Alfie's nasel swab results - UPDATE

Hi all,

some of you may know that Alfie has had ongoing sneezing and white discharge from one nostril - overall he seems extremely healthy!

he has a nasel swab and the vet called me last night with the result. The bacteria is AERONOMAS. I said, so its not pasturella and she said no.

I looked this up on the net but nothing came up, the only thing that did come up was related to fish!!!

she said the antibiotic to treat this is the one i have already used which didn't have that much improvement. lately he hasn;t sneezed hardly at all and in this weather i thought it woudl be worse.

She is going to phone the lab up today to ask some more questions re this bacteria.

Anyond heard of this bacteria at all???

Thanks

Bonnie

Hum, Ive never heard of it :? But I havent got much experience in that feld anyway......

Just wanted to say I hope he makes a good recovery with the antibiotics xxxx

Thanks Loopylop

The antibiotics haven't done anything really, dont think i will give him any more now as he seems so healthy apart from a runny nostril!!!

Also his months worth of antibiotics gave him cystitus - poor little thing.

I cant beleive there is nothing on the net!!

Awww, poor bun It is frustrating when you can't find any info

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=673&S=1&SourceID=43 see if you can do a search and come up with anything on here!

Is that the right spelling??? :?


EDIT: Arghhhhhhhhhh I meant to quote this post not edit it! I had originally posted a link and asked if it was the right spelling :roll: Instead I edited the post....

Bedtime methinks! :roll:

Hiya, I think it may be a bacteria or an amoeba type thing, hence why specific antibiotics were needed.
I am going to get in touch with my friend Michele, as I seem to remember she caught an unusual bacteria from fish by inhalation.
Michele may be able to give you some more information.

Best wishes

Thanks Loopylop - interesting reading but unfotunately nothing on that bacteria!

Bonnie

Hiya, I think it may be a bacteria or an amoeba type thing, hence why specific antibiotics were needed.
I am going to get in touch with my friend Michele, as I seem to remember she caught an unusual bacteria from fish by inhalation.
Michele may be able to

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give you some more information. ]

Thanks Adele - that would be fabulous!!

I kept think they got the swabs confused with that of a Cod or something :lol:

Bonnie

I know very little about this, the only thing I do know is that Aeronomas, are known to cause fin rot in fish. This to me means that it thrives well in damp enviroments. Hopefully your vet will be able to give you more information know that you have a culture to say what antibiotics are sensative to this particular strain of Aeronomas that Alfie had.

If this organism thrives in damp enviroments and particuarly as Alfie has had this for a while, I would ensure that his hutch is thoroughly cleaned with a animal friendly discinfectant which will kill off any of these organisms which may be lurking around his hutch and dried out properly, possibly lining the cage with lino to keep it dry and do anything you can to boost his immune system (which you are doing using the echinasea).

Janice

Thanks Janice,

I thought it was really odd that it was related to fish??

So am i right in thinking that its not actually pasturella?? or is it just a form of it - the vet said no, so should i be happy or sad?? im confused :?

I think im going to get some lino and put it on the bottom part of his hutch where sometimes missed his litter tray. I went out and got a really good animal discinfectant at the weekend.

Thanks everyone - i was dying the get to work (first time for everything!!) to read up about this so was really dissapointed when i couldn't fien anything!

Alfie kennedy said:

Hiya, I think it may be a bacteria or an amoeba type thing, hence why specific antibiotics were needed.
I am going to get in touch with my friend Michele, as I seem to remember she caught an unusual bacteria from fish by inhalation.
Michele may be able to

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give you some more information. ]

Thanks Adele - that would be fabulous!!

I kept think they got the swabs confused with that of a Cod or something :lol:

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I can see it now! Sorry Mrs, those results were for a little girls godlfish!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I can see it now! Sorry Mrs, those results were for a little girls godlfish!!!

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can you imagine some poor little girl think her fish has got pasturella!! :lol:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sneezing.html have a look at that hun!

