chumsofmanutd
New Kit
Meet Dora, our 10 year old Lion Head House Bunny.
She has been poorly for 5 weeks now and we are now searching desperately for ideas.
We have been very lucky, she’s been healthy her whole life up to now, no need for any meds or health issues other than annual vaccinations.
5 weeks ago she went off her food (hay and pellets although would have veg/fruit and grass) and was very lethargic, obviously off colour. We took her to the vets the next day and she had pain killer and antibiotic injections & a health check. The only thing that was pulled up on her check was she had some Molar spurs that could be causing an issue.
Nothing improved that week, if anything there was deterioration and the signs started to point to teeth being an issue - wouldn’t touch hard foods or hay or chew on her toys etc.
We decided to bite the bullet and put her under aesthetic whilst still relatively healthy on the 3rd July. She had her molars burred and 3 xrays to look at the rest of her health. Her tongue had a small cut on it so looked likely to have been causing her pain.
Given her age she did well to come through the op. Her x rays pulled up that she had a raging sinus infection on one side too so she was given another shot of antibiotics for that. Other than some arthritis in her back legs (which we were not surprised about given her age), her digestive system and everything else was all clear on the scans.
4 weeks on from the op however, we are still really struggling with her lack of appetite. She had a third antibiotic injection the week after the op but otherwise has just been on daily doses of pain killer (0.5ml twice daily of Meloxidyl). She will not touch pellets (mashed too) or hay (she has grown up on these). She shows signs of an appetite (will run to the fridge) but then we really struggle to get her to have anything. She will eat grass and some veg/fruit but everything pretty much is a battle. We briefly tried syringe feeding her critical care but she hates the whole process and for what we were getting in her were not sure the stress was worth the benefit.
On her good days she will explore outside like there is nothing wrong which makes this whole experience even more frustrating and heart breaking.
As you would expect given her diet, her poops are not at all normal - very wet and she shows signs of stomach cramps at times as well as several diarrhea outbreaks.
She has dropped from a weight of 2.75kg pre illness to around 2.1kg today and we are really struggling to stabilise it. We don’t feel like we’ve made any improvement in the last 4 weeks and unless something changes we think we will lose the battle.
We have been recommend Zantec/Ranitidine to help with stomach related issues (reduce stomach acid) that could be caused by her bad diet/antibiotics which will hopefully be with us in the next couple of days but I am not sure this is the route cause of our issues now.
We have tried getting pro biotics in her but she doesn’t seem to like any form that we give her so we are struggling there too. We have tried all sorts of different hays (alfalfa, 1st cut etc) but nothing tempts her there.
Reading online it looks like Sinus infections
in rabbits can be notoriously hard to control and I’m wondering if it is that that’s holding us back still.
Anyone any ideas/experience with similar issues? Any suggestions for an antibiotic to suggest for Sinus issues that maybe more effective?
Thank you for reading.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
She has been poorly for 5 weeks now and we are now searching desperately for ideas.
We have been very lucky, she’s been healthy her whole life up to now, no need for any meds or health issues other than annual vaccinations.
5 weeks ago she went off her food (hay and pellets although would have veg/fruit and grass) and was very lethargic, obviously off colour. We took her to the vets the next day and she had pain killer and antibiotic injections & a health check. The only thing that was pulled up on her check was she had some Molar spurs that could be causing an issue.
Nothing improved that week, if anything there was deterioration and the signs started to point to teeth being an issue - wouldn’t touch hard foods or hay or chew on her toys etc.
We decided to bite the bullet and put her under aesthetic whilst still relatively healthy on the 3rd July. She had her molars burred and 3 xrays to look at the rest of her health. Her tongue had a small cut on it so looked likely to have been causing her pain.
Given her age she did well to come through the op. Her x rays pulled up that she had a raging sinus infection on one side too so she was given another shot of antibiotics for that. Other than some arthritis in her back legs (which we were not surprised about given her age), her digestive system and everything else was all clear on the scans.
4 weeks on from the op however, we are still really struggling with her lack of appetite. She had a third antibiotic injection the week after the op but otherwise has just been on daily doses of pain killer (0.5ml twice daily of Meloxidyl). She will not touch pellets (mashed too) or hay (she has grown up on these). She shows signs of an appetite (will run to the fridge) but then we really struggle to get her to have anything. She will eat grass and some veg/fruit but everything pretty much is a battle. We briefly tried syringe feeding her critical care but she hates the whole process and for what we were getting in her were not sure the stress was worth the benefit.
On her good days she will explore outside like there is nothing wrong which makes this whole experience even more frustrating and heart breaking.
As you would expect given her diet, her poops are not at all normal - very wet and she shows signs of stomach cramps at times as well as several diarrhea outbreaks.
She has dropped from a weight of 2.75kg pre illness to around 2.1kg today and we are really struggling to stabilise it. We don’t feel like we’ve made any improvement in the last 4 weeks and unless something changes we think we will lose the battle.
We have been recommend Zantec/Ranitidine to help with stomach related issues (reduce stomach acid) that could be caused by her bad diet/antibiotics which will hopefully be with us in the next couple of days but I am not sure this is the route cause of our issues now.
We have tried getting pro biotics in her but she doesn’t seem to like any form that we give her so we are struggling there too. We have tried all sorts of different hays (alfalfa, 1st cut etc) but nothing tempts her there.
Reading online it looks like Sinus infections
in rabbits can be notoriously hard to control and I’m wondering if it is that that’s holding us back still.
Anyone any ideas/experience with similar issues? Any suggestions for an antibiotic to suggest for Sinus issues that maybe more effective?
Thank you for reading.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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