Rabbit syphilis - Dougal

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

Hi,

I apologise in advance for this long post, but I would love to be able to finally find something to make Dougal permanently into the well and happy bunny that he is between outbreaks.

Dougal came to our rescue in May 2009, after being "left behind" along with 3 other rabbits when a man moved house.

The other 3 were fit and healthy, but underweight.

Dougal was an un-neutered male, cross lionhead of unknown age. He was in a very poorly condition with a heavy mite infestation, lesions on his nose and the corners of his mouth, very sore eyes, very underweight and in a depressed (not surprisingly)condition. Rabbit syphilis was diagnosed and he had three, once a week, injections of penicillin. The lesions and his sore eyes cleared up, he had a GA dental, and after afew weeks he was neutered, once he had gained weight.

About 4 weeks later, the lesions were back again. He was again treated with penicillin, and again they cleared up. He is also treated with Metacam when he has an outbreak. The lesions come back every 2 to 4 weeks, and he is then treated with penicillin. Our vet consulted with a vet specialising in rabbit medicine, and has done x-rays, blood tests, biopsies, bacterial and viral cultures. All came back negative. We are currently waiting for the results of a fungal culture test.

The rabbit specialist suggested we tried Ornicure at one point, which we did, but the lesions took longer than normal to clear up, and still came back.

Five weeks ago Dougal developed a very bad lesion on his chin. The specialist suggested we try 6 once-a-week injections of penicillin. By the third week the lesions had cleared. Yesterday (Friday) was his fifth injection. The day before, the lesion came back on his chin. We are also applying a combined anti-inflammatory/antibiotic/antifungal ointment.



Dougal lives as a houserabbit with us. The lesions have NEVER been on his genitalia, always appearing on his nose and the corners of his mouth, and this latest time, on his chin.

Could it be something other than syphilis? Can anyone tell us any other drug they have had a succesful outcome with?

I'm going to try (LOL) to include a photo here.

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Thank you in advance.

Best wishes,

Andrea & Dougal

:bunny5

 

[butsy]

i could be mistaken but ive read that penecillin is bad for rabbits !!! maybe try some new medication

 

[Purple Mountain Rabbitry]

penicilin is fine for rabbits my grandmother used to give it, many of the rabbit people I know give it and I give it (well my friend does it for me as I am deathly allergic)

However with that much penicilin the disease may have grown immune to it.

best of luck best wishes and lots of prayers

crystal

 

[aurora369]

I think the dosage of penicillin was too infrequent. It should be given every other day or every day depending on the penicillin cocktail used.

Butys: Penicillin is only safe as injectable. It is dangerous if given orally, but is fine injected.

-Dawn

 

[butsy]

ohh my bad ! sorry !!

 

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

The penicillin must be given by injection, and is given usually for 3 injections, with a gap of 7 to 10 days between each one. The rabbit must be very carefully watched for an hour after each injection to make sure of no anaphylactic (sp??!) shock, and must be checked for digestive upsets over the course of the treatment.

That's the standard treatment for rabbit syphilis in the UK, as directed by the governing body (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons).

Unfortunately we're really struggling to find anybody with experience of this disease returning again and again

 

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

I forgot to say, thank you for the replies

 

[aurora369]

Yes, the "standard" treatment is penicillin shots every 7-10 days, but that is really not enough. That might have worked when the protocol was first created, but now the bacteria require a stronger approach. When only treating once a week, you are going to see exactly what you are seeing now, the infection going dormant and coming back.

I would give it one more try with the penicillin giving the dosage every day for at least two weeks. And if that does not work, then the infection has built a resistance to penicillin and you will have to try a different antibiotic to use.

Convenia has had great success with rabbits and I believe is available in the UK. Again, it must be dosed quite aggressively and more often than with cats/dogs. Rabbits metabolize much faster than cats/dogs.

-Dawn

 

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

Hi Dawn,

Thank you for that information, I'll ask my vet if that can be used over here when I speak to her tomorrow. Fingers crossed we can use it, and give it a go.

Andrea & Dougal

 

[naturestee]

What is the greenish stuff? Is that in his fur? I wonder if he's having problems with a fungal infection at that site. It could have been secondary to the syphilis to start with.

I agree that he may need more frequent penicillin shots. If I recall correctly, it is given every other day when treating for an abscess. That would probably be more appropriate for a strong strain like this. I'm not sure what other antibiotics would work as penicillin is still very much the drug of choice for treating syphilis in all species including humans.

 

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

Hello,

The greenish stuff is the scab/crust on the lesions. The colour on screen is a bit off, it's more a yellowy colour ("normal" scab colour, if you know what I mean). Each time the lesions clear up his skin looks very healthy, but our vet is hoping for a fungal infection to show up on the biopsy, as at least then we would have a definite diagnosis. All other biopsies and blood tests have come back negative/clear,

It's a problem not knowing any background at all on Dougal. He arrived with these lesions, but the other rabbits that had been abandoned with him had no health problems at all.

Andrea & Dougal:brownbunny

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with Dawn and Naturestee. The dosing of penicillin needs to be more frequent, and if that does not fully clear it up, it could also be a fungal infection of the skin. You can clean it daily with a non-damaging surgical scrub like betadine or chlorhexidine solution.

 

[Pipkin Rabbit Rescue]

Unfortunately I don't think a UK vet would inject with penicillin more frequently than once a week. It's so far from the (UK) standard doseage. It always amazes me how much variation there is between different countries, we first encountered this with one of our cats, a few years ago,when he became diabetic. It's very frustrating when the law comes between a poorly animal and possible treatments.

Hopefully, the Convenia will be a course of action that we can take. Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow. Yesterday didn't go to plan (when do days ever go to plan) so I didn't get an answer about it then. One of our buns, Hector, had been poorly for a couple of weeks, but seemed to be getting slowly better, however, he collapsed with kidney failure yesterday. I rushed him to the vet, and they tried to stabilise him, but couldn't manage and he had to be put to sleep. He was a lovely, gentle boy who was found as a stray in March of this year. He was only a few weeks old when he was found, and was being attacked by a cat. He loved to be cuddled.