Help please - sick rabbit, vet cannot resolve

ToffTom said:

Folks,
I am hoping that someone may be able to help with diagnosing what is wrong with one of our rabbits.
Tom is a Netherland dwarf, about 5 years old and kept outside in a well maintained hutch with a female rabbit and they love each other to bits.

First symptoms were runny eyes and sneezing.
Then he seemed to be feeling the cold / staying inside the sheltered box of the hutch instead of coming out as usual.
He also started drinking more water than usual and shaking his ears about as if they were itching or painful.
He just looked under the weather but was still eating and moving about OK.

After a week of not looking A1 we took him to the vet and he was prescribed Baytril.

After 5 days on the Baytril, he suddenly developed: significant hair loss around loins and groin with raw looking skin underneath (folicles of hair lost have white crusting around the base), spreading to scruff and below eyes and seemingly loss of balance with rear legs - if he tries to hop over something he tends to fall sideways or stagger to regain balance.

Been back to the vets today for a 'skin scrape' to check for mites but nothing found and the team of vets are stumped as to what is the matter with him.

We have asked if the latter symptoms could be a reaction to the Baytril but this is thought unlikely.
Vets are saying if his fur loss does not improve within 1 week, we could need to look at his "quality of life" and we know what that means.
He has had a treatment for mites and an injection of a different antibiotic anyhow.
Tom is still eating well, actually very hungrily which is a good sign but he just wants to sit still most of the time.

We did change from using blue paper pellet bedding in the litter trays to sawdust around 3 weeks ago so early symptoms could have been due to dust with that ? Sawdust has always been used below straw in the top part of the hutch. New batch of sawdust though from a different supplier. We have changed back now needless to say.

Any suggestions very warmly welcomed as we are quite concerned about our lovely Tom.

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ToffTom said:

Folks,
I am hoping that someone may be able to help with diagnosing what is wrong with one of our rabbits.
Tom is a Netherland dwarf, about 5 years old and kept outside in a well maintained hutch with a female rabbit and they love each other to bits.

First symptoms were runny eyes and sneezing.
Then he seemed to be feeling the cold / staying inside the sheltered box of the hutch instead of coming out as usual.
He also started drinking more water than usual and shaking his ears about as if they were itching or painful.
He just looked under the weather but was still eating and moving about OK.

After a week of not looking A1 we took him to the vet and he was prescribed Baytril.

After 5 days on the Baytril, he suddenly developed: significant hair loss around loins and groin with raw looking skin underneath (folicles of hair lost have white crusting around the base), spreading to scruff and below eyes and seemingly loss of balance with rear legs - if he tries to hop over something he tends to fall sideways or stagger to regain balance.

Been back to the vets today for a 'skin scrape' to check for mites but nothing found and the team of vets are stumped as to what is the matter with him.

We have asked if the latter symptoms could be a reaction to the Baytril but this is thought unlikely.
Vets are saying if his fur loss does not improve within 1 week, we could need to look at his "quality of life" and we know what that means.
He has had a treatment for mites and an injection of a different antibiotic anyhow.
Tom is still eating well, actually very hungrily which is a good sign but he just wants to sit still most of the time.

We did change from using blue paper pellet bedding in the litter trays to sawdust around 3 weeks ago so early symptoms could have been due to dust with that ? Sawdust has always been used below straw in the top part of the hutch. New batch of sawdust though from a different supplier. We have changed back now needless to say.

Any suggestions very warmly welcomed as we are quite concerned about our lovely Tom.

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ToffTom said:

I'm in Cardiff, South Wales. The Vets seem to know a fair bit about rabbits. They did discuss doing blood tests or fungal tests but felt that it may be pointless as it would only give a diagnosis and there would be little that they could do to treat a lot of the problems.

They seem to know rabbits fairly well and are available at all hours to see them as needed.

Yes please if anyone can recommend a good vet for secondary opinion.

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ToffTom said:

I'm in Cardiff, South Wales. The Vets seem to know a fair bit about rabbits. They did discuss doing blood tests or fungal tests but felt that it may be pointless as it would only give a diagnosis and there would be little that they could do to treat a lot of the problems.

They seem to know rabbits fairly well and are available at all hours to see them as needed.

Yes please if anyone can recommend a good vet for secondary opinion.

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ToffTom said:

Tom seemed a bit better last night. He managed to hop out of the hutch, which involves a small jump over the wooden bar at the bottom of the door. He managed to jump back in too without losing his balance. So we were upbeat about him recovering. However, this morning we found that he has lost another big patch of fur and the skin looks raw again underneath and you can see his ribs.

Here's Toffee and Tom; Tom is the black one.

Here's the skin problem with Tom. It started on his hocks and belly, then progressed to the scruff and now his side.

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jerseygirl said:

I knew someone several years ago whose netherland dwarf lost fur when on baytril. The second vet they consulted with thought it was reaction to the medication. The vets you see could perhaps contact Bayer and see if it's been a reported symptom? Some animals are just hypersentive to some medications.
Hair loss is actually an adverse reaction in humans for some medications of this family (fluoroquinolones). I do not know if its something sometimes seen in rabbits (baytril is widely used for rabbits). I just know of that one case and it was the vets best guess as to what was going on. It was a little rabbit (under 2 kg, receiving 1ml of baytril for an URI.

I hope you are able to get to the bottom of what is affecting Tom!

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jerseygirl said:

I knew someone several years ago whose netherland dwarf lost fur when on baytril. The second vet they consulted with thought it was reaction to the medication. The vets you see could perhaps contact Bayer and see if it's been a reported symptom? Some animals are just hypersentive to some medications.
Hair loss is actually an adverse reaction in humans for some medications of this family (fluoroquinolones). I do not know if its something sometimes seen in rabbits (baytril is widely used for rabbits). I just know of that one case and it was the vets best guess as to what was going on. It was a little rabbit (under 2 kg, receiving 1ml of baytril for an URI.

I hope you are able to get to the bottom of what is affecting Tom!

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ToffTom said:

Thanks that's really helpful. Our vet thinks it is something Systemic, that is going to get worse and the skin problem / fur loss is symptomatic of that.

Tom didn't have a Baytril injection. He was on it for around 5 days orally: twice a day 0.4ml each time. I wonder if it can cause a similar reaction orally ?

He is still eating and drinking well but still doesn't look well. More hair loss: now big bare patches over his back and down both shoulders. The skin is red and sore looking to start with but thankfully dries out and looks healthier after around 24 hours. No fur growing back yet though.

Pulled all the hutches sections to bits over the weekend, and cleaned and scrubbed them all out with hutch disinfectant hoping to prevent infection and kill off anything that was making him ill. All litter trays scrubbed out with vinegar and then disinfectant. All bedding changed.

He came out for a lop around the garden but is clearly tired so he only moves for a bit then sits for ages, then moves around a bit again. Poor lad. Very concerned about him.

Looked at the alternative vets suggested but they aren't there until Monday so may try calling them for a second opinion tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for all your support. I am really worried about what our vet will say when they see him on Tuesday because of the hair loss; in view of the "quality of life" statement last week. The Baytril reaction thing is very important on that issue, so many thanks for that.

Actually I recall now that he has had minor hair loss before after an injection but that was something else, not Baytril.

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