Rabbit Abscessed Ear After Cat Bite

Question

Before  

After   Greetings,

My bunny Anika (Annie) was bitten by my cat on her ear, and now has an abscess. We didn't notice until she stopped moving that ear. We would see her good ear stand up, but the injured ear would stay down and flat against the back of her head. Once I took a look, I saw that the base of her ear was fiery red, and super swollen, as well as the outer ear cartilage. It was so stiff and swollen, but I found the puncture wound and immediately cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide. There was a lot of pus coming out of the site. We do not have any rabbit vets near us, but we were able to get some advice and some ciprofloxacin, as well as some baby aspirin. We have been following to correct dosage for her, and the redness has been subsiding. Her ear has shrunk down a lot, and is no longer swollen and stiff. She's actually using her ear again. She seems to be pain free now for the past three days, and is back to her playful self. The only issue that has me worried now, is that even though the redness is going away, she has this nodule about the size of a grape at the base of her ear still, which has lost the fur around it, exposing her pink skin. The puncture would looks scabbed over and healed, and most of her ear has returned to a white color, with exception to this nodule. I cannot afford surgery to drain it, so I wanted to keep her on the antibiotics for a while, however she isn't eating as much as she was before. I've had to force feed her - which makes her angry and she will grunt and scratch me with her paws, sometimes eating it, and sometimes grabbing the hay and throwing it. I read online that if they stop eating, or eat less - to discontinue the antibiotics, but I've also read that they need to be on the antibiotics for 2 - 4 weeks to completely rid the infection. What should I do?

Answer
hi Adriana i would stop the antibiotics and seehow her appetite goes it is obviously getting better .
leave her off them for about a week and see how she responds ,if she is still off her food start the antibiotics again.
whatever you do you must not force feed her ,she will eat when she gets hungry.
Dave.