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Advice re absesses

**Bonnie**

Mama Doe
Hi all - can anyone help with any advice, i got this from another forum i go on and offered to post it here for her - thanks!:

I don’t know whether it is "kind" to keep on going with treatment for my rabbit.

It all started with a blocked tear duct about 3 months ago, I noticed some horrible discharge coming out of her nose so took her to the vets and got some eye drops for her. This was fine and cleared it up for about 4 weeks. Then I notice her face was looking swollen so I took her back and they said it was an abscess in her tear duct so I had to leave her so they could drain it, then she came home with more drops to put in her eye. About two weeks later it just ballooned the poor thing could hardly see out of her eye the lump was so big. She had to have an op to try to remove the whole abscess; they managed to get most of it and kept her in for 4 days to treat the wound with antibiotics. I took her home and she has been fine for two weeks. But it has come back and she now has two abscesses one closer to her nose and the other in her tear duct. They have managed to drain the puss but have left a "drain" in the wounds which will have to stay for about a week and, when I get her home, I am going to have to move it about each day to keep it from drying out. Then once the swelling has gone down I think they want to operate again to remove the abscesses completely. But it could still come back.

They poor little thing I feel so sorry for her. Is this cruel or should I keep persevering? I don’t want to loose her but it just feels so unfair. She is only 8 months old and her little sister is missing her too.

What do you think I should do for the best?
 
I would keep going for a while yet as long as the bunny is eating and is receiving adequate analgesia if the abscessated area is painful. You might ask your Vet if you could have some Metacam to give your bun. It is a non steroidal anti-inflammatory. If you are going to be flushing the abscess cavity each day it might be a good idea to give the pain relief about an hour beforehand. Also, has a swab been taken for analysis to ensure the correct antibiotic is being used? An X-ray of your Buns head (which would require a GA) would show if there is any bone infection. If this were to be the case then the prognosis has to be very guarded. But if it is just soft tissue then things are more optomistic. Although it will be a long drawn out process. Your bun has youth on her side so if I were you I would persevere for a while. As long as bun is not in pain, is eating and not depressed then a positive outcome is possible. Manuka Honey applied to the abscess cavity is also very effective. But it does make the wound close over quickly so regular opening/draining is essential. Jane and Buns xx
 
as you know, I had a similar problem with Maa recently - facial abscesses are very hard to treat, as you can't remove them easily as a complete thing, due to all the bones and complicated stuff going on in the head - but Maa seems to be fine now - no swelling unless it's a very slow growing bacterium - hopefully it's gone, although it was impossible to totally remove the abscess - they just had to give it a thorough clean.

The first thing the vet did was take a swab of the pus for analysis in a lab - it cost me about £30 to have it analysed, and the results told her which antibiotics would kill the infection - Baytril turned out to be useless for it.

If you don't have a swab done, it's more likely the infection will take over, as you need to use specific antibiotics for specific bacteria - Maa lost her eye and it cost me £350 altogether, but she's fine now, enjoying life just like before.
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/tam/viewtopic.php?t=14348&highlight=maas+abscess
 
by the way, I didn't drain Maa's abscess at all - it healed up over Christmas because I didn't know what to do :oops: She was very lucky apparently.
 
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