My rabbit has a Staph Infection

[skittles]

My boy Daisy (took a long time to figure out he was male when we got him!) is 6 1/2 years old. He seems to be in perfect health except that one cheek hangs normally and the other cheek does not. I took him to the Vet to investigate what might be wrong with him. I thought he had an absess on his face. It turned out that the side that hangs down is normal and the side that doesn't has been affected with nerve damage or something, from the infection. He eats fine and he runs and jumps and plays and seems to have no problems. When the vet looked in his ears he found gobs and gobs of white pus.

His x-rays show that this infection has eaten away his ear canal. When the vet flushed his ears the first time he was amazed at the amount of pus that came out, and it was coming out of places that it shouldn't have, meaning that it's eating through his skin. He has developed absesses on both sides of his head which we have been cleaning out over the past couple of months. We considered surgery but the vet feels that because this infection is so deep and all throughout his head that he would not recover well, if at all. This pus has been cultured and it is definitely Staphylococcus Aureus. And we have decided that since he seems to be fine we really don't want to put him through a surgery that he most likely could not recover from. The vet feels that we cannot cure this.

Our vet is very experienced with rabbits. He's listed on many rabbit websites as a rabbit savvy vet, and he has never seen this to this extent in a rabbit, especially with no symptoms.

Right now Daisy is on a regimen of Sulfatrim Suspension and Baytril eardrops, twice a day. Since he has never shown any symptoms of this infection, he continues to act normal and seems to be happy.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? We have no idea how he might have developed this infection. Since he has no symptoms we do not know how long he has had it. And the fact that he has not developed head tilt or anything is very lucky. Unfortunately, we are basically just trying to maintain him until his time comes and we are hoping that it will be as painless as possible. I guess eventually this will reach his brain. It's very hard to deal with since on the outside he seems so normal. He's basically a ticking time bomb ready to go off any moment.

I would just like to hear from anyone who has heard of a rabbit with a staph infection and if it was ever cured or how it affected their rabbit. I can't find much information at all. All I can find is Pasteurella information. Thanks for any info.

Sharon

 

[naturestee]

I haven't heard of a case exactly like this, butI have heard of other head abcess cases. Staph isn't uncommoneither, people just tend to assume that it's always Pasteurella.

Did you vet do a sensitivity test when he cultured theinfection? This would tell him what drugs the bacteria issensitive to. Sometimes certain strains of bacteria don'trespond to common treatments.

Has your vet looked into treatment with injected Bicillin?This is being touted as a near-miracle drug for abcesses, especiallyhead abcesses that can't be surgically removed. I reallyrecommend looking into it. It's relatively new and your vetmay not be aware of it yet. You could print off some of thesearticles for him, too.

http://www.ontariorabbits.org/health/healthinfo1.1.htm
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/jawabscess.html
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jwmoore/bicillin/bicillin.htm
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jwmoore/bicillin/cs/
http://bellsouthpwp.net/m/o/morfz/pdf/bici.pdf
http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/rwf/articles/penicillin.htm
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/BenBicillin.html
http://www.rabbit.org/health/abscess.html

This is a list of vets that do consultations about rabbits.If your vet is uncomfortable with bicillin treatment, you could offerto pay for his time to contact one of these vets, or others that he mayknow of.
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=11916&forum_id=9

Please keep us updated!

 

[skittles]

Yes, when the culture was done, it told us whatmedicines to use to treat it. We had been giving himinjections of Penicillin for 2 weeks prior, but luckily the testrevealed that Penicillin would not help in this case. Itlisted the Baytril and the Sulfatrim as the best to use. Buteven giving him this has not seemed to improve the amount that they arestill flushing from him. We were there just yesterday after 3weeks of medicine and they told me he is still a mess inside.

He has not mentioned the injected Bicillin. We have discussedsome type of "bead" that gets implanted, which has antibiotic in it,but that would mean cutting open the absesses, scooping them out andimplanting the bead, which at this point he feels would be very trickydue to the fact that the infection is so deep and he's still unsurewhat parts have deteriorated. Apparently it has penetrated,or maybe even started in this pocket that is deep inside the head/earand travelled all through his head.

I will certainly print this information out and bring it to him, ormaybe even email it to him before out next appointment.Thanks so very much for bringing it to our attention.

 

[naturestee]

Bicillin is similar to Penicillin, so if that didn't work then this may not either. It's worth asking about though.

 

[skittles]

Yes, I realized that as I was reading thearticles. But you're right, it's worth bringing up.At this point, we have nothing else. Thank you!

 

[cheryl]

im just bumping this post,im curious how thelittle bunny is going and we have not heard anymore about this littleguy,i was on a australian rabbit list and someone on there is havingmore or less the same problem and they just need someone to share theexperience with,and i told them about little Daisy and hisinfection.

Sharon are you out there somewhere!



anyway im going to give this other person the link to this forum



cheryl

 

[skittles]

Yes I'm still here! And thankfully sois Daisy. He is still not having any symptoms,still eating, playing, etc. I'm not sure, but I thinkhemight betiring easily. It's hard totell because he's always been one to race around and then flop forawhile. I've been bringing him back to the vet every 2 weeksfor an ear flush and the cysts on either side of his head always comeback. He says that it's quite painful for him when he has tosqueeze the pus out because there's just a small hole for it to gothrough and it has the consistency of cream cheese. I amstill giving him Sufatrim twice a day and Baytril ear drops twice aday. I'm not sure if we are just keeping himstable. I have noticed that he will run in circleswhen he is in a new place and is confused. He also did thatat the vet the other day and the vet said it may be a sign of itgetting to his brain.

Since the cysts always fill back up with pus, this last time we decidedto not drain them and see what happens at the nextappointment. I really hate doing anything to Daisy thatcauses him pain since he seems like he is not in pain now.

The vet did find out about a gel that is used that they put antibioticin and they would lance the cysts and fill it with the gel and thensuture it back up. It's quite expensive and would not addressthe root of the problem. I'm thinking we will not go thatroute because it would not cure him.

I'm interested in hearing about this other rabbit though. Iknow how frustrating it is trying to find information. Ihaven't found much in terms of this kind of infection to this extent ina rabbit.

Thank you for the thought Cheryl.

Sharon:bunnydance:

 

[cheryl]

Hey it is SO good to hear from you again ithought you might have disapeared and we wouldn't know what happened toyour little boy,it's good to know that Daisy is getting along ok sofar,but must be very upsetting for you though.Poor sweet bun i reallyfeel for the little guy,how isDaisy when he goes to see thevet?

You have made my day by replying and letting us know Daisy is still here with you and us,just fantastic news



anyway this other person has asked me can i pm you their email addressso she can have a chat with you about her bunny,is that ok with you?



lots and lots of love to you and Daisy



cheryl

 

[skittles]

Yes,I would love to hear from her. Thanks so much.

Daisy is pretty good when he goes to the vet. He seems totake it all in stride, although usually at the beginning he gets alittle stressed and I just hold him to calm him down.

He usually comes back from the ear flushes pretty damp, butsurprisingly he's in a good mood. He's changed alot from whenI used to bring him in for nail trimmings - he used to thump and be madat me for the rest of the day!!

Sharon

 

[cheryl]

Sharon...i sent you a pm withMeagan's contact details,and once again thankyou

if you want to,you can let us know how it goes



Thats pretty good that Daisy doesn't get to stressed at the vets,but hehas his mummy there to look after him,so im sure that is a huge comfortto him



please keep us updated on Daisy and how he is getting along



ps.just on a fun note,your username skittles reminds me of thesedifferent flavouredcoloured lollies we have over here calledskittles lol

cheryl