-
Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.
-
Please Note - Medical Advice
Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.
You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.
We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.
Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.
Tottis ear abscess * he's gone - p46*
- Thread starter luvabun
- Start date
update 7th Jan 2012..... yes 10 months on.
He has an abscess in both ears now and both have now been opened, cleaned, stitched etc. So I now have multiple holes to clean out. The new hole on the left has behaved well today and I syringed a goodly amount of manuka honey into it. Then when I massaged it, very little pus came out. The holes on the right, oh well, I've been cleaning them out for over a year now so no change there. Although the abscesses have reacted favourably to the oral antibiotics, enabling the Vet to isolate and treat each one.
The orange staining on his nose is due to the grated Riverford organic carrots (which I sprinkle the probiotic on and it gets devoured immediately).
Despite being happy in himself, he has lost weight and is showing signs of kidney or liver damage. This is probably due to the antiobiotics. The Vet and I agree that at his age and condition, blood tests to determine this are not the road we will go down. Even if found out the cause, he is certainly not upto any operation. Therefore we will continue to manage the abscesses and keep an eye on his quality of life. He is still a happy camper and I do not feel that I'm keeping him alive for me rather than him.
As you can see, he still so enjoys his herbs
He has an abscess in both ears now and both have now been opened, cleaned, stitched etc. So I now have multiple holes to clean out. The new hole on the left has behaved well today and I syringed a goodly amount of manuka honey into it. Then when I massaged it, very little pus came out. The holes on the right, oh well, I've been cleaning them out for over a year now so no change there. Although the abscesses have reacted favourably to the oral antibiotics, enabling the Vet to isolate and treat each one.
The orange staining on his nose is due to the grated Riverford organic carrots (which I sprinkle the probiotic on and it gets devoured immediately).
Despite being happy in himself, he has lost weight and is showing signs of kidney or liver damage. This is probably due to the antiobiotics. The Vet and I agree that at his age and condition, blood tests to determine this are not the road we will go down. Even if found out the cause, he is certainly not upto any operation. Therefore we will continue to manage the abscesses and keep an eye on his quality of life. He is still a happy camper and I do not feel that I'm keeping him alive for me rather than him.
As you can see, he still so enjoys his herbs
hurricanhoney
Wise Old Thumper
Good luck on your fight with Totti he certainly looks happy in himself.
Thank you. When I tell friends and family without them seeing him, they do question whether I'm keeping him going for me rather than him. I think this video shows he hasn't given up so I'm not going to give up on him x
The abscess cavity in the left ear is empty - no pus . The upper one in the right ear was just sliced open again and cleaned out and the smaller ones on that side are too small to do anything with (I did squeeze them out this morning but the top one had healed over).
I discussed continuing with the oral antibiotics with the Vet as there's a ton of bunny cow pats in the hutch and it's affecting the other buns in that it's sticking to their paws. We're in agreement to stop the oral antibiotics and give his guts chance to recover.
Totti has gained a little weight (although still feels very boney) and is now 1.69 (he had gone down to 1.65).
My special boy is so unbelieavably brave and patient when the Vet and/ or myself are poking and squeezing around in his wounds, bless him.
I discussed continuing with the oral antibiotics with the Vet as there's a ton of bunny cow pats in the hutch and it's affecting the other buns in that it's sticking to their paws. We're in agreement to stop the oral antibiotics and give his guts chance to recover.
Totti has gained a little weight (although still feels very boney) and is now 1.69 (he had gone down to 1.65).
My special boy is so unbelieavably brave and patient when the Vet and/ or myself are poking and squeezing around in his wounds, bless him.
MichG
Mama Doe
Bless him
I am in a similar position with my boy Dexter, he has pus in both his inner ear canals which gives him a wonky head, he is on penecillin jabs, baytril and Metronidazole and also metacam daily. He lost an eye last year due to having an abcess inside his eye ball. My friends and family think he should be PTS. He is such a happy chappy and binky's all over the place and runs and jumps and has a massive appetite. I know our time is probably limited as the only other option is major surgery which I would NOT put him through as it would be unfair. The only time he is grumpy is when he has his Baytril, he picks up the syringe and throws it as far as he can :lol:.
He is only just over a year old, and I know I am doing the right thing by not PTS. It is not his time yet. I feel he will tell me when he is ready to go, but until that time he will be so well loved.
Major healing vibes for Totti, he looks like such a strong and handsome chap
I am in a similar position with my boy Dexter, he has pus in both his inner ear canals which gives him a wonky head, he is on penecillin jabs, baytril and Metronidazole and also metacam daily. He lost an eye last year due to having an abcess inside his eye ball. My friends and family think he should be PTS. He is such a happy chappy and binky's all over the place and runs and jumps and has a massive appetite. I know our time is probably limited as the only other option is major surgery which I would NOT put him through as it would be unfair. The only time he is grumpy is when he has his Baytril, he picks up the syringe and throws it as far as he can :lol:.
He is only just over a year old, and I know I am doing the right thing by not PTS. It is not his time yet. I feel he will tell me when he is ready to go, but until that time he will be so well loved.
