Ear inflammation nothing found in culture

Hello all
I have a holland lop she is 10 months old she behaves well eats perfectly but after we discovered her right ear inflammation she is taking ear drops and not benefeting we did a culture and no bacteria was found today the vet said we will have another culture and inflammation was a bit worse now

Please anyone have dealt with such thing can help me ??

I'm afraid you're going to need a fiberscopy and a scanner. Something could just be stuck in her ear. It could also be a tumor - it's not necessarily cancerous but you need to make sure there isn't one, because if that's the case it will need to be removed before it destroys the ear. Lops tend to have more ear problems than uppy eared rabbits, mainly because their ears are harder to clean...

The possible tumor would be in the ear itself ?
I was wondering would it be related to syphilis or pastruella ( duuno how to write it )

The vet did check for a fungal infection too, right?

Iam not really sure but the vet said the lab found nothing :/ will make sure that fungal was not found too

And today she is showing some UTI symptoms
She had UTI months ago seems its back now

jude said:

The possible tumor would be in the ear itself ?
I was wondering would it be related to syphilis or pastruella ( duuno how to write it )

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Yes, there could be a tumor located inside the ear. I know someone whose rabbit had the same symptoms as yours do - they did a culture and no bacteria was found even though the ear was full of pus. In the end, they did a scanner and found a mass inside the ear. It had destroyed the eardrum,some bones and cartilage. The vet thought it was a tumor because that's the more common result but in the end it was overgrown connective tissue. The rabbit got an operation to remove it and was fine afterwards. But I would start with a fiberscopy to check if there isn't just something in the ear.

It doesn't match with syphilis, your rabbit would have some scabs and pimples on her genitalia, around her mouth, eyes or nostrils. It's very distinctive and easy to recognize.
Pasteurellosis is not impossible, as there is a form associated with otitis but it's more of a breeding farm illness - your rabbit would have gotten it from another rabbit. The risks depend where you got your rabbit from... if it was from a petshop, it's a real possibility. Nevertheless, that kind of otitis is generally associated with head-tilt or difficulties to stay upright in younger rabbits.

In any case, you need to get a vet to take a look at the inside of the ear if you want it treated.

I just have a few questions.

What did the vet see exactly when looking in your rabbits ears? Was there only an inflamed ear canal, or did the vet also visibly see signs of pus? Did the vet make sure the ear drum wasn't ruptured? What symptoms besides the ear inflammation, is your rabbit having that makes you and your vet believe your rabbit has an ear infection? Is your rabbit also on oral(one that is safe for rabbits) or injectable antibiotics? Is your rabbit also being given the anti inflammatory meloxicam?

Aki said:

Yes, there could be a tumor located inside the ear. I know someone whose rabbit had the same symptoms as yours do - they did a culture and no bacteria was found even though the ear was full of pus. In the end, they did a scanner and found a mass inside the ear. It had destroyed the eardrum,some bones and cartilage. The vet thought it was a tumor because that's the more common result but in the end it was overgrown connective tissue. The rabbit got an operation to remove it and was fine afterwards. But I would start with a fiberscopy to check if there isn't just something in the ear.

It doesn't match with syphilis, your rabbit would have some scabs and pimples on her genitalia, around her mouth, eyes or nostrils. It's very distinctive and easy to recognize.
Pasteurellosis is not impossible, as there is a form associated with otitis but it's more of a breeding farm illness - your rabbit would have gotten it from another rabbit. The risks depend where you got your rabbit from... if it was from a petshop, it's a real possibility. Nevertheless, that kind of otitis is generally associated with head-tilt or difficulties to stay upright in younger rabbits.

In any case, you need to get a vet to take a look at the inside of the ear if you want it treated.

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The vet said the pus is increasing in last visit and said to have culture again :/ maybe the first one was mistaken
Ill surely addresss the tumor or tissue thing on wednesday

JBun said:

I just have a few questions.

What did the vet see exactly when looking in your rabbits ears? Was there only an inflamed ear canal, or did the vet also visibly see signs of pus? Did the vet make sure the ear drum wasn't ruptured? What symptoms besides the ear inflammation, is your rabbit having that makes you and your vet believe your rabbit has an ear infection? Is your rabbit also on oral(one that is safe for rabbits) or injectable antibiotics? Is your rabbit also being given the anti inflammatory meloxicam?

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First he saw excess wax and really red inside the ear he said its inflammation and we've been giving not oral nor injections we gave her ear drops last visit he saw really increasing pus and said we need to re do the culture

As for other signs she shows none day before yesterday we noticed the maybe UTI has re visited :/ she had it before and we r seeing dome urine stains again now

Ear drops aren't going to clear up an ear infection in rabbits alone. Your rabbit also needs to be on the appropriate oral or injectable antibiotic. Ear infections are very difficult to clear up in rabbits, and it's likely your rabbit will need to be on antibiotics for 4-6 weeks, or longer in some cases. Your rabbit will also need an antibiotic anyways, to clear up the UTI if your rabbit does have one.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Otit/otitis.htm

If your vet isn't rabbit savvy, you will need to make sure that the antibiotic your vet prescribes is safe for rabbits, as some antibiotics are very dangerous to give to rabbits orally.
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/Unsafe_medication/dangerous_antibiotics.htm

Preitler said:

The vet did check for a fungal infection too, right?

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actually he did not
we did another culture for bacteria and found nothing
so the vet said we will start the fungal treatment as there is no bacteria he assumed she had fungus

but sadly i think she is allergic to the new treatment
after the ear drops she kept shaking her head and itching for 3 hours

Before your rabbit started treatment for an ear infection, what made you believe there was something wrong and take your rabbit in to have the ears checked? Was your rabbit scratching at her ears a lot, shaking her head a lot, having head tilt? I'm just wondering why you first thought your rabbit had something wrong. And is your vet only finding wax in the ear or is your vet certain there is white pus? I'm just wondering if your rabbit does really have an ear infection at all and if you might be treating a health problem that your rabbit doesn't even really have.

If you are certain your rabbit has a problem with her ears, either she was showing signs of ear pain or irritation, or the vet is certain there is white pus in there and not just wax buildup, then just because a culture doesn't come back showing any bacteria doesn't mean that there isn't a bacterial infection. This is actually a pretty common occurrence for the culture to not be accurate even though there is definitely an infection. Especially if your vet is certain there is white pus in there. White pus is always a symptom of a bacterial infection. Personally I would stop the fungal treatment, especially because your rabbit is showing signs of having some sort of sensitivity to it. But I am also doubtful there is a fungal infection involved. It's just not as common a thing as a bacterial infection would be.

If your rabbit was showing signs of having ear pain or irritation, and your vet found white pus in there, even though there were no results on a bacterial culture, I would still continue with antibiotics. Your best way to know if they are working is if your rabbit is showing signs of improvement.

JBun said:

Ear drops aren't going to clear up an ear infection in rabbits alone. Your rabbit also needs to be on the appropriate oral or injectable antibiotic. Ear infections are very difficult to clear up in rabbits, and it's likely your rabbit will need to be on antibiotics for 4-6 weeks, or longer in some cases. Your rabbit will also need an antibiotic anyways, to clear up the UTI if your rabbit does have one.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Otit/otitis.htm

If your vet isn't rabbit savvy, you will need to make sure that the antibiotic your vet prescribes is safe for rabbits, as some antibiotics are very dangerous to give to rabbits orally.
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/Unsafe_medication/dangerous_antibiotics.htm

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Thank you so much ive changed vets that the new one gave her antibiotic injections for 3 days and said she doing fine now and no more infection as he said some bacterias dont show in culture and he was sire its bacteria infection