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Not sure what to do

22 9:54:54

Question
My rabbit is 9 years old and she has sneezed off and on for her entire life, nothing bad just every once in a while but enough for me to notice since i rarely ever hear any of my other rabbits sneeze except blowing a little bit of hay dust out of their nose. I noticed it first right when i got her home, I got her and my other bunny from the same litter at the petstore, but they look nothing alike. There were four in the litter, 3 looked and were soft like mini rex's and one like a dwarf and not soft like a rex, is that possible for them to be from the same litter? I got the dwarf one, now buddy, and the smallest mini rex, now dorothy, which is the one that sneezes. All six of my rabbits that i have now live together in the house but in seperate cages. When they are out of their cages they are all out together at the same time but none of the others sneeze. About a month ago i noticed her sneezing more and more often and now it is every day about 5-10 times, sometimes with white discharge. She eats 1/4 cup pellets, two big handfuls of timothy hay and a little bit of orchard grass and a piece of romaine lettuce every day. Also either parsely, carrot, beet tops, brocilli, kale or endive. About 3 months ago i switched food and hay from kaytee to oxbow. Could the change be making her sneeze more? I just switch my litter from yesterdays news to oxbow eco litter because it isnt dusty like yesterdays news, but she still sneezes. I use aspen bedding in the bottom of her wire cage in case she pees out of her litter box or off her towel, but it usually never gets soiled so it dