Chin Abscess

[Revverress]

Beau, my English Lop buck, has a history of reoccurring abscesses and sore hocks on the bottom of his back feet. My vet and I believe that a combination of thinly furred foot pads and Beau's bad habit of dumping his litter box, peeing in it, and sitting in it led to his sore hock problems two years ago, and despite all attempts to keep him clean and dry, he developed abscesses on all four of his feet about a year ago. After months of following the vet's recommendation of soaking and draining the abscesses and administrating Baytril, I went against her advice this past July and gave Sub-Q injections of Bicillin ( can't remember if the dose was .5mL or 1mL...) for about 10 weeks. While the the abscesses on the front feet have since disappeared, the back abscesses cleared up for a few weeks, then reoccurred. I've been managing them with draining and keeping his feet dry, and they don't seem to bother him.

Last night, I found an abscess on his chin- It was very purple and "angry" looking. I drained it with a sterile needle, which produced a lot of puss and blood, rinsed it with saline water, and put a thin layer of Neosporn on it. This morning, Beau is very quiet, and he has runny eyes. (Beau has a history of stress induced runny eyes, so while this isn't unusual, it's obviously not something I want to see!)

Normally, this would warrant a vet trip, but my rabbit vet is on maternity leave for the next month or so, and none of the other exotic vets around here will do payment plans. I am hesitant to use Bicillin again because of the risk that he's now resistant to the drug due to the heavy use this summer. Is there any other drug I can get at a feed store or some place similar to help with this, or is there anything else I can do to help manage this? I feel so bad for my poor bunny.

 

[pla725]

PM Randy.Sounds like he really needs meds.

 

[Pipp]

I'd try the Bicillin, worst case scenario is that it won't work and you'll have to switch to something else. It's actually better in tandem with an oral antibiotic as well, though.

I'm sure more info, opinions will be forthcoming.


sas :clover:

 

[tonyshuman]

I think the foot wounds did become resistant to the bicillin last year. In the future, draining an abscess isn't the best option usually. Like Pipp said, it's good to do an oral antibiotic along with the bicillin therapy.

If his mouth is hurting him so he won't eat, and that's making him quiet, you should try to get some water and/or pedialyte into him. You can also give some ibuprofen or metacam if you have it--abscesses can be quite painful.

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html

This is a dosage calculator that has ibuprofen on it. I would avoid aspirin right now unless there are no open (bleeding) wounds, and it sounds to me like the abscess on his chin may be bleeding.

In the future to deal with the sore hocks, I would look into a way of keeping his feet out of the poo/litter. A grate of some kind would be good, and a really greasy antibiotic ointment like udder cream may be the trick.

 

[Revverress]

The only issue with providing oral meds along with the Bicillin is that not only do I have no access to a vet at this time to prescribe any, but the vet did not want me to use Bicillin at all in the first place and wanted to keep me on the Baytril only tract. Beau has been on Baytril before enough that I'm sure he's resistant to it, and I don't want to have to use higher dosages of it. Are there any other oral meds I can get OTC?

Claire- Thankfully, his appetite has not suffered at all, and he's perked up a bit since yesterday, though I'm keeping an eye on him. I agree that draining is not the best case scenario for abscesses, but since I didn't have any meds on hand when I found the one on his chin, I thought the best course of action was to drain and clean the wound.

For the ibuprofen, can I use human oral meds? I don't think I can get a hold of metacam.

Beau has lived on both wire and solid flooring. While the wire kept his feet clean, it aggravated the sores; I've found that right now, the solid flooring is the lesser of two evils. Thank you for the tip on the ointment; I'll have to grab some next time I'm out.

Thank you all for the replies! He's looking much better today, but I still want to be able to better manage his abscess issues, since it seems he's so prone to them.

 

[tonyshuman]

The only oral med you can get OTC as far as I know is tetracyline. It's probably not going to do the trick, though, because it's so commonly used that things are almost always resistant to it.

If you can get your vet to understand that he's resistant to the Baytril, maybe he'll prescribe Zithromax as an oral med.

I'm glad he's eating fine. For the ibuprofen, you can use human tablets if you can cut them down to a small enough dose, or baby liquid ibuprofen. He has to have food and water in his system if you give him ibuprofen, though, although that doesn't seem to be an issue. I wouldn't use it for more than 4 days in a row, though, because of long-term stomach damage issues.