Hugo's There
Wise Old Thumper
For those that didn't read Lois's original thread it is here - http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?443913-Lois-is-poorly-sleep-tight-Lois
In summary I had a niggle about her for quite some time but nothing really presented itself. Then she got mites and a bit depressed. The mites were treated. She didn't improve so a short course of antibiotics were given which helped a little. Once they stopped she became depressed again but was still eating and feisty enough. Last Monday evening her appetite started to reduce, only nibbling veg. By wednesday she was admitted and every diagnostic was tried but with no answers until they did an exploratory laparotomy on Friday which showed half her liver had turned white. We then decided to let her go under the GA.
We have had the histology results back from Lois's post mortem. There was a lot of complicated info to take in during a short phone call so I hope it makes sense as I didn't understand it all but will try my best -
We knew that part of her liver was white. This was an infarct, which means it was dead tissue. It looked very similar to VHD and we hadn't been able to vaccinate in April so they ruled this out first. The dead tissue was caused by a bacteria. However they were unable to culture the bacteria so we do not know what it was. We think this is because she had a course of antibiotics a couple of weeks earlier ( which did make her a little better). She has a history of pasturella so it could quite possibly be this. A sample of spleen was also sent and this showed the same damage. This showed she was slowly going in to sepsis.
I asked if there was any way this could have been diagnosed earlier and the only possibility would have been to have her blood cultured. In all his career he has never requested blood to be cultured so it really is a very rare problem. I asked if a longer course of antibiotics would have worked and again no. The antibiotics we gave her earlier were doing their job and killing the bacteria but the damage they had caused her organs was permanent. The liver only being half damaged should have started to regenerate but for reasons unknown it wasn't.
I asked if it is a risk to our other rabbits but because we don;t know the bacteria involved we really don't know. If others do become ill with similar symptoms then we know to culture the blood. But tbh Lois had not been quite right for a very long time so I think if we were going to see a spread we would have seen something by now.
Given Lois's very vague symptoms I think we all did everything we possibly could for her over the last few weeks and definitely made the right decision before she went into full blown sepsis.
I hope that makes some sense to people. Its not something we have ever come across before. But maybe one day the into may help someone.
In summary I had a niggle about her for quite some time but nothing really presented itself. Then she got mites and a bit depressed. The mites were treated. She didn't improve so a short course of antibiotics were given which helped a little. Once they stopped she became depressed again but was still eating and feisty enough. Last Monday evening her appetite started to reduce, only nibbling veg. By wednesday she was admitted and every diagnostic was tried but with no answers until they did an exploratory laparotomy on Friday which showed half her liver had turned white. We then decided to let her go under the GA.
We have had the histology results back from Lois's post mortem. There was a lot of complicated info to take in during a short phone call so I hope it makes sense as I didn't understand it all but will try my best -
We knew that part of her liver was white. This was an infarct, which means it was dead tissue. It looked very similar to VHD and we hadn't been able to vaccinate in April so they ruled this out first. The dead tissue was caused by a bacteria. However they were unable to culture the bacteria so we do not know what it was. We think this is because she had a course of antibiotics a couple of weeks earlier ( which did make her a little better). She has a history of pasturella so it could quite possibly be this. A sample of spleen was also sent and this showed the same damage. This showed she was slowly going in to sepsis.
I asked if there was any way this could have been diagnosed earlier and the only possibility would have been to have her blood cultured. In all his career he has never requested blood to be cultured so it really is a very rare problem. I asked if a longer course of antibiotics would have worked and again no. The antibiotics we gave her earlier were doing their job and killing the bacteria but the damage they had caused her organs was permanent. The liver only being half damaged should have started to regenerate but for reasons unknown it wasn't.
I asked if it is a risk to our other rabbits but because we don;t know the bacteria involved we really don't know. If others do become ill with similar symptoms then we know to culture the blood. But tbh Lois had not been quite right for a very long time so I think if we were going to see a spread we would have seen something by now.
Given Lois's very vague symptoms I think we all did everything we possibly could for her over the last few weeks and definitely made the right decision before she went into full blown sepsis.
I hope that makes some sense to people. Its not something we have ever come across before. But maybe one day the into may help someone.