Allergies or sickness?

[shootingstar]

Hello, my 3 month old rabbit have had sneezing episodes several times a day during the last 3 weeks. Sometimes he gets a bit of runny nose and just 2-3 times I've seen nose mucus discharge on the floor. It doesn't look like he has a hard time breathing and he looks healthy overall. Could it be allergies? He's an indoor bunny but sometimes I let him go outside. I live in the Caribbean and there have been in the past weeks a lot of dust in the air from the Sahara Desert. Could this be the cause of Bengy's problem?

Thank YOu!!

Shoootingstar:blushan:

 

[Bunnymom,K]

Lots of dust can cause sneezing and some nasal discharge, however if the discharge is yellow or greenish in color it is probably an infection.

 

[shootingstar]

the discharge is bright white. Would an infection clear on it's own?

 

[Flashy]

I do think it is worth probably getting a culture on the nasal discharge. They can check whether or not it is an infection and hopefully rule that out. I would suggest a vet check ASAP because if it is a URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) the sooner your bun has treatment the better.

Has anything changed in your buns world recently?

 

[tonyshuman]

Yeah, usually only clear mucus indicates an allergy. Any color or opaque mucous indicates an infection. The bunny should be seen by a vet, and the mucous should be cultured and tested for antibiotic sensitivity. They may put him on a broad-spectrum antibiotic until the culture results come back in, but then they may change the antibiotic.

 

[Maureen Las]

tonyshuman wrote:

Yeah, usually only clear mucus indicates an allergy. Any color or opaque mucous indicates an infection. The bunny should be seen by a vet, and the mucous should be cultured and tested for antibiotic sensitivity. They may put him on a broad-spectrum antibiotic until the culture results come back in, but then they may change the antibiotic.

:yeahthat:

 

[shootingstar]

Thank you all for reply, I'm really scared of taking my rabbit to a vet because over here they only specialize in dogs/cats cows/horses. Last time I went to a vet they put both my rabbits to sleep,very traumatizing.

 

[Maureen Las]

Your rabbit needs antibiotics that are strong enough and safe to give a rabbit

Don't let them put him to sleep I will send you a drug dose calculator which you could email to your vet or at least printout rabbit safe drugs

This is most likely a failry common bacterial infection in a rabbit ; would they ever do a culture ?

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html
tell them that you want them to treat the rabbit !
We'll help you !

 

[Flashy]

Remember that you are in control at the vets and they can only put them to sleep if you say so, so there is no reason in this case. If they say to do it, just say no.

Maybe print out some of these posts and also have a read through the Library Health section so that you have gotten even more information.

If you are not confident with what they have done when you come out, come and post on here before you do anything else so that you can get the opinions of rabbit knowledgable people.

Remember, these are your rabbits, fight for them and don't let yourself be pushed into anything you don't want to do.

Good luck!

 

[tonyshuman]

Yeah, the vets do not have to put them to sleep. There are many drugs that can be given to rabbits, even if they're not "approved" for them. Think about it: most drugs that make it into humans have been tested in rabbits. There are many antibiotics that can treat upper respiratory infections in rabbits successfully. This is a really helpful article with all of the antibiotics listed as well as how they can be administered. http://www.rabbit.org/health/antibiotics.html

Some cannot be given orally because they will wipe out the intestinal bacteria that help a rabbit survive.