~ILoveMyBunny~
Alpha Buck
Hi all,
Hoping for some reassurance and any suggestions. There's a loooong history here over the last few weeks (I think it must have been a good 2 months this has been going on) but the short(ish) version is our precious 11yr old lop Pinot - who was otherwise in amazing health for his age; no signs of arthritis, happy and bouncy like a little kit - developed a lower respiratory tract infection very suddenly. We got him straight to our exotics vet for treatment and it's been a long and difficult road. He had severe dysbiosis and unfortunately was in such a state with his GI tract we had to temporarily suspend antibiotics (he has now had co-trim multiple times, marbocyl and very briefly azithromycin. He cannot tolerate baytril as it caused severe issues for him some years ago and it's on his notes not to be given) The azithromycin was very short as he went into severe stasis whilst on it and was passing only large blobs of mucus at one point. Microscope analysis of faeces showed very very minimal live bacteria. This was when we had to temporarily suspend all abx to get his GI tract back on track).
We did a nasal swab but due to it being in the lower respiratory tract it sadly didn't yield any results apart from a very very scanty growth of a yeast. As a precaution we tried Itraconazole but that didn't appear to have any effect. The course for that has now been completed.
Throughout it all he has had nebulising with F10 and saline and a little while into it had salbutamol added in. He's also been on frusol and bisolven, + inflacam and paracetamol. He was on metaclopramide during stasis but that was taken out a while ago as his GI tract was actually running too fast. Ranitidine has remained in for a while.
Sildenafil was added and he had considerable improvement with that. At one point he seemed to be recovering pretty well and there didn't appear to be any fluid on the lungs anymore and the frusol was taken out but this unfortunately caused a considerable relapse and I had to take him to OOH's who restarted frusol + co-trim. That was about 2 weeks or so ago I think. He was quite severely ill so when I took him to see my exotics vet on the following Monday we took a big risk and added in steroids for a brief period (he's now off) because frankly there didn't seem much to lose at that point. The re-adding of frusol and co-trim + steroids seemed to pick him up an again and he started to do pretty well again.
His GI tract was running pretty well considering he has not eaten hay throughout any of this (I'm doing my best to keep fiber going where I can; fresh grass and chopped hay in recovery food which he takes readily from a bowl + forage) + adding in probiotics and prebiotics (fiberplex, pro-c professional) a few hours after abx.
In himself he has seemed a lot better, eating as if he'd been starved, really shovelling food, GI tract running better with almost normal droppings at last but breathing seeming to be a bit worse leading up to his last recheck on Friday. Unfortunately the stress of the appointment has taken a considerable toll on him since and his breathing is quite a bit worse since the appointment. The vet is unfortuantely 45 mins by taxi which isn't ideal for him plus there was a long wait due to emergency complicated surgeries taking place so we were there a good few hours and missed doses of pretty much all his medications by the time we got home.
We did a conscious x-ray on Friday which thankfully ruled out thymoma and the heart being the problem (both of which were concerns for me, especially as I lost one of my girls to a thymoma in 2023). The vet - not my usual but another exotics vet who was absolutely outstanding and had brilliant rabbit knowledge - said she could see white spots which could be from the infection on the lungs + a bit of a shadow which I think she said could be fluid. His lungs sound crackley. It was on his notes that COPD was possibly suspected which I didn't know about.
Unfortuantely she could also see air in his abdomen where he had been sucking in air and mouth breathing which he was doing whilst at the vet as he was stressed but I have also seen occasionally at home.
He's now on:
Co-trim (1ml every 12hrs),
Inflacam (1.2ml every 12hrs),
Paracetamol (0.55ml every 8hrs),
Ranitidine (0.47ml every 8hrs),
Frusol (1.2ml every 8hrs),
Bisolven ("good pinch" twice a day),
Sildenafil (half a tablet, I think they are something like 6.5mg, every 12hrs),
Salbutamol (nebuliser; twice daily),
F10 (nebuliser; twice daily)
Occasional as-needed saline by nebuliser if he's having difficulty
Pro and Pre-Biotics (Fibreplex and Pro-C Professional)
He weighs 2.19kg currently
Supreme Recovery Plus - Roughly half a bag through day mixed with the Pro-C and some chopped hay, mainly to give him a bit of fiber and easy nutrition that won't exhaust him. This was my own idea not the vets but when I mentioned it they didn't appear to have a problem with it so I have continued. This is in addition to his regular veg and herbs etc. He takes this himself willingly from a bowl, not by syringe.
