Pidgey's Story of Hope

Hi there everyone,

I have a 8yr old male lop named Pidge. I wanted to share his story of hopewith everyone. It all began the week before Thanksgiving, I noticed that he wasn't eating his greens and he seemed to be walking funny. By 9:00 pm that night he couldn't stand at all, and would just fall over on his side, he also developed a head tilt. By this time I'm reallypanicking andrush him to the emergency vet. The doctor takes a look at him and finds a lump on his lower jaw, their only explaination is pasturella, but they preferred that we take him to our own vet in the morning. By now it is after midnight, they gave us some bayril to start him on told us to pad his pen with towels so he wouldn't hurt himself because of the extreme dizziness.

We took him into our vet first thing the next morning. After multiple cultures his doctor assurred us that it wasn't pasturella, he just has two different things going on at once! First he has a bad inner ear infection that is causing the head tilt and dizziness. The other issue is this lump on his jaw. It turned out to be an abcess, 3 months earlier he had a tooth pulled and now this abcess aparently formedaround the same spot. So, on December 5th he had surgery to remove the abcess, I was so worried about him being sedated with having the other issue with the dizziness and head tilt. They assured us that he would be okay. They told us that the surgery would take about a half hour. That was the LONGEST half hour I ever experienced. They let us know when he was in recovery, they wouldn't let us see him though because they said he was really out of it. They told us he had to stay in the hospital for 2 days after the surgery to monitor him. The next day I called to see how he was doing and if we could come visit him. The doctor got on the phone and said that he was doing exceptional and we could come get him!! He was sent home with a dermachlor solution that we had to use to flush out the surgery site twice a day with & enrofloxacin for his ear, plus the oral bayril. We also had to visit the vet every 3-5 days so that they can flush it out real good and checkthe healing progress. to this day, 1 1/2 months later we are still going back and forth to the vet.

The darn surgery site keeps filling up with pus. His ear is looking pretty good, its almost all cleared up and his head has returned to normal, no more tilt!! So, the last time we took him to the vet they did another culture, to see if the baytril is now resistant. Sure enough, while I am writing this the vet called and said that the culture came back and the baytril isnt working anymore and that they are going to switch his medication to Trimethoprim-sulpher? I hope this starts working for the poor guy, he has been through so much stress lately, the flushing every day, the trips to the vettwice a week (the vet is an hour away), the treatment in his ear (they had to sedate him twice to do a deep ear cleaning to get the pus out of his ear!) it has just been stressful on everyoneincluding his mommy's credit card. The vet billsare another story!I Thank God everyday that he is able to spend another day with me, I would hate to loose him after all this. He is my little miracle bunny, I don't know what keeps him going!

He's my little angel!

Hes so adorable! What a beautiful picture.

I went through abscesses with two of my bunnies. I cant find my original thread but heres one where I summarized what he went through with his jaw abscess: http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=30257&forum_id=16&highlight=Max

You should definitetly talk to your vet about usingBicillin or PenG. Baytril and Bactrim (which I believe is the new one he's on) arent strong enough to fight abscesses. Most of us here have had success using PenG or Bicillin. Its injectible and works wonders. Max had his huge abscess and jaw bone removed almost a year ago now and no sign of it coming back.

You should definitely check out this link: http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=11791&forum_id=10

The information I gained in those articles and from advice on this forum saved Max's life.

Bless you and your little one for fighting so hard!

Haley

Aww...how handsome Pidge is...and what a little fighter! He knows he's got a good life with you, and sure doesn't wanna leave it!!

Wonderful story, and I hope to hear of continued improvement for that sweet baby boy (they're always babies to me, no matter how old)!

:hug:

Aww! What an adorable fighter!

And hey- I think you live by me. I live in Grayslake, IL. Near Gurnee, Mundelein etc.

bunnymommy76,

Our Penny had a jaw abscess, similar to Haley's. It had to be removed surgically along with a few teeth and jaw bone. After the first surgery, Penny's abscess site also filled up with pus, so our vet inserted antibiotic bead into the cheek. I believe it, slowly releases it's content, for up to 6 months.

Penny was also on PenicillinG/Bicillin shots for 8 months after surgery. Six months after we stopped giving the shots, the abscess came back, so we went back to the shots again. This time Bicillin cleared the abscess by itself, without surgery.

So maybe talk to your vet about the antibiotic beads and Bicillin.

Dmitriy


EDIT: my old thread http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=15833&forum_id=16

Thank you guys so much, I was actually going to call the vet tomorrow. I will ask to actually talk to the doctor and see if I can get him on one of those other meds you all mentioned. I don't know why he wasnt on that to begin with because through my research every article did mention Bicillin or PenG. I don't know why this doctor is dragging this out so much. He needs something else, thank you guys I am definitly going to mention those to his doctor. I will keep you updated!!



