Bunny with Pneumonia? How bad is this?

Our rabbit savvy vet believes our sweet bunny has pneumonia. 😥 She had a bad episode the other night and then when we got her to the vet in the morning, she had an X-ray and they said that the lungs were congested. The vet is keeping her but she said she is still in serious condition. We don't want our sweet girl to suffer, as she is 5, and has had a really good life. We want to give her a fighting chance but our vet is telling me to stay guarded because this is not looking good and that the meds might just prolong her life a little and she could still die from this. She is really drugged up right now. Is there any hope or are we just prolonging the inevitable? We just want to the right thing for our sweet girl. :sad::bigtears:

I'm so sorry to hear about your bunny. I just realized you're the same poster who recommended the vet I made an appointment with. While I don't know what advice to give you regarding the pneumonia and seriousness in rabbits, I will be thinking about you and your bunny and wishing you both the best of luck.

I've had guarded prognoses with my dogs before and it's always terribly hard to know whether you're doing the right thing by continuing treatment. I really hope everything works out and she's able to get her lungs clear.

Pneumonia is very serious, and unfortunately the more advanced it is the poorer the prognosis. But I would also think that the more immediate the response to treatment, the greater the chance of recovery.

I'm very sorry that your bun is not doing well and hope for the best for you both.

Oh yes, pneumonia is serious in rabbits. We lost one to it and almost lost another one. It requires quick treatment if there's any hope of saving them.

How is your rabbit doing?

So sorry to hear that. Pneumonia is quite serious. I hope she pulls through.

Our poor little girl. We thought we were going to lose her a few months ago because they thought she had a tumor in her uterus, and then it turned out to be prometria? Or something like that. She had that surgery, and they thought maybe she had cancer elsewhere, but her tests all came back negative. So, we were so happy when we found all of that out because we thought we were going to have to put her to sleep the day of that surgery. She had a bit of trouble with urinating outside the box after the surgery, but that was all fixed. Then, on Sunday, we found her laying in urine. She had peed in the corner of her cage. But we noticed her stress breathing, and she didn't want to move. She was also breathing with her head tilted back a little. And due to some issues with the clinic that is supposed to route our vet's emergency calls, we had to wait until the next morning to get her to the vet. We seriously didn't think she was going to make it through the night. We keep Metacam for our old, arthritic rescued mini lop, so we immediately gave her a dose because we thought she might be in pain. We also gave her infant simethicone (gas drops) because we thought it might be stasis. The next morning, our vet saw her and said that it was either pneumonia, or heart failure. But after a day on antibiotics, and some other tests, she said she felt it was pneumonia. So, she kept her, and has been monitoring her and giving her meds. She said it is good that she hasn't had to give her diuretics, or anything else. It took a few days for our sweet girl to stop breathing heavy all the time. The only time she has heavy breathing is during stressful moments (like when she is transported) or when she has to take meds, but it doesn't last long. I'm really nervous because we are likely going to be bringing her home for the weekend, and I don't know what I will do if we cannot reach our vet and she gets worse. The rabbit savvy vets in our office are not available on the weekend too often. They have her on liquid Baytril and Flocillin injections. If she had not shown improvement, we would probably be saying goodbye. But, for now, she is eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, and acting mostly normal except for the heavier breathing, which again, now is just when she gets stressed or when she first gets her meds. I know she's not out of the woods, but do you think at this point there is hope that we caught it in time?

Also, are there tests that they can do to see what kind of bacteria are causing the pneumonia?

There are tests you can do, but they are not easy on the poor bunny (or any animal). They basically require the vet to put a bunch of (sterile) fluid into the lungs and suck it back out. Most vets (and owners!) don't like to do that unless it's necessary.

IF she is improving and feeling better and if that continues, you guys can be out of the woods. Pneumonia is BAD in rabbits, but not always fatal. As long as you keep up with the treatments, it might be ok still. Don't quite give up hope yet! Please keep us updated-We are thinking about you!

Yeah, I don't want to put her through anything. I'm hoping the treatments continue to work. Our vet did tell us that it can come back, depending on what caused it. But, we are just going to focus on where we are right now and not think about what *could* happen in the future. Can't wait to have our sweet girl home again!

Keep up the medicine the vet gave you and just try to minimize any stress on her. Our rabbit who got pneumonia and survived never had it recur, but it can also depend on how strong your rabbit's immune system is.

Well, about four days after she went off her medication, she started having some mild episodes especially after playing and running around our house. The vet was also about to go out of state for a vacation, so I was in a panic! We were able to squeeze in a visit, and we decided to keep her on the Baytril for another two weeks. Our vet mentioned the possibility of scar tissue in the lungs as well, so that will be something we will keep in the back of our minds until we know for sure. For now, she is doing well. We have her on Baytril, and we are using Metacam as well just to make sure she doesn't have any inflammation or pain. When we take her off of the Baytril in the next week or so, we will see how she does. Keeping our fingers crossed!

I'm really glad your bun responded well to the meds and improved. You may want to consider asking the vet to extend the antibiotics a bit longer. With rabbits it's usually a good idea to go two extra weeks past the last sign of symptoms, to make sure you've gotten rid of the infection. Bacterial infections in rabbits can be quite difficult to clear up, so longer antibiotic courses are often needed.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/Illness/Pneumonia/Pneumon_en.htm (warning: link contains medical related photos)

I wanted to update this thread briefly. Our bunny is doing much better. She had to go on two rounds of antibiotics, and the vet thinks that she might have some sort of issue with inflammation in her sinuses (possibly from allergies) or she could have scar tissue in her lungs, so we have her on a very low dose of metacam daily now which seems to help since she has not been sick any more.