pasteurellosis... still not making much progress

[canela_2004]

So as some of you know Kahlua was diagnosed withpasteurella (confirmed with a culture) a few weeks ago and was put onbaytril and echinacea. Her meds are all gone and she is stillsniffling and still has the nasal discharge. granted it hasnever been too bad, she is active, eats well, and has energy.But the discharge and sneezing are always there. She stillmakes noise when she breathes sometimes. I am wondering ifthis is normal for bunnies with pasteurella or if I need to speak toour vets about more meds or different meds. I was listening to her withmy stethoscope and her lungs dont sound bad but you can hear her makinga little rattly sound every now and then.

 

[ra7751]

Hi,

Pasteurella, or "snuffles" as it have called for so long, is verycommon in rabbits as I am sure you know. It has been socommon that it has been overtreated using Baytril and it is becomingresistant to Baytril. And I know that a culture may haveshown sensitivity, but we have been thru that and have found there areother strains of pasteurella in there that don't respond.Couple of things about using Baytril. In some stubborn cases,it does have to be used long term. It also seems to workbetter when it is injected rather than given orally.Appearently the pH in a rabbit's gut diminishes the benefits ofBaytril. I would also urge caution in using treatments likeechinacea or any herbal/holistic treatmentssince theysometimes have a negativeeffect on the drugs too.We are having great success in treating pasteurella by usingZithromax. It is an oral drug that really works. Itcan be made into a pleasant tasting suspension... we use the powder andmix it in with a small piece of banana. I urge you to discusswith your doctor about using Zithromax. He/she can researchit on VIN and get other doctors' comments and dosing. I cansend you a pic of one of our rescues with a terrible URI/ocularinfection that we treated with SMZ and Baytril....both showedsensitivity...but the infection didn't clear. We startedDanny on Zithromax on a Monday night, by Wednesday night we gotimprovement and by Saturday night all the discharge wasresolved. He was on Zithromax for a total of 28days. If anyone would like to see a before and afterpic....justPM me...the pic is rather disturbing andgraphic. But Danny is all better now. We alsojusttreated one of our mini-lops for a URI...againsuccessfully. Her discharge resolved in just 3 days but wedid continue the course for 10 days.Hope this helps.

Randy