snotty nosed 12 week old bunny

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SnowyShiloh

SnowyShiloh

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
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Location
Alaska, USA
Tallulah is definitely going to the vet tomorrow! Three hours ago she looked great, but I just took her out of her cage and her nose is running and there's some thin yellow mucus. Eek! What causes this kind of thing? She's acting normally and chowing down on pellets right now. Will she be okay until tomorrow? Thank goodness our vet is open on the weekends! She is a couple days over twelve weeks old and last week pooped that giant turd and had a rumbly tummy (see my other thread here in the Infirmary) but has been fine for several days.

Oh gosh, I hope it's nothing serious and she'll be okay! Picture coming of her runny nose in just a couple of minutes.
 
Here's the picture, I left it big so you could see really well. She has since cleaned her face so it doesn't look as bad and is running around the living room playing.

Rory062.jpg

 
Could be the beginning of a bacterial infection. Good thing you are going to the vet:). Tell them, if they don't do it, to do a swab test of the bacteria? Get a culture.of the bacteria. Go from there.;)
 
Okay, I'll make sure they do a swab test! Are bacterial infections contagious to other bunnies? I really hope the bunny doctor is in tomorrow! Thankfully, my vet office is open 7 days a week, but there are only 2 vets (out of 8) that are very familiar with bunnies. Oh and Gordon, if you want some really cute not snotty pictures, I'm in the process of uploading a bunch to my blog over in the Bunny Blogs section!
 
Yes, some are contagious. I'll let Randy chime inon the details.

It depends on the bacteria (what kind, etc.) and how it's treated. If say a bun has Pasturella and has it on his/her paws and they're bonded... What do you do? Cuz the non sick bun can get it.

Separate them and treat the sick bun. Yes. But I've also heard like in Sooska's case that if she's separates them for even 24 hours, they're unbonded:(.
 
Luckily, Rory and Tallulah aren't bondeto I don't need to worry about messing up their relationship. They usually have little contact with each other, other than being able to see each other. Figures that this afternoon I put Tallulah in the carrier and let them sniff each other through its sides!!

Lulu seems to be doing okay and is eating hay in her cage at the moment.
 
Hi,

I would suggest insisiting the vet do a culture. With such a young rabbit, you really need to be careful about the drugs you use.It could be allergies or even stress for some reason. If it is an infection, it is most likely pasteurella. I don't think I would separate her. If she is contagious, and if it's pasteurella, the other buns have already been exposed. Separating her would result in additional stress. You might also want to check the humidity in your house. It is quite dry here now.....I can only imagine what the possible humidity levels might be in the cold of the Great North. If nothing else, a little added humidity is good if she has any respiratory issues at all. I prefer cool humidity rather than steam...for several reasons.

I suspect that if your vet feels this is a bacterial infection that he/she will prescribe Baytril. I am not a fan of that drug but it should be effective against targeted bacteria since this rabbit has never had it before. Baytril also works better if it is injected sub-q....and since you mentioned a GI issue, I would prefer to inject it to keep it out of the stomach itself.

Even if the exotics vet isn't in...any entry level vet tech can do a swab and get things going on the culture to speed things along. And they should be able to come up with dosing and start on Baytril. And to clarify this statement since I always say to be careful with drugs....any vet will easily see if it's a bacterial infection and it's appropriate to start a broad spectrum antibiotic while awating lab results.

Randy
 
Okay! I called the vet and got her an appointment for 11 this morning. And the bunny vet is in! Yippee! I feel fortunate to have such a good small animal vet up here, she's also good with rats and correctly diagnosed mine when they were sick after another vet prescribed the wrong medicine, and she's neutered both my rat and my boy bunny.

This morning, you can baaaarely tell that her nose is running, it's just barely there. It was the same last night before I went to bed (err, I went to bed at 4:30 am because I was worrying about Lu so that was only 4 1/2 hours ago). Will they still be able to do a culture if her nose isn't really snotty?

I hope it's not pasturella and it's from the dryness! Really, the dryness here is unbelievable and it's been dryer this week than any so far. Just the process of standing up while holding my laptop gets me several little shocks and if you walk across the room and touch the light switch, you can see sparks! The buns are getting lots of little shocks too from running around on the floor. Yesterday before she started getting snotty, Tallulah was giving me shocks just by jumping on and off my lap. Randy, why would her snot be yellow if it was caused by dryness though? When I got her from her breeder and brought her to the vet in Washington for her "pre-flight physical", her nose had been running and that vet thought it was from the dryness since she went from being in a hutch outside to inside a heated house. And let me tell you, it's way dryer here than it was there!

Also, Randy, if they do inject the meds, will they give me a little syringe to inject her with? I don't want to poke her every day but I'd rather her tummy be okay. I'm going to mention her tummy things from last week and how she gets gurgly sometimes.
 
I'm sorry Shiloh, I hadn't seen this until you mentioned it in the other thread...

Poor Tallulah! I hope it goes ok at the vets this morning... let us know soon as you can! I hope she'll be ok...

