returning pasturella abscess

Question
Hi Dana I have a rabbit who has already had surgery to remove a cheek abscess twice since January and it just surfaced again.  He will need a third surgery.  The culture was only positive for pasturella and he is already on daily metacam and baytil for life due to a horrible inner ear infection that kept causing head tilt.  xrays show no dental reason for the abscess

Can you recommend any options to try and control this abscess?  He is other wise very happy.  He eats drinks and poos normally and has a mate.  His mate has horrible sneezing fits and nasal discharge and is treated as needed for pasturella as well.  I am guessing the tilt and constant meds have left my boy somewhat immune compromised and the pasturella is a bit tougher on him thus the abscesss' I just dont know if my poor baby is strong enough to keep having surgery every six to eight weeks there must be another option.  Please help any advise would be appreciated.

Answer
Dear Victoria

If this were my bunny, I would ask the vet about putting him on injectable, dual-acting Penicillin-G Procaine/Benzathine every 48 hours.  Our vets use a dose beween 50,000-80,000 IU/kg, which works well.  This antibiotic seems to have better abscess penetration and longer "hang time" than Baytril.  We have found it *very* effective against abscesses in the head.

I hope this helps.

Dana