Persistent sneezing

Hello,
I have a seven-year-old dwarf/lionhead/lop mix (b. March 2010) who has been having sneezing fits (20-30 a day) for over three years. Within the past year, she also sounds like she's choking on mucus when she has her fits. That's the short version. Now here are the details:

When she first began sneezing, I took her to the vet the very next day. The vet said she probably just got some hay up her nose and it was agitating her. After a couple weeks, the sneezing hadn't improved, so I took her back. This time, she tested the mucus (which has always been either clear or white) for signs of viral or bacterial infection, and the results were negative. She prescribed her antibiotics anyway, but they didn't help. At the time, her diet included unlimited timothy hay, an 1/8 c. of Oxbow adult food pellets per day, regular greens (kale, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, etc.), and occasional other treats. Her litter, since she was about two, has been Yesterday's News paper pellet litter. She's always had a large, custom house in an open space of my home, not near anything like a wood stove or furnace that could produce irritants.

After the antibiotics failed to help, I tried to find other answers and read on this site that it may be an allergy to the hay. I switched her from timothy hay to orchard grass and eliminated the pellets and all treats with timothy or alfalfa in it. Still no change in her sneezing.

I took her to a different vet about a month later for a second opinion, and she said the same thing: there may be inflammation due to a piece of hay that had gotten up her nose at one point (which is totally likely because this girl snuffles in the hay like she's looking for diamonds). But just in case, the vet put her on another antibiotic. But, again, no luck.

Fast forward to two years ago. My husband and I moved to Alaska from Minnesota and took the rabbit with us. Before we could, though, she needed to have a clean bill of health. I brought her to the original vet and was completely forthright that the sneezing hadn't ceased. But she saw nothing wrong in her physical exam of her and cleared her for the flight.

She survived the plane ride in the hold (I argued with Delta for 45 min. about having her with me in the cabin and they absolutely refused, but that's another story...) And she seemed no worse than before. Just sneezy.

About a year ago, it sounded like she was coughing something up when she had her sneezing fits, or even just randomly while she's lying there relaxing. Sometimes the fits are so long (up to a minute) and violent, they seem to leave her feeling drained. So I took her to a vet here in AK.

In Alaska, rabbits are treated more like livestock than pets, so it didn't surprise me that this vet didn't have a lot of insight into the matter. I told her she was seven, and her response was, "Oh, that's old for a rabbit." Which makes me think she thinks it's absurd I'm seeking medical care for her. Nevertheless, she put her on yet another antibiotic (at this point, this girl has more antibiotics in her than a Gold 'N Plump chicken) which, of course, did no good. There's only one other vet where I live, and I'm not even sure they see rabbits. Even if they do, I really don't see what they could tell me that I haven't already heard a dozen times.

Other than the sneezing, she's a very healthy girl. She's eating, drinking, pooping, and otherwise behaving normally. She's active, playful, and alert. Whenever she's out, I clear away the mucus from her nose (again, it's always either clear or white). I also occasionally take her into the bathroom when my husband is showering to see if the steam helps. I haven't noticed any change, but I probably need to do it more often. My next step is to get her a humidifier, but I'm worried that will cause her hay to grow nasty things that can cause things worse than sinus inflammation.

I'm willing to listen to any and all suggestions. I've read a few threads about sneezing, but I didn't see this particular problem. If anyone has any experience with this, I would be grateful. And thanks for sticking with this post through the end. It's been a long journey for my little girl.

If there is white snot, that is a definitive sign of a bacterial infection. So your rabbit definitely has an upper respiratory infection regardless of what the results of the culture were. Cultures are often not accurate as it can be difficult to get a really good swab of the mucous. It has to be from deep in the nasal passage and this usually requires the rabbit to be sedated. And even then it isn't always accurate. But white snot is. It always means it's bacterial in nature.

It could be your rabbit just didn't get the right antibiotics for the bacteria involved, or it could be the vet didn't prescribe a long enough course. URI's are almost always difficult to get cleared up in rabbits and 4-6 weeks of antibiotics is often the minimum of what is needed. Some rabbits have to have them even longer, months, with repeated courses of antibiotics over the life of the rabbit. And sometimes the URI is never completely cleared up but is just a matter of knocking it down with antibiotics as best as you can, and then manage the condition, retreating with another course of antibiotics as needed.

Do you happen to remember which antibiotics your rabbit has been on and how long each one was prescribed for? Was the anti inflammatory meloxicam ever prescribed as well, or a mucolytic to thin the mucous secretions? Did any of the vets do a thorough dental exam with or without xrays, to rule out dental disease as a root cause to the URI? Also, did any of the vets visually examine the nasal passages using an otoscope, to actually see if there were any foreign bodies in the nasal passage instead of just assuming that a stuck piece of hay 'might' be the cause?

7 is getting up there but not really considered that old. My oldest rabbit died at 10, there's a member on here that has a rabbit going on 18. If your rabbit is healthy aside from the respiratory issues, if you are able to get that under control, your bun could still have a good few years left to enjoy life.

Here's some reading up you can do on respiratory disease in rabbits to give you a better idea of what you're dealing with and treatment opotions.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/Bacterial/URI.htm
http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Bacterial/RhinitisRabbits.htm
https://thewebinarvet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Respiratory-Disease-in-Rabbit-webinar.pdf
http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/respiratory-disease-proceedings

I agree. The best would be to find a good vet to make more tests and try other treatments. What you describe sounds a lot like pasteurella to me. It can be really hard to find the right antibiotic and having to try several is pretty normal in that case. You would have to find a knowledgeable vet to discuss it but penicillin g in injection is sometimes successful. Uri is hard to treat and has a tendency to come back. Some people use inhalations to help with it, i even met a woman who saved an orphan kit with pasteurella and pretended to control his bouts of illness by giving him small quantities of alcohol (seriously) but everything must be done under a competent vet's supervision, which is often hard to find unfortunately.