the abscess keeps growing and appearing

Question
QUESTION: Dear dana,
Hai dana I'm sanny.. today I mail u again to ask about abscess in rabbit again.. on your last reply, u had given me the instruction n the name of the medicine which can cure the abscess in jaw.. I had bought the penisillin n benzathine and had asked my vet to inject through intramuscular.. and the head of the abscess in jaw had been pushed out since 3weeks.. but there is a strange thing appear.. once my vet squeezed out the abscess, about 2 or 3 days it appears in other place.. and it keeps like this until now.. and 3days ago my vet inject the medicine into the abscess and strange thing happens again.. his jaw got wet and around it is so smelly.. oh dana, what ahould I do? I try my bestvto bring him to the vet everyday to got injection.. but seem it is not working...hiks

ANSWER: Dear Sany,

The penicillin must NEVER be injected intramuscularly.  That can be fatal if it hits a blood vessel!  It should be given ONLY subcutaneously, and the plunger pulled out to be sure you have not hit a blood vessel.

The abscess is opening and smelly because it is full of bacteria.  If I could smell them, I might even be able to tell you the most likely culprit, as each species of bacteria has a pretty distinctive smell (with the emphasis on STINK).  But now that the abscess is open, the vet should be able to take a sample of the *capsule* of the abscess (the skin surrounding the infection) and send it to a lab for culture and sensitivity testing:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/culture.html

If the pus is coming out at all, it is possible you will be able to ask the vet to show you how to flush it daily with dilute povidone iodine diluted in clean water to the color of weak tea.  the syringe looks like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Syringe-Tapered-Curved-Tip/dp/B0002YFRAW

It is important to try and remove as much of the pus as possible if the abscess is open, but this must be done very carefully so the abscess does not rupture and infect surrounding tissues.  That's why the flushing syringe is better than trying to squeeze, especially since rabbit pus is very thick and nearly impossible to express by squeezing.

I hope this will help with a new direction.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear dana,
I would like to ask again according to the sentence " the plunger don't hit the blood vessel."What will happen if it hits the blood vessel? Coz when it got injected it is bleeding little bit coz the penisillin hardly to inject into the intramuscular.. It had been 3 days he keeps drooling and always sits in uncomfortable position.. Which two hands straight in front and the back is higher than its head..if he eats sometimes it like there is something stuck in his mouth and he will hurry to clean his mouth n kinda want to throw up.. I'm so stress with this.. In my country there is no laboratory that can test the sensitive of the bacteria yet..

Answer
Dear Sany,

"I would like to ask again according to the sentence " the plunger don't hit the blood vessel."What will happen if it hits the blood vessel? Coz when it got injected it is bleeding little bit coz the penisillin hardly to inject into the intramuscular."

If it is like the dual-acting penicillin we use, it is very viscous/thick. If injected into a blood vessel, it can cause a blockage, initiating a stroke.  This can result in death or very serious injury to the brain and other organs.

Three days is too soon to hope for improvement, but can the vet check inside the mouth to be sure the abscess is not impinging on your bunny's trachea or esophagus?  It might need to be debulked (i.e., drained/debrided to reduce its size) to make him more comfortable.  Unfortunately, given what you've described, this probably would have to be done under anesthesia, surgically.  And I'm not sure he's the best candidate for that.  You will have to consult with your vet to see what the best options are.

(You listed your country as United States, but from your message that sounds as if that was an error.  If you are outside the U.S., you might be able to find a rabbit-experienced veterinarian with the international listings linked here:

http://www.rabbit.org/vet



Dana