Kirby is sneezing and snotty out of nowhere

[pocketsizedrhino]

I already called my vet and I'm taking her tomorrow morning.
Kirby's NIC cage is at the foot of my bed and I have not heard her sneeze until just now, she had a little fit of sneezes in a row and I went over there and she has a piece of white snot coming out of one nostril. I listened up close and she sounds a little congested.
I just plugged in my warm mist humidifier that I use with my rats sometimes. Will this help or should I turn it off? Should I soak her veggies to get extra water in her?
Is there anything I can do to help her until tomorrow? I have some doxycycline that I can reconstitute for her that I keep on hand for my rats but I don't know if rabbits can take that.
Of course two of my rats are having the sniffles right now too so they're all going on the vet trip tomorrow...

 

[aurora369]

The humidifier is fine, my vet has told me to use one with eucalyptus for my guys or any bun that I have had with upper respiratory infections.

I would not giver her any antibiotics at the moment. I am not familiar with the type you have.

Best scenario is that the vet takes a culture and sensitivity of the snot. That will ensure you have the correct antibiotic that the bacteria is most sensitive too.

Here is our library section on respiratory infections:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=16807&forum_id=10

You may want to print off some information to bring with you to your vets.

--Dawn

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

Thank you for that link. I should have looked around for something like that!

 

[tonyshuman]

Hi, I'm glad you're taking her in to the vet tomorrow. The humidifier should be helpful--I've heard of people putting one next to the cage and then draping a towel over both the cage and the humidifier to make like a little sauna in there for URIs. I wouldn't give any antibiotics without a vet's direct orders.

edit: want to add that the vet should do a culture and sensitivity test on the mucous, if possible. This will tell you what antibiotics have the best chance of beating the infection. He may put Kirby on a non-specific antibiotic like Baytril (enrofloxacin) or Cipro (ciprofloxacin) while you're waiting for results to come back.

If his nostrils get clogged I have heard of using a baby nose bulb thing to remove some of the excess mucous and keep air flowing.

Here's our Library article on Respiratory infections.

This article lists rabbit-safe antibiotics--make sure your vet doesn't prescribe a -cillin or Convenia (cefovecin) to be given orally.

This article is about culture and sensitivity testing.

 

[tonyshuman]

Also, per our Infirmary Instructions please fill in the following. I have added the info I can gather from your post, but some things are missing.

- Location: Kennesaw, GA

- Description (Breed, color., weight): female, (breed), (weight)

- Age: (age)

- spayed/neutered?: (spayed?)

- Notes on Fecal and Urinary Output
- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? : normal
- When did they last use their litterbox? : no issues with output
- Any unusual behavior? : sneezing, sounds congested, runny nose

- Medical History -- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before? : (please fill in)

- Diet - what does your bunny eat?: (please fill in)
- when and what did s/he eat last? : (please fill in)

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally?: (please fill in)

- are there any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach? : (please fill in)

- has the rabbit been outdoors? : (please fill in)


You can just quote this post and fill in the appropriate stuff and/or correct what I've written.

Also, I don't think she needs the extra water particularly, but it certainly won't hurt.

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

tonyshuman wrote:

Also, per our Infirmary Instructions please fill in the following. I have added the info I can gather from your post, but some things are missing.

- Location: Kennesaw, GA

- Description (Breed, color., weight): female, standard rex, 6lbs? (I have not weighed her recently

- Age: almost 6 months

- spayed/neutered?: not spayed yet

- Notes on Fecal and Urinary Output
- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? : normal
- When did they last use their litterbox? : no issues with output
- Any unusual behavior? : sneezing, sounds congested, runny nose

- Medical History -- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before?: no

- Diet - what does your bunny eat?: Just transitioned to Oxbow T from Mazuri, 2nd cut timothy/bluegrass hay from Kleenmama's
- when and what did s/he eat last? : eating hay/pellets now

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally?: she has been resting on her blankie and when I just changed her litter box/gave her a new blankie she hopped around excited.

- are there any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach? : no nothing dangerous is within her reach

- has the rabbit been outdoors? : On 10/2 she was out on my 2nd floor porch; I swept it before she came out and blocked all the plants from her reach.

 

[tonyshuman]

Thanks for answering those. It sounds like you've caught this early, whatever it is (likely URI). Good luck at the vet! I know my Tony once sneezed a ton and had white snot in his nose, so I frantically got him a vet appt as we were leaving town in 2 days. The next day, at the vet, he didn't have any snot on his nose. His tiny URI went away on its own!

 

[kirbyultra]

Good luck at the vet's tomorrow. Please tell us how she is doing.

Be good, Kirby!