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That again is very interesting reading but i did a search for that bacteria and nothing came up! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Thanks! x

Alfie kennedy said:

I can see it now! Sorry Mrs, those results were for a little girls godlfish!!!

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can you imagine some poor little girl think her fish has got pasturella!! :lol:

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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hi Alfie,

I think you should also know that many nasal swabs show up as false negatives for Pasteurella. It is an entirely inaccurate test for Pasteurella (but the only thing available for a live rabbit)

I've been in the same situation myself & i had several swabs done because i was getting it staff-discounted. Lets just say i had owned/looked after rabbits long enough to tell the difference & although i had false negatives, this infection sadly proved my suspicions right as it went on to infect & kill other rabbits. Even the vet agreed with me.

I then rang up the lab where these swabs were carried out & lets just say i felt i had more insight on it than they did (not being bigheaded) but nobody seemed to be able tell me any more & on my second nasal swab it actually came back as "No pathogens isolated"!!

This basically meant that nothing (ie organisms;bacteria, etc) that was able to spread disease was detected during the culture that was carried out.

As i soon learnt it was a complete load of rubbish & waste of time, effort & money! because it left me at square one again.

Sorry if i sound pessimistic, but in my expereince if a rabbit sneezes white discharge (which is pus being thrown out of the lungs!) then you can almost guarantee that it is Pasteurella/Pasteurellosis.

My constructive advice would be to keep the rabbit away from other rabbits (unless they too already have Snuffles) & treat the symptoms if he/she is a pet.

As has been said before with Snuffles/Pasteurellosis you can treat the symptoms but NOT cure the problem as the infectious element still remains & a rabbit can go on to be a symptomless carrier of the disease.

Antibiotics may ease the symptoms but they also mask the problem.

PS. many vets will not be able to tell you the above information either because they don't know enough about the problem in rabbits (lets face it many of the rabbit experts don't know all the answers!) & secondly they don't like to admit they don't know or are unsure.

Sorry if this sounds like conflicting advice but it based upon what i've experienced, which is often better that taking it froma professional who has never kept rabbits before to know the difference/infectious aspect.

Pasteurella and Aeronomas are different types of organism and are not related to each other, Aeronomas is normally an infection which is related to fish however I guess that Alfie as a baby may have been living in damp conditions or perhaps at some stage his mother had been and had contracted this. This is assumption.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hypersytes/bacteria.htm this gives a little information about the infection in fish It is a gram negative bacteria.

Pasteurella http://biology.kenyon.edu/Microbial_Biorealm/bacteria/proteobacteria/Pasteurella/Pasteurella.htm

Sorry cannot be of any more help

Janice

Hi Cheryl,

Thanks for your advice it is much appreciated. Even though they have given this bacteria name i know that it is pasturella deep down.

As you have had rabbits before with snuffles, would you get them neatured?

Alfie, is 6 months old, he doesn't sneeze that often and is very energetic, bright eyed and bushy-tailed eats well and is the perfect weight, has had his temp taken and perfect temp, eyes ears chest checked (his chest is absolutely fine considering)

I would love nothing more than to get him a snuffly femail as he is on his own all day. The vet checked seems to think it will not prove a problem.

what do you think??

Thanks for your help

Bonnie

Pasteurella and Aeronomas are different types of organism and are not related to each other, Aeronomas is normally an infection which is related to fish however I guess that Alfie as a baby may have been living in damp conditions or perhaps at some stage his mother had been and had contracted this. This is assumption.

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I Janice - that is really interesting that they are two types of bacteria - so it may not be pasturella - blimey im sooo berludy confused now.

I will have a read up on those links.

I think they main thing is at the end of the day that he is happy and looks (apart from the sneezing) healthy, which he does, so am not too worried but very curious to know more!

Thanks Janice!

Bonnie

We have all well confused you know!

I think your main aim is to continue keeping Alfie in tip top condition as you are doing. As he is in good condition at the moment, get him neutered and then find him a partner.

Janice