My Bun is Sneezing and Stuffy!?

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Does she have discharge coming out of her nose? If so, what colour?

When is she sneezing? All the time, only when eating hay or pellets, when running around?

Is there matted fur on her "wrists"?

She will most likely need to see a vet. Especially if this is an upper respitory infection, which will need antibiotics.

-Dawn
 
Katmais_mommy wrote:
What does this mean? What should I do?
Click to expand...
here we go,,one day our house rabbit sneezed,,i asked those concerned how often does he do that,,oh not that much-=allergies,,i said oh,a herbivore with allergies--i don,t think so,,,off to the dvm specialist,--after a nasal culture,,idendifying a bacteria called enterococcus,,the house bun was given an antibiotic called trimethoprim,,for upper respiratory infections--about 3 weeks later he was all better,,,good idea when giving antibiotics is to feed probiotics like benebac....sincerely james waller:wave::rose:
 
Yes, what exactly is going on? Is the air in your house dry? Any new additions to the environment? New hay or bedding? Was it one sneeze or many? Does she have mucus coming out the nose? It will probably need vet attention if there is mucus around, no changes to the environment, and there were many sneezes.
 
Okay, so he sneezes one every 5 to 10 minutes. He sounds stuffy too. A little bit of discharge out of his nose. Clear color and kinda white-ish. Nothing new in his environment. He plays normally. He eats, drinks, pees, and poops normally.
 
Sounds like he has an upper respiratory infection. I would take him to the vet for a check and antibiotics.
 
Best of luck. Make sure they do a culture to determine the bacteria, then prescribe a decent antibiotic accordingly (like Zithromax); if that is indeed the culprit.:)

Keep us posted! Good on you for catching this early.:highfive:
 
I've had this problem before. There's a product called vetRX that will make him more comfortable, at least, and some cure all antibiotics can make it lie dormant. Remember, there is no cure for this, if it is what it sounds like, which is pastuerellosis. All you can do is make it lie dormant and don't do anything to stress him out, because that's generally what causes it to flare up. Neoterramycin or terramycin, 1 tsp per gallon of water, did the trick for us when it was floating around.
 
Hi Erin, it seems like some of the info you have is a bit out-of-date, although it is commonly passed around in rabbit raising groups/websites. Pasturella is a bacterium that's present in rabbits at all times, and often flares up into an upper respiratory infection. There are other bacteria that can cause this, like Psuedomonas, Staph, and Bordatella. It is true that you can't totally eliminate Pasturella from the rabbit's environment, but you can eliminate an outbreak by aggressively treating it with the appropriate antibiotic.

When you have a lot of rabbits, trying to control an outbreak may be as simple as putting a weak antibiotic in the drinking water. However, we don't really recommend those antibiotics (teramyacin and neoteramyacin) because many rabbit bacteria are resistant to them. Also, the method of dosing in the water is not very precise. If rabbits share the water bottle, the bottle leaks, or if a rabbit just doesn't drink as much as the others, they won't get the full dose of the drug. It's much better to dose rabbits via oral or injectible syringe to make sure they get the whole dose. For a preventative treatment on bunnies that aren't sick, but may get sick because of things going around the barn, that's ok, but it probably won't be very effective for a bunny that's already ill.

When you have just one rabbit or only a few, it's important to get the bacterium identified so that the bunny can be treated as quickly as possible. That way you don't waste time with antibiotics that the bacterium is resistant to, and have the rabbit lose lung function and have difficulty breathing.

I took a look at the VetRx product, and it seems to kinda be a form of bunny Vicks Vapo-Rub. It's probably a pretty good idea in some cases, although for a bunny whose airways are inflamed--ie it's not just nasal congestion but irritated airways, kinda like bronchitis or asthma--those aromatic herbal ingredients could cause some pain. It is probably ok for bunnies that just have snotty noses.

Here's our library info on Respiratory Infections: http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=16807&forum_id=10

People with large numbers of bunnies in one area may treat diseases differently than people with just a few, and that's totally fine. I've come across this a lot as an Infirmary mod. It seems too that single bunnies are a bit more "attitude-y", that they do things like stop eating, mope around, stop pooping, and other signs of pain when they're sick, and bunnies in large rabbitries aren't such divas! ;) Don't know why, that's just an observation. That's part of why it's important to treat these guys quickly.
 
james waller wrote:
Katmais_mommy wrote:
What does this mean? What should I do?
Click to expand...
here we go,,one day our house rabbit sneezed,,i asked those concerned how often does he do that,,oh not that much-=allergies,,i said oh,a herbivore with allergies--i don,t think so,,,off to the dvm specialist,--after a nasal culture,,idendifying a bacteria called enterococcus,,the house bun was given an antibiotic called trimethoprim,,for upper respiratory infections--about 3 weeks later he was all better,,,good idea when giving antibiotics is to feed probiotics like benebac....sincerely james waller:wave::rose:
Click to expand...
What is benebac?
 
Erins Rabbits wrote:
I've had this problem before. There's a product called vetRX that will make him more comfortable, at least, and some cure all antibiotics can make it lie dormant. Remember, there is no cure for this, if it is what it sounds like, which is pastuerellosis. All you can do is make it lie dormant and don't do anything to stress him out, because that's generally what causes it to flare up. Neoterramycin or terramycin, 1 tsp per gallon of water, did the trick for us when it was floating around.
Click to expand...
I don't believe Katmai has the same problem as your rabbit did. If anyone could see him, he is 95% healthy with just a wee bit of sneezing.
 
BeneBac is a probiotic, meaning that it contains bacteria that are good for bunnies, and things to help those bacteria grow. It's helpful when a bunny's on an antibiotic to add a probiotic as well, so that the antibiotic doesn't kill off the good bacteria along with the bad. Rabbits in particular have a lot of bacteria that are important in their GI tracts. BeneBac can be found at many big pet stores, in the dog or cat section. There's also a small animal version but it's harder to find. An equivalent product that you can get at farm supply stores is called ProBios.
 
I've spent time with with Katmai for the past few days, as i always do, and he hasn't sneezed. No discharge either but still damp. Still going to the vet tomorrow and praying it's not pasteurella. That would break my heart.

Also, the vet has a great reputation. He's known as the Odd Pet Vet. He specializes in rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, bird, lizards, and snakes. So, I feel comfortable.
 
It's not that bad--a course of antibiotics, if you get the right one, should take care of it. Don't worry!
 
Thanks, Claire. It's just that I've seen photos of rabbits who had bad pasteurella and I'm just so scared my boy could become that way. I'm praying to St. Francis.
 
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