Honeylovesthumper
Young Bun
Hi all, i have a 4ish year old dwarf lop bunny who is in tip top health apart from a lump at the base of her ear. As i have experience of pasturella abcesses before i whisked her straight to the local bunny guru. He got some of the gunk out of the ear and said though you cant be certain, its more likely just wax due to her lop ear shape. He showed me how to massage the gunk out of her ear cavity into her ear and said to return in 3 months. The lump went away after massaging/easing the wax up her ear canal but kept returning. So we went back to the bunny whisperer, who suggested probably the best course of action for her would be to use local anaesthetic if the lump is big enough and open up the cavity permanently to allow easy access for flushing/antibiotic in the future.
However, she can be a stressy bunny, and hates all aspects of humans and being handled. Obvs, rabbits hate car journeys, but she goes and stays completely frozen (not even moving away from human hands). She was dumped in a park, so i think this might be to do with that (possibly car ride there and to the rescue) and she doesnt tend to be food orientated unless i restrict pellets. In order to do her daily checks, massages etc and grooming i dont feed pellets every day but instead hand feed a tiny amount as if they were treats for allowing me to groom. (They have good quality hale bales and i forage for them too). However, this means getting medicstion into her repeatedly isnt necessarily going to be great for her stress levels.
Ive experience with administering medication and caring for very sick bunnies, so im not worried about that, but i am in two minds about this operation. She is fine, not in pain but it is itching her a little, no other symptoms, eating lots of hay & drinking well. I think its better for her in terms of weighing up the impact and efficacy of future antibiotic treatments, but im not sure if it is the right course of action right now when we are still unsure if there is even an infection - i mean, im no veterinary nurse i may have been massaging incorrectly and making things worse, though the vet didnt seem to think this was the case.
Has anyone had this permanent abcess opening /marsupilization done before?
And what do you guys think about this as a preventative measure on a relatively well bunny?
Thank you guys xx
However, she can be a stressy bunny, and hates all aspects of humans and being handled. Obvs, rabbits hate car journeys, but she goes and stays completely frozen (not even moving away from human hands). She was dumped in a park, so i think this might be to do with that (possibly car ride there and to the rescue) and she doesnt tend to be food orientated unless i restrict pellets. In order to do her daily checks, massages etc and grooming i dont feed pellets every day but instead hand feed a tiny amount as if they were treats for allowing me to groom. (They have good quality hale bales and i forage for them too). However, this means getting medicstion into her repeatedly isnt necessarily going to be great for her stress levels.
Ive experience with administering medication and caring for very sick bunnies, so im not worried about that, but i am in two minds about this operation. She is fine, not in pain but it is itching her a little, no other symptoms, eating lots of hay & drinking well. I think its better for her in terms of weighing up the impact and efficacy of future antibiotic treatments, but im not sure if it is the right course of action right now when we are still unsure if there is even an infection - i mean, im no veterinary nurse i may have been massaging incorrectly and making things worse, though the vet didnt seem to think this was the case.
Has anyone had this permanent abcess opening /marsupilization done before?
And what do you guys think about this as a preventative measure on a relatively well bunny?
Thank you guys xx
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