Major healing vibes for Totti, he looks like such a strong and handsome chap
Good luck with Dexter. He sounds fabulous - a very happy chappy indeed. You're absolutely right, when we are so close to our fluffsters, we will know when we have to intervene if that time comes and until then, we'll be guided by them. I can't believe that it's a year ago that the Vet and I had the "quality of life" chat after battling the abscess for 3 months and here we are, 15 months after it was first diagnosed. Totti is still a "pig in fur" and although he doesn't binky anymore (probably age related) I can tell he's still happy. I love the old boy so muchBless him
I am in a similar position with my boy Dexter, he has pus in both his inner ear canals which gives him a wonky head, he is on penecillin jabs, baytril and Metronidazole and also metacam daily. He lost an eye last year due to having an abcess inside his eye ball. My friends and family think he should be PTS. He is such a happy chappy and binky's all over the place and runs and jumps and has a massive appetite. I know our time is probably limited as the only other option is major surgery which I would NOT put him through as it would be unfair. The only time he is grumpy is when he has his Baytril, he picks up the syringe and throws it as far as he can :lol:.
He is only just over a year old, and I know I am doing the right thing by not PTS. It is not his time yet. I feel he will tell me when he is ready to go, but until that time he will be so well loved.
Major healing vibes for Totti, he looks like such a strong and handsome chap
Keep me posted on Dexters progress x
:wave: We've got a right little club going here .... precious fluffsters that are much loved and receiving the best treatment, whatever the cost.
I wish Inca well :wave:
Update - 7th Marhc 2012
Whilst I've been on holiday, Totti has given Nicola (the boarding lady.. worth her weight in gold) quite a few grey hairs. His head tilted to one side at a 45% angle. He also has clear stuff oozing out of his not-so-bad side and also flickers his eyes. She took him straight to see the wonder Vet and he's on injectable amoxycillin and stemetil (for balance issues).
He has days when he's not so bad and his head is straight but today he was on the wonk again so we're back at the Vets in the morning.
I cannot stress hard enough how important it is for you to have total faith in a boarding place - the Vet has been full of praise for Nicola for the speed in which she picked up this latest twist to his abscess saga.
Whilst I've been on holiday, Totti has given Nicola (the boarding lady.. worth her weight in gold) quite a few grey hairs. His head tilted to one side at a 45% angle. He also has clear stuff oozing out of his not-so-bad side and also flickers his eyes. She took him straight to see the wonder Vet and he's on injectable amoxycillin and stemetil (for balance issues).
He has days when he's not so bad and his head is straight but today he was on the wonk again so we're back at the Vets in the morning.
I cannot stress hard enough how important it is for you to have total faith in a boarding place - the Vet has been full of praise for Nicola for the speed in which she picked up this latest twist to his abscess saga.
He has now finished the course of penicillin and he hasn't improved. There's pus coming out of his eye now as well as the drain holes in both ears . His head is permanently tilted at a 45% angle and this is clearly cuasing his issues as he keeps going round in circles.. He;s been kept in at the Vets for the multiple abscesses to be drained and cleaned out.
I know he's done so well as the abscess was diagnosed in Nov 2010 and the Vet and I had the quality of life chat back in Feb 2011
Vibes for my beautiful old duffer please x
There's pus coming out of his eye now as well as the drain holes in both ears . His head is permanently tilted at a 45% angle and this is clearly cuasing his issues as he keeps going round in circles.. He;s been kept in at the Vets for the multiple abscesses to be drained and cleaned out.I know he's done so well as the abscess was diagnosed in Nov 2010 and the Vet and I had the quality of life chat back in Feb 2011
Vibes for my beautiful old duffer please x
ElsasMummy
Warren Scout
Wow you've done so well managing the abscesses for so long! Hope things start to improve. X
LurcherGirl
Mama Doe
This reminds me when two of mine had an ear abscess like this. Longterm medication didn't make too much difference and my vet and I decided to do surgery to remodel the ear canal. When doing that, my vet found that the actual abscess was in fact much deeper in the ear than anticipated. He removed it all, remodelled the ear canal as planned and this took care of the problem. Unfortunately my older girl died after a week as the surgery was too much for her (there were other things going on with her too) and my other boy died after three months from unrelated cancer, so I don't know really what the longterm outlook was, but in the three months after the surgery, my boy had no further problems and I would do it again if one of mine had the same problem.
What are your plans from now on? I wish you well with whatever you are deciding for your bunny. Abscesses are so difficult to deal with in bunnies.
What are your plans from now on? I wish you well with whatever you are deciding for your bunny. Abscesses are so difficult to deal with in bunnies.
:wave: Thank you for sharing your experience. Way back in Feb 2011, the Vet thought that Totti would not survive such major intrusive surgery back then. So coupling that with the fact that he is older (10 1/2) and that it has clearly got worse, surgery is not an option I'm willing to put him through
. If he was a young 'un, I would consider such major surgery but not at his age xHe's had the multiple abscesses cleaned out, including a cluster of them in his eye (where the pus came out like little worms :shock.
I am totally guided by him. The Vet agrees he's a pig and he shows that he still has spirit (he gave an almighty thump when put in the carrier) - he's not ready to join his pals at the warren in the sky yet.
I've got drops to put in his eye and 2 lots of antibiotics i.e. Flagyl and Cefalexin.
This is the least gruesome pic of him taken after the major clean out - he is trying to clean himself
.I am totally guided by him. The Vet agrees he's a pig
and he shows that he still has spirit (he gave an almighty thump when put in the carrier) - he's not ready to join his pals at the warren in the sky yet.I've got drops to put in his eye and 2 lots of antibiotics i.e. Flagyl and Cefalexin.
This is the least gruesome pic of him taken after the major clean out - he is trying to clean himself
parsnipbun
Wise Old Thumper
while he still has fight I would go with it - Parsley has had his ear abscess (internal deep down inside) for at least 18 months now - probably two years - and when first diagnosed the vet thought he would only last a month or so as t is so intrusive inside - but he is still with us - endless courses of various abx (all the ones you can mention) have done nothing much - but baytril holds it at bay.
