Sick bunny please help!

[Kimmerre]

Ok a week and a half ago I noticed runny nose and sneezing on my 1 year old SPAYED lionhead. I took her to the vet the next day and she got an injection of penicillin and I was told to come back for two more injections. In the meantime she guit going to the bottom of her multi-level cage where the cedar shavings are to pee. She always pees and poops "downstairs" so once I went to the vet the for the second shot of penicillin I told him how unusual this was for her. He felt around her belly and said she might have a thickened bladder, but in the meantime I was ordered to give her an oral injection of Baytril for 10 days (they had to turn it into a liquid because she wouldn't swallow pills). This Thursday May 13th will be the 10th day and I don't see much of a change. She is now going downstairs and I can see her clench up to pee but not sure if she is. The amount of pee on her plastic levels has decreased but I still haven't seen her eat any of her pellets. Since she's a lionhead, her furrywhite butt is now yellow andwet, never had this happen before.She's eating Timothy Hay (which she has access too always), drinking a little,and chewing on some of her toys. I DO NOT want to put her to sleep, she's my buddy but it breaks my heart to see her locked up in her cage all day. I'm afraid she might have stones and need surgery which I might not be able to afford.She's used to running around outside of her cage for hours almost everyday. Nothing has really changed in her surroundings, no new pets, same food, same treats, same hay. She gets fresh water everyday. Not in direct sunlight, no cold drafts.

 

[aurora369]

I moved your thread over to the Infirmary section for you.

First off, get rid of the cedar shavings now. Cedar shavings are very harmful for rabbits and can cause bad respiratory irritation (leading to upper respiratory infections) and problems with kidneys/liver. The phonols in the wood are the harmful bit, and especially when peed on they do bad things to bunnies.

You can use aspen shavings or kiln dried pine. Compressed wood pellets or paper pellets are also an excellent litter.

She could have bladder sludge, stones or a urinary tract infection. A culture of her urine could be taken to test for infection, and if none is detected then an x-ray would be needed to look for sludge or stones.

She is probably also going to need a more aggressive antibiotic treatment. Pencillin shots are fairly easy to give, and if your vet will teach you how to give them you can do them at home. Or an oral antibiotic like Zithromax is very good at treating stubborn upper respiratory infections.

-Dawn

 

[Kimmerre]

I don't know if I'm posting this right and thanks for moving my thread for me.

I will switch to Aspen tomorrow. Do most pet stores carry that? I have available to me, petsmart, petco, meijers, and wal-mart. I even asked my vet if the cedar shavings are bad and he said no. He just said to stay away from pine and corncob. I wish I had the wire on the bottom of the cage so I could just use newspaper because those paper pellets are expensive. Do you recommend the fluffy stuff that comes in colors now? It's compressed, not sure what it's called but I've noticed that most petstores use it now for their animals that are for sale. I use an off brand for my gerbil and I think it's quite dusty.

Are stones common in rabbits? Have you heard of this sickness before with anyone else?

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

If your vet says Cedar Shavings are ok you need to find a new vet.
The fluffy colored stuff is called Carefresh, that's much more expensive than the large bag cat version of Yesterday's News. You can buy that it at Wal-Mart.

 

[renaelock]

You can even buy horse bedding pellets at farming stores like tractor supply. 40 lbs for 6 dollars and it goes a long way! Also, I recently saw that big lots ( don't know if you have one in your area) had 35 lbs of yesterdays news for 8 dollars. Petsmart had yesterdays news on sale the other day for 12 dollars (same size) so 8 it such a better price.

 

[tonyshuman]

The fluffy stuff is good too. I agree, any vet should know that cedar is no good for bunnies. We have lists of member-recommended rabbit vets on here.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=49203&forum_id=83

Dawn covered it all, otherwise.

 

[cirrustwi]

I'd definitely recommend a new vet. Any vet that deals with small animals of any kind should know that cedar isn't proper bedding. I'd honestly rather see pine then cedar.
(I'm a vet tech and there is one client at the office that just will not listen to the fact that cedar is a no-no! And then when her rabbit is sick, she just can't understand...)

I get the compressed pellets (sold as horse bedding) at Tractor Supply for about $5 a bag. If you want to go with aspen, I can get it at a local feed store for $11 for a 2 cubic foot bag so you might try that, it can be ridiculously pricey at pet stores. Also, if you have access to a college or somewhere with an animal laboratory, they may be able to get you lab grade aspen. It's the best!

I'm hoping the changing to aspen will help with the sneezing.

As for the peeing issue, I'm agreeing that a culture or an x-ray is necessary.

 

[Kimmerre]

I went to a local grain store today and luckily they had Yesterday's News so I bought that instead of driving to the other side of town. I'm just a little worried about switching to aspen just because she's been exposed to Yesterday's News quite a bit and never noticed an issue. I took all the cedar shavings out and filled it with the newspaper pellets. She immediatly went to the lower level and locked up her front paws, and pushed it around her cage, it was super cute. All the respiratory infection symptoms have gone away but I'm still worried about her little bottom. I carefully cut away some of the fur that has been soaked with pee to try and not have her sit on a wet butt all the time. She has three more days of Baytril, and I hope that works or else it's an x-ray. She's still not eating her pellets, but she has been eating her timothy hay. I don't think she's been drinking much water either. She ran around for a little bit today and showed all of the same habits as before, but I know they hide their sickness well. Any other input is always appreciated! Thanks to all who have responded so far!!! P.S. I'm trying to upload a picture but for some reason it's not working.

 

[aurora369]

What kind of pellets is she eating? How old is the bag? It may be possible that the bag is stale and a new bag would get her to eat them again.

I would still push fluids, an extra dish of water with a tiny drop of pure juice to flavour may get her to drink a bunch on her own. Or you can try some flavoured pedialyte and see if she likes that.

If the peeing issue doesn't clear up with the baytril, then I would get her pee cultured and if it shows infection, then you will need a different antibiotic to treat it.

Another thing you can give her is a probiotic. Benebac can be bought at most petstores, or human acidophilus works well too.

-Dawn

 

[Kimmerre]

I changed her 1 day old water like I normally do and for some reason today she slurped it up! I don't know if she liked it more because it was cold but she was drinking non-stop, AND she was eating her some of her pellets!! I'm so excited. Her pellets can't be that old because I don't buy big bags of it ever because of the risk of it getting old. Plus I just bought this stuff. So she's eating a few pellets now, drinking water, and eating her hay. Still has a damp butt though. She never gets direct sunlight in my room unless she sits in the window, but today I took her out on her leash and she just sat down, closed her eyes, and took the sunlight in. I'm wondering if a little sunlight did her body good! Ugh I'm so excited!!! I'll keep updating over the next few days. :biggrin:

 

[Kimmerre]

Oh I'm not sure what brand the pellets are. I can't get her anything but normal pellets because if it has extra googies in it that's all she eats then throws the rest around her cage. It's a good mixture of protein and fiber, can't remember it off the top of my head but I did make sure to research that when I got her. I buy it from a pet store, and they go through the food quite often there because I have gone several times and they were out completely, so I've never really worried about it being stale.

 

[tonyshuman]

Sunlight is good for bunnies--it helps them get vitamin D because like us, they have to make vitamin D in their skin. Many just like a sun nap too!

It's good you feed the normal pellets--those ones with all the nuts and stuff in them are like bunny junk food. They pick out the sweet, fatty parts and leave the stuff with fiber.