Jen xx
 
We're home! We didn't have our regular vet, who is very good, and instead had a nice young vet who unfortunately didn't seem terribly bunny knowledgeable. She was ready to prescribe antibiotics without doing a culture but I insisted on a culture. Also, when we got there, Tallulah's nose was completely dry! Her eyes were tearing a little bit but the nose was clean. Lu hated getting her nose swabbed, it made her sneeze a lot but they got a good sample of her snot! The vet also listened to her lungs and tummy, looked in her ears and at her teeth and declared everything to be fine other than the runny nose. I had to ask for her to be weighed and her temp taken and her ears to be looked at though, which I thought was weird. Also, I just realized I forgot to ask her to look at her eyes :(

The results of the culture may not be back until Wednesday! Does that seem like a long time to anyone else? The vet said we could either start her on antibiotics right now, or wait until the results come back and I elected to wait. She said if she worsens at all before then I can stop by and pick up the medicine. She said she's going to prescribe TMS: Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole. Tallulah will have to take it orally. The vet said she'd prefer it to Baytril. Does anyone have experience with TMS? Does it seem like a good choice? Did I make the right decision by waiting until the results come back on the culture before starting antibiotics?

I also told the vet about the poop problems Tallulah had last week and she said if/when it happens again, I can just bring the stool sample by and don't need to make an appointment unless I want to. She said that if Tallulah does have pasteurella, it could be what was causing the digestive problems. I was planning to buy a different brand of timothy pellets for her tonight, a brand that I think is better in case that was causing her tummy troubles, but should I wait until she gets better so as not to cause her body more stress?

Lulu is being her normal hungry, active, loving self today. The cost of the culture was $95! The exam was $65. I sure do love my bun bun!
 
Lulu's nose is running again tonight :( At least it's not yellow this time! And she's still acting normal. Does anyone know about the TMS and other questions I asked in my previous post?

Also, tonight I noticed that she has some weird scaly white dry skin over her spine. It seems to be primarily behind her head and the scales aren't easy to scrape off and you can't feel them when you pet her. They don't seem to be painful. I feel lousy for not noticing it before, but she has rather long and fluffy fur. Too bad I didn't see this earlier so I could point it out at the vet office! Here are pictures:

RoryandTallulah017.jpg


RoryandTallulah018-1.jpg


Does anyone know what it is?


 
SnowyShiloh, it looks like irritated, dry skin. Dandruff maybe from the dry indoors atmosphere? Anyone?

Marietta
 
Poor Tallulah, i hope she recovers from her runny nose soon :)

As for the flaky skin/dandruff.. it could be an indication offur mites infestation

 
Marietta, it is so dry here that my first thought was that it's just from the dry air, but I don't want to dismiss it in case it's something else. Something like fur mites! Maybe when I go back to pick up the meds the vet can just peek at her really quickly and won't charge me for another visit! After all, I paid for an exam yesterday and she was not thorough, perhaps she would have seen it if she'd looked more.
 
Oh, poor Tallulah! She's got a lot going on at the moment! It's very hard to maintain being such a beautiful little bunny obviously! :p

I've no ideaabout the antibiotics, but I think you did right in pressing for a culture, to be sure. And I think you're right to get the dry skin checked out aswell, it's always better to be on the safe side where bunnies are concerned!

Fingers crossed that she's ok! :)
 
I'm sorry that the bunny vet wasn't there to take a look at Tallulah. I'm sorry I don't have any knowledge on these things but I just wanted you to know that you both are in my thoughts and prayers.
 
I just talked to the vet, the results from the culture came back today! The culture grew streptococcus viridans and coagulase staphylococcus- no pasteurella, hooray! The vet said the strep and staph are normal things to find in a bunny's nose. She said she thinks Tallulah's runny nose is due to the environment here since it's so dry (she also thinks the scales on her back are due to the dryness). My poor little bunny girl! I can't wait for spring to come so it warms up and isn't as dry. I'm going to buy a humidifier to try to help her. Hopefully she won't go through this again next winter... The vet said she should be fine as long as she isn't sneezing, coughing or wheezing and that I should bring her in if she shows any of those things and we'll put her on antibiotics then- for now, she doesn't need any medicine. She said she thinks Tallulah will grow up to be a healthy bunny. I hope she's right! I want my baby to be happy and healthy.

She has a bit of poopy butt today. I bought a bag of Zupreem Nature's Promise timothy pellets at the pet store since that's my regular brand and gave some to her for the first time yesterday. I only gave her about a teaspoon of the new pellets but I guess it was enough to upset her tummy. I'll give her less today. Hopefully the Kaytee pellets are what was causing her weird poop problems a couple weeks ago and once she's switched over to the Zupreem she won't have any issues.

What do you guys think of the diagnosis and do you agree that no medicine is needed? And switching the food? Anyone know a good brand of humidifier?

Thanks for all your help!
 
I've pm'd Randy to take a look at your posts. The dandruff issue really sounds like fur mites to me, but I could be wrong. Normally, they'd look at a sample under a scope. Not sure why she's certain it's from being dry while not doing the scope:?.

Not sure myself on the findings of the cultures. Hopefully, Randy will chime in soon with great advice for you.
 
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