He is supposed to have a recheck with our normal exotics vet this coming thursday but unless he improves significantly today or tomorrow I'm not sure he can make the journey. The last time took such a toll on him, I fear doing another too soon could push him over the edge. I'm not sure whether to ask to delay it until the following week or maybe get a phone appointment to discuss options with my vet remotely.
I know there is one horrific option which feels like it's been looming on the horizon and getting closer. I don't want him to suffer, but I also don't want to give up on him. I love him to bits; we both do. He is technically my brothers bunny. He is disabled, autistic and severely depressed and Pinot is a sort of unofficial therapy bunny for him. He lives in his room free roam and they're never apart. But I love him just as much as he does, he's an absolute sweetheart and we only lost our 10yr old boy a few months ago. We're not ready to face it again. He has been with us through our parents volatile and abusive divorce, our Mum's sudden death and our older brothers severe harrassment and intimidation. We've gone through a complete nightmare over the last 10yrs and Pinot has been there for us through it all. We've lost so many of our bunnies in the last few years. Pinot seemed so healthy until this happened. It's all so sudden.
I do know what may have to be done and in my heart I fear it will come to it sooner than later but I am desperate to do anything that we can to give him every possible chance to recover before we have to make that dreadded decision. He is very clearly still fighting and although his breathing has worsened from the stress of this last appointment he still eats and seeks love and attention. I'm not seeing a bunny that's given up yet. But I do fear that could change if he doesn't improve soon.
Is there anything else that I can do? Anything that I can ask my vet about? I am wondering if we could add another antibiotic in as we don't know for certain that co-trim is the right one because we don't know what bacteria is causing it, though he did appear to improve on the co-trim before. But that may be a coincidence.
We did try nebulising with acetylcysteine briefly but he appeared to respond poorly to it.
He is also fully up to date and vaccinated against Myxo, RHD1 and 2 and has also had Yurvac so I assume a viral cause is less likely. All other bunnies in the house are so far thankfully healthy.
Is there anything left that we can do?
Hoping for some reassurance and any suggestions. There's a loooong history here over the last few weeks (I think it must have been a good 2 months this has been going on) but the short(ish) version is our precious 11yr old lop Pinot - who was otherwise in amazing health for his age; no signs of arthritis, happy and bouncy like a little kit - developed a lower respiratory tract infection very suddenly. We got him straight to our exotics vet for treatment and it's been a long and difficult road. He had severe dysbiosis and unfortunately was in such a state with his GI tract we had to temporarily suspend antibiotics (he has now had co-trim multiple times, marbocyl and very briefly azithromycin. He cannot tolerate baytril as it caused severe issues for him some years ago and it's on his notes not to be given) The azithromycin was very short as he went into severe stasis whilst on it and was passing only large blobs of mucus at one point. Microscope analysis of faeces showed very very minimal live bacteria. This was when we had to temporarily suspend all abx to get his GI tract back on track).
We did a nasal swab but due to it being in the lower respiratory tract it sadly didn't yield any results apart from a very very scanty growth of a yeast. As a precaution we tried Itraconazole but that didn't appear to have any effect. The course for that has now been completed.
Throughout it all he has had nebulising with F10 and saline and a little while into it had salbutamol added in. He's also been on frusol and bisolven, + inflacam and paracetamol. He was on metaclopramide during stasis but that was taken out a while ago as his GI tract was actually running too fast. Ranitidine has remained in for a while.
Sildenafil was added and he had considerable improvement with that. At one point he seemed to be recovering pretty well and there didn't appear to be any fluid on the lungs anymore and the frusol was taken out but this unfortunately caused a considerable relapse and I had to take him to OOH's who restarted frusol + co-trim. That was about 2 weeks or so ago I think. He was quite severely ill so when I took him to see my exotics vet on the following Monday we took a big risk and added in steroids for a brief period (he's now off) because frankly there didn't seem much to lose at that point. The re-adding of frusol and co-trim + steroids seemed to pick him up an again and he started to do pretty well again.
His GI tract was running pretty well considering he has not eaten hay throughout any of this (I'm doing my best to keep fiber going where I can; fresh grass and chopped hay in recovery food which he takes readily from a bowl + forage) + adding in probiotics and prebiotics (fiberplex, pro-c professional) a few hours after abx.
