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chronic sneezing

22 9:42:51

Question
Hello,

I have a 7 yrs old female bunny, who's suffering from sneezing.
We adopted her about 3 yrs ago and her first mom told us she had that sneezing for as long as she remembers her too.She adopted her from a shelter when she was about 2 yrs.

We first thought it was an allergy to something cause used to come at the end of summer every year.
Took her to the vet from the first year we adopted her, examined her and told us she has a chronic upper respiratory problem and gave us baytril for about 15 days , seemed better but next summer sneezing came back once again.
This year we just can't get rid of it no matter what we do for helping her !!
Did a culture test which indicated staph. aureus.
Tried with a combination of antibiotics cause we did a sensitivity test as well.Gave her amikacin with marbofloxacin but sneezing is still here !!!

Strange is that some days, even for a month, she doesn't sneeze at all but others has few crisis of sneezing.
Last two days though i see her having a whitish discharge .
Our vet did x-rays to her chest and head and were very clear .
Some days, she does strange noises like honking or coughing , can't really describe them,but other days she's not.If she had pneumonia wouldn't do this sound continuous ??Cause one day i might hear her and then for a month i might not hear her at all !!!

Today took her to our vet once again , took sample for a second sensitivity test , though not sure if labs here in Greece can really find out what she has .
She prescribed her once again 0.5 ml of marbofloxacin for 8 days and also told us to use nebulizer this time for giving her amikacin and Beclometasone Dipropionate for 5 days.
I have read that is better to avoid using corticosteroids in rabbits but told us to give it only for 5 days and we can put them together with amikacin in the nebulizer.
Is it safe ? Or is it better and safer to use nebulizer for giving her just the amikacin and marbofloxacin ?

From your experience is there something else we can do for helping her ?? What do you think is causing her that sneezing ?If it was a bacteria infection wouldn't have some more symptoms after so many years ??
Other than the sneezing she looks fine, she eats, poops normally .
Forgot to tell you we checked her teeth and are also good.

Sorry for my long letter but i really worry about her cause we love her a lot and seems that we just can't help her after so many years !!!!!

Answer
Dear Letta,

Chronic sneezing can be caused by many things, from upper respiratory infection to dental problems.  Please read:

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

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

and

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/weepy.pdf

I hope this will give you and your vet some ideas.

Dana