If you are interested in seeing more pics of my baby you can check it out here, I have my own pet photography business and of course pidge is my little model, there is a whole page of my two boys. Hehe

http://www.wagglesphoto.50megs.com

Aww I love the photos! I wish you were closer to me!

As for the Bicillin/PenG a lot of vets just arent up to date on its use and success in treating abscesses. I went to three different vets who had never heard of its use. I literally had to print out material and take it in to show to them. I finally was able to get one vet to order it and send it home with me (he showed me how to do the injections on my own).

Also, I shuold mention that if your vet shows you how to do the injections but wants to charge you a lot for the medicine, you can usually find it cheaper at a farm/feed store because its the same medicine that they sell for use in cattle (over the counter). I dont know if you have a TSC (Tractor Supply Company) near you but they have both Bicillin and PenG for about 10.00 a bottle. The two meds are the same the Bicillin (also called Combi-Pen or Twin Pen)just has something that makes it last longer so you only have to give injections everyother day, whereas with the PenG you have to give it every day. That saved me a lot of money.

Keep us posted!

GOSH i wish you lived closer to me. your pictures are soooo beautiful! in fact i was just going to post something and ask when i saw your avatar if that was a professional picture, and then, boom there was my answer. i LOVE it!

awww little pidgey, keep up the good work and be brave for us and for mommy!

tracy

BUMP :bump

How is Pidge doing? Any better? I love that guy, he is so on my bunnynapping list.

Thinking of you, Pidge, and Wrigley!

Tracy

Yeah whats going on?

Heres some update info on Pidgey

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=34065&forum_id=16

Hi guys!

This bunny mom is exhausted, sorry I haven't updated lately. Since I wrote last we switched vets because I just felt like the vet I was taking him too was just jerking me around and spending my money instead of helping him. Anyway, I had pidge to the vet thursday march 13th because I discovered that he had a lump on his jaw again. The new doctor, who pidgey loves, aspirated it and sure enough she said that pus came out, she even looked at it under the microscope and said that he had a lot of bacteria in there again. Darn it!!! Now what!

This new vet sent us to a special vet that deals just with exotics for a second opinion, of course they want to do surgery again! I told them No, I wasn't going to put him through all that again. I mentioned to this doctor about the Bicillin shots and he said he didnt want to put him on the bicillin just the penG once a week. He got his first shot and off we went. I got to thinking after we got home, this just didnt seem right to me, once a week?? After talking to Haley, and doing some other research I wanted to talk to the doctor that sent us to this specialist. So the next morning I was able to get him into see his favorite doctor she got the fax from the specialist and said that she was very surprised that he onlt wanted him on it once a week, I asked her if we could switch him to the Bicillin every other day and she said yes, that would probably be best thing for him at this point. I was so relieved, So Pidge started saturday his first Bicillin shot, I took him again yesterday for the 2nd shot, and he will go again wed, and Fri. On Friday the doctor is going to show me how to give him the shot myself. As for Pidge so far, so good!! It does knock him out about 2 hours after he gets it for about a half hour. The first time he scared the heck out of me he was laying on his side with eyes eyes closed tight, I had to look and see if he was still breathing. It's not a dramatic change yet, but we can tell the abcess is slightly smaller. Hopefully we found the right vet, doctor and medication, its about time after all he has been though! I will keep you updated!

Julie and Pidgey

Im not sure if I misread, but does the PenG shot knock him out?

I think she meant he's more lethargic?

If so, you should definitely ask about buffering it with lactated ringers, the extra electrolytes will help. Also, maybe putting a little pedialyte in his water wouldnt hurt. Nutrical (made for cats and dogs) is also supposed to help boost immune systems so that might be something to try as well.

Interesting. Our little girl shakes off PenG shots every other day like its nothing. My guess is that the actual trip to the vet is very stressful. I hope that they can teach you how to do it at home. If not, just ask here. There are plenty of ppl here that will even make a video, me included.

Sending you guys best wishes.

Haley wrote:

I think she meant he's more lethargic?

If so, you should definitely ask about buffering it with lactated ringers, the extra electrolytes will help. Also, maybe putting a little pedialyte in his water wouldnt hurt. Nutrical (made for cats and dogs) is also supposed to help boost immune systems so that might be something to try as well.

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Hi guys,

I don't really know if I would even call it lethargic. He just gets VERY tired, I can set my watch my it, it always happens about 2 hours after he gets the shot. He sleepsVERY soundly for about 30-45 mins and then he's up and more like himself. It just knocks the heck out of him when he first gets the injection. Randy even mentioned a B comp injection, which I was going to mention to his doctor when we go friday.

Wow...I'm so glad you found a great vet finally...you guys have been through so much!

And I hope to hear continuing improvement of Pidge's condition...

Hugs to you and the buns!

Rosie*