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

Thanks for all of your replies! They've eased my mind a little. I had to leave for my chemistry lab class earlier and I was worried about her the whole time I was gone.
She seems better tonight. Maybe the humidifier helped a little, its near the corner she likes to lay.
She is eating hay and digging in her litter box now so I'll take that as a good sign!
I'll update tomorrow after the vet!

 

[Maureen Las]

I had a bun (RIP Babette ) who had an on and off lower respiratory infection for a long time
Randy suggested using a cool mister rather than a humidifier for her because the cool air is lighter and easier to breathe in.
Somerabbit knowledeable vets will order nebulizers for rabbits which is actually medication in the form of steam for the rabbit to breathe in.
My rabbit never had that and yours most likely won't need it but it is a treatment option I wished thatI could have had for my girl.

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

I've read a lot about nebulization for rats (they're so sickly!)... I guess if I have to go there one day I'll make the box big enough for a bun to fit in just in case.

My vet does walk-ins.. Dr. Colson will be in around 9:30-10 so I plan to leave around 9-9:30 whenever I have everyone together and ready. The office is in Norcross.. about 40 minutes down two huge highways through Atlanta. I hate the drive!!! But the vet is good and she prices things so fair. They usually don't even charge an exam fee..just them meds. They're just happy you're taking care of your animals.

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

I'm back from the vet. She weighed her... Kirby is 5lbs 4oz. I was close!
She gave Kirby 500mg Ciprofloxacin pills that I have to cut in half. She gets 1/2 twice daily. Does that sound right? I like to double check for dosings.
Anyone have a good method of getting this in her? I know she will lick plain canned pumpkin from a plate so I'm planning on crushing the pill and mixing it in that. Will doing that twice a day be too much pumpkin for her?
Also, I have benebac that I keep on hand. I've never had to use it. How much do I give/how often?

I love my vet. I brought Kirby + 3 rats and she only charged me one 'follow up' visit which is $28 and the meds for Kirby were only $7.79. Hooray!

 

[tonyshuman]

I've seen (on Animal Cops) them do nebulization simply by putting a dog in a cage and covering the open part with a towel, and putting the nebulization thing in there. Your vet sounds GREAT! Best of luck~~

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

My travel bun bin would be perfect for that then if I ever need to! Good to know.

According to the link that Claire posted, Cipro should be dosed at
[align=center]5 – 20 mg/kg[/align] [align=center]PO[/align] [align=center]sid, bid[/align]
My vet always gets dosing wrong with my rats and I have people help me with it on goosemoose.

So since the vet told me 1/2 of a 500mg tablet twice a day that is 250mg every dose!! Way too high! :shock:

 

[kirbyultra]

My Kirby is 5.5lbs and when I had to give him medication (liquid) I gave him just a teaspoon of pumpkin with his meds twice a day. It was more than I would have liked but he did fine with the pumpkin every day for a period of 10 days. I microwaved it just 6 seconds on medium power to warm it and make it more fragrant so he would be more inclined to eat it with medication mixed in. Don't cook the pumpkin... Just warm a touch warmer than room temperature

 

[tonyshuman]

That's strange. I also put in her weight into this calculator (http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html ) and got a dose of only 24 mg every 12 hrs. That other site's dosing would be up to 50mg. (5lb 4 oz is 2.38kg) I usually don't like to question a vet's prescribing info, but that sounds like a very high dose...

edit: I'd call the vet and make sure they are sure of the dosage.

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

She consistently doses my rats too high but I like everything else about the clinic. I'm more keen to trust what I read on various websites and what people with experience say.

Wow, Claire..that website that calculates it for you is great! Instaaaa bookmark!

There is a lady on goosemoose who does a lot of rescue work and has a close relationship with her vet--she is amazing help with figuring out proper dosages and mixing up your own suspensions. I've been questioning her about tweaking one to cater to rabbits. For rats it is a strawberry quik/water mix of 10mL (mix it up and then pull 10mL out) with one 500mg cipro pill finely crushed and mixed in. The rabbit alteration is using the pumpkin instead of the sugary strawberry quik (but maybe with a hint of juice added?) to make a pumpkin slurry.

I'm terrible with numbers and figuring these things out. I think making it into a liquid will be the easiest way to measure it out since the pills would be so awkward to accurately split.

Any thoughts or suggestions on that? I have to go into work very soon so I can't mix it up until tonight.

 

[tonyshuman]

Did the vet do a culture and sensitivity swab?

Unfortunately I can't find any other info I can understand at the moment on how to prescribe cipro (dose), but I will continue to look.

edit: I found the human prescribing instructions and their dosage is similar to the ones we found on those sites (drug calc and the other one).

http://www.univgraph.com/bayer/inserts/ciprotab.pdf