Sniffly sneezy bun

[Sneeze]

Our bunny Pendlebury started sneezing in the morning (and some evenings) off and on about a month ago. He gets a really runny nose, with lots of clear discharge, and sneezes and generally sounds upset. These episodes normally last anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, but generally no longer. Otherwise, he's happy, he eats his food, binkies when playing with us in the lounge room, and all the normal stuff.

We took him to the vet immeadiately when these sneezy episodes started, and they said that it was probably snuffles and gave him some antibiotics, and said that if they didn't help, perhaps it was environmental.

His sneezy episodes did seem to decrease, but still happened on occasion. So, we took him back, got another batch of antibioitics, and he seemed pretty good. The vet checked his heart and temp and teeth and said he seemed fine, butgave more antibiotics just to be sure.But he had a short sneezy episode about a week ago, and then yesterday, was sneezy and miserable for two whole hours!!!

We have changed his food to pellets and replaced his carpet and taken a lot of things out of his pen to see if any of this helps. He lives with his best friend Butterfly who seems totally unaffected apart from she gets Pendles snot on her and she always tries to calm him down by licking his forehead when he has an episode.

He lives inside and is kept nice and warm. The weirdest thing is that he only sneezes for a short little episode and then gets over it, as though it never happened.

Should we try a different vet? What are other peoples' experiences? Does it sound like snuffles? What else can we try?

I was reading another thread here; is Snuffles really considered a death sentance by some people? Have any forum bunnies survived Snuffles and lived to a ripe old age?

Help!

 

[fantaysah]

I have no idea about snuffles but one of mine occasionally has sneezing and recent says its dust from the pellets, hay and in the house.

 

[LakeCondo]

It sounds like dust allergy to me. And I'd certainly find a vet whose main treatment for everything isn't automatically anti-biotics. But I'd try environmental changes 1st. [And in my opinion, pro-biotics are necessary once anti-biotics are given.]

Is the nasal discharge clear, white, yellow?

What do you mean by changing his food to pellets? What does his diet consist off & the approximate proportions?

 

[Sneeze]

Well they used to love this mixed food which had lucerne, pellets, seeds and other goodies but I noticed in winter the mix looks a tiny bit greener, so they scatter it all over their floor.... And eat the pellets out of it. I wonder if the mix has changed or is playing up with him so I have given him straight pellets with no grassy bits as the constant food available in the pen.

Nasal discharge is clear. And plentiful when he has a sneezy moment!

 

[LakeCondo]

Clear discharge should indicate there's no infection. So it sounds like something environmental.

A change to pure pellets rather than the pellets + additions was a good change. If he's full-grown though, he should be getting timothy pellets rather than alfalfa/lucerne ones.