In himself he has seemed a lot better, eating as if he'd been starved, really shovelling food, GI tract running better with almost normal droppings at last but breathing seeming to be a bit worse leading up to his last recheck on Friday. Unfortunately the stress of the appointment has taken a considerable toll on him since and his breathing is quite a bit worse since the appointment. The vet is unfortuantely 45 mins by taxi which isn't ideal for him plus there was a long wait due to emergency complicated surgeries taking place so we were there a good few hours and missed doses of pretty much all his medications by the time we got home.
We did a conscious x-ray on Friday which thankfully ruled out thymoma and the heart being the problem (both of which were concerns for me, especially as I lost one of my girls to a thymoma in 2023). The vet - not my usual but another exotics vet who was absolutely outstanding and had brilliant rabbit knowledge - said she could see white spots which could be from the infection on the lungs + a bit of a shadow which I think she said could be fluid. His lungs sound crackley. It was on his notes that COPD was possibly suspected which I didn't know about.
Unfortuantely she could also see air in his abdomen where he had been sucking in air and mouth breathing which he was doing whilst at the vet as he was stressed but I have also seen occasionally at home.
He's now on:
Co-trim (1ml every 12hrs),
Inflacam (1.2ml every 12hrs),
Paracetamol (0.55ml every 8hrs),
Ranitidine (0.47ml every 8hrs),
Frusol (1.2ml every 8hrs),
Bisolven ("good pinch" twice a day),
Sildenafil (half a tablet, I think they are something like 6.5mg, every 12hrs),
Salbutamol (nebuliser; twice daily),
F10 (nebuliser; twice daily)
Occasional as-needed saline by nebuliser if he's having difficulty
Pro and Pre-Biotics (Fibreplex and Pro-C Professional)
He weighs 2.19kg currently
Supreme Recovery Plus - Roughly half a bag through day mixed with the Pro-C and some chopped hay, mainly to give him a bit of fiber and easy nutrition that won't exhaust him. This was my own idea not the vets but when I mentioned it they didn't appear to have a problem with it so I have continued. This is in addition to his regular veg and herbs etc. He takes this himself willingly from a bowl, not by syringe.
He is supposed to have a recheck with our normal exotics vet this coming thursday but unless he improves significantly today or tomorrow I'm not sure he can make the journey. The last time took such a toll on him, I fear doing another too soon could push him over the edge. I'm not sure whether to ask to delay it until the following week or maybe get a phone appointment to discuss options with my vet remotely.
I know there is one horrific option which feels like it's been looming on the horizon and getting closer. I don't want him to suffer, but I also don't want to give up on him. I love him to bits; we both do. He is technically my brothers bunny. He is disabled, autistic and severely depressed and Pinot is a sort of unofficial therapy bunny for him. He lives in his room free roam and they're never apart. But I love him just as much as he does, he's an absolute sweetheart and we only lost our 10yr old boy a few months ago. We're not ready to face it again. He has been with us through our parents volatile and abusive divorce, our Mum's sudden death and our older brothers severe harrassment and intimidation. We've gone through a complete nightmare over the last 10yrs and Pinot has been there for us through it all. We've lost so many of our bunnies in the last few years. Pinot seemed so healthy until this happened. It's all so sudden.
I do know what may have to be done and in my heart I fear it will come to it sooner than later but I am desperate to do anything that we can to give him every possible chance to recover before we have to make that dreadded decision. He is very clearly still fighting and although his breathing has worsened from the stress of this last appointment he still eats and seeks love and attention. I'm not seeing a bunny that's given up yet. But I do fear that could change if he doesn't improve soon.
Is there anything else that I can do? Anything that I can ask my vet about? I am wondering if we could add another antibiotic in as we don't know for certain that co-trim is the right one because we don't know what bacteria is causing it, though he did appear to improve on the co-trim before. But that may be a coincidence.
We did try nebulising with acetylcysteine briefly but he appeared to respond poorly to it.
He is also fully up to date and vaccinated against Myxo, RHD1 and 2 and has also had Yurvac so I assume a viral cause is less likely. All other bunnies in the house are so far thankfully healthy.
Is there anything left that we can do?
thinking of you and sending hugs xx
