Nibbles Congested?

[mdith4him]

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile since I've logged on!! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I've been sooo busy! I miss you guys, but hopefully I'll be a bit more active when Christmas break starts!

Anyway, Nibbles has been making this weird breathing noise for over a week now. At first I thought it was gas in his tummy, but now I'm sure it's coming from his nose. When he breaths he makes this almost honking noise that sounds like he's got a lot of gunk up there. He's still eating/pooping/playing like normal, so I'm not sure what this is. He's also sneezing more often--very wet sounding. I still have some meds from when Crispin was congested a couple months ago. Would those help? I've got Baytril, Meloxicam, and Simethicone.

 

[majorv]

If he's got an upper respiratory infection then it can turn into pneumonia pretty easily, and that is NOT good. I wouldn't recommend self-treating unless you know what he has, but when our rabbit had URI she was given Baytril. That was some years ago though.

 

[Imbrium]

he shouldn't be in any pain from the congestion, which rules out meloxicam from being helpful, and simethicone is for gas/tummy troubles so that's unhelpful as well.

baytril is a good broad-spectrum antibiotic... however, I'm not sure what the shelf-life on it is (and if you haven't been keeping it in the fridge, then it's trash), the dosing will differ if there's a weight difference between your bunnies and you'd need to have enough baytril left over for a full 7-10 day course, otherwise giving it could make things worse instead of better.

I recommend taking Nibbles to the vet and bringing the baytril bottle with you. if the vet tries to prescribe baytril, show him the bottle (so he can see for sure what the concentration is, as they can mix it to different strengths for different animals)/tell him exactly how old it is and how it's been stored and ask whether it's still good and if so, whether there's enough left to get you through a course of antibiotics for Nibbles. you'll probably end up with new meds, but there's a chance the old stuff will be ok and you can save yourself the cost of the medication.