mouth further and send swabs off (the swabs are £90!!!!!)

Click to expand...

You don't deserve this - all you had was a little break

Some spurs means tiny little sharp pointy bits that can grow on the molars and stop a rabbit from eating easily. I'm sure someone will be along soon to post a photo for you

Metacam - certainly don't worry for the time he's on it. He needs it for the possible pain issue.

Swabs - that's your call. They don't always show anything up and need to be taken under a GA. There again, I expect your rabbit will need a GA for a dental if the spurs don't grind themselves off with loads of hay.

Why not try the new oatigrass and readigrass? Great for teeth (well not yours, obviously )

Pip&Milo said:

Ok talk me down guys I'm barely holding it together! He's ok I think. Most likely an upper respitory infection. She checked his teeth and he has some spurs (I don't know what that means) and she suggests I don't feed pellets or veg till eve to encourage more hay eating. She says it's most likely caused by me being away and that stressing him out I feel like the worst mummy ever...she has given baytrill and meta cam with a warning that they don't know what damage metacam can cause in bunnys. She says if there is no improvement in a week she will want to put him under and investigate his mouth further and send swabs off (the swabs are £90!!!!!)

Click to expand...

Ah, good old swabs. I have no experience of this with buns, but do with snakes suffering RI's. Baytril is prescribed for snakes in the same way. I remember taking a snake with an RI and they put him under to take swabs of his lung before being willing to prescribe baytril (which is really unusual for vet to do!). Swabs came back with nothing - 'apparently' (which I do not believe, the snake was clearly suffering RI), so he prescribed baytril anyway and told me to come back for another swab. I didn't, because anaesthetic with snakes is risky and they take a while to get back to normal and start feeding again. And because the baytril worked. The swabs are even more expensive on a snake, as it happens :lol:

If he needs to go back she'll want to do swabs to identify/pinpoint what pathogen is causing the respiratory illness to treat better, I imagine.

I hope he recovers even slightly so he doesn't have to be put under for this. Did she mention how bad the spurs were/will they need treatment? This is basically when teeth don't have enough wear from hay/grass - as they are eating too much pellets etc - usually.

Someone else will be along to advise from a more mammalian point of view :wave: In the mean time, try not to worry (easier said than done I know!). You are not a bad bunny mum. A bad bunny mum wouldn't have got him to the vets as quickly as you did x

Thanks for the response MightyMax, I feel like I've completely let him down! He's not my friend at all at the moment but Rory is giving him a good lick so hopefully he will come round soon! Thanks for the oatigrass and readigrass suggestion - the spurs things concerns me as he eats LOADS of hay. I never imagined that would be a problem. He never seems to leave the stuff alone! I already felt so bad about all of the problems while we were away and now this.
I'm sure the vet didn't mean to upset me - in a strange way I think she meant her comment about me leaving stressing him out, as a compliment. She was astounded because she says shes never seen a rabbit be as loving with its owner (he was climbing up my front to lick my face! lol)

Pip&Milo said:

Thanks for the response MightyMax, I feel like I've completely let him down! He's not my friend at all at the moment but Rory is giving him a good lick so hopefully he will come round soon! Thanks for the oatigrass and readigrass suggestion - the spurs things concerns me as he eats LOADS of hay. I never imagined that would be a problem. He never seems to leave the stuff alone! I already felt so bad about all of the problems while we were away and now this.
I'm sure the vet didn't mean to upset me - in a strange way I think she meant her comment about me leaving stressing him out, as a compliment. She was astounded because she says shes never seen a rabbit be as loving with its owner (he was climbing up my front to lick my face! lol)

Click to expand...

Well that's a lovely thing for the vet to say

No way have you let him down. You are entitled to go away. I shall say it again and again. So I believe that what you're seeing is what you would have seen anyway, but it happens to be right now and you're adding two and two together.

You could also buy some echinacea drops and give him some twice a day with his meds (or dropped onto a piece of food/nugget)

https://www.baldwins.co.uk/natures-answer-echinacea-goldenseal-alcohol-free-fluid-extract-30ml

This alcohol free fluid has Goldenseal too, which really boosts the immune system. It will totally help to give him a boost to fight the snotties :wave:

Thanks for your response Jessbun, she said he had some spurs on the tongue side of his teeth and that she wanted me to give more hay and maybe not give pellets /veg till the eve to encourage more hay eating. I wonder if he has been pinching Rory's pellets as well as his own and maybe thats put him off hay and I haven't noticed with all the bonding/mum visiting/going away. its been a hectic few weeks in our household so it would have been easy to miss!
Ironically OH and I have also been down with nasty snotty colds so maybe he just wanted to join us!! She advised not seperating him from Rory incase this caused him more stress and suggested he has a poorer immune system and hopefully that Rory wouldn't catch what he has but I dunno if that is the right call?

xx

Pip&Milo said:

Thanks for your response Jessbun, she said he had some spurs on the tongue side of his teeth and that she wanted me to give more hay and maybe not give pellets /veg till the eve to encourage more hay eating. I wonder if he has been pinching Rory's pellets as well as his own and maybe thats put him off hay and I haven't noticed with all the bonding/mum visiting/going away. its been a hectic few weeks in our household so it would have been easy to miss!
Ironically OH and I have also been down with nasty snotty colds so maybe he just wanted to join us!! She advised not seperating him from Rory incase this caused him more stress and suggested he has a poorer immune system and hopefully that Rory wouldn't catch what he has but I dunno if that is the right call?

xx

Click to expand...

No don't separate. It will cause more stress.

You could give them both the echinacea and you'll have a couple of super bug resistant buns in no time

I'm sorry Milo isn't well, sending vibes for him. Don't feel bad about going away, it probably would have happened anyway x

Sending vibes for Milo. I hope he feels better soon.

AWWW poor bun and poor you, i hope he feels a little better today xx

I'm sending vibes too. Its horrid when they are poorly. And they can be such loving little fur babies. xxx

Thank for the vibes everyone. He's currently asleep with his love in the fireplace (I think the tiles are cooler for them) A few sneezes today but no snot so hopefully we caught it just in time ! x

I think the vet was a little unfair to you tbh. Spurs on their teeth isn't always caused by not eating enough hay. I have three bunnie and two are dental buns (one has been in for a dental today) and they eat tons of hay. There are many factors to dental issues and the main one in buns that always have access to hay is genetics. So this is completely out of your hands. Hay will certainly help but at the end of the day if their teeth don't meet up properly, they'll get spurs.
Your vet doesn't sound very rabbit savvy. Metacam is prescribed routinely for rabbits. She is correct that we are unsure what long term effects it may have on them but a short course shouldn't be anything to worry about. Two of my buns are on metacam long term and I've had no problems so far. *Touch wood*

Regarding the upper respiratory tract infection, I think the fact that he's already improved is a very positive sign. Just be aware that dental problems can cause airway problems. So this might be something to bear in mind should he not recover or keeps getting respiratory problems.

Sending vibes. X

More and more vibes coming your way.

I think you really need them xxx

Update Milo had a clean bill of health from the vets - we're all good!

Pip&Milo said:

Update Milo had a clean bill of health from the vets - we're all good!

Click to expand...

yay

Great news x

Mouse produced a big ball of snot after a few hours of sneezing a few weeks after we got her. Once she had made her "product" (MMax you may remember my message about that a long time ago :wave::lol: ) she was fine. Then a few months later she did the same - so we had an appointment with savvy vet Heather at Crab Lane (also to discuss a weird quacking noise she made a few times, typically when drinking water) but she had no sign of infection. Heather thought the quacking was possibly an issue with her larynx (she thought maybe it was "flappy". As episodes of this stuff last less than a day a vet has never seen it. And Mousey pie has been to the vets LOADS, nothing serious (3 vaccination visits, 1 for quacking, another for combi vaccine & microchip when we got her, baldy ear consult, baldy ear check up). Every vet couldn't find any signs of respiratory problems. Also discussed with FHB at another paranoid appointment. She attributed issues to her breeding, massive dewlap & such.

Mmmm...I'm afraid I'm on my 3rd raspberry cidre after only mushroom butty for tea. I apologise for the ramblings about my beautiful Mouse

Chin chin:lol:

It is a relief to walk away from the vets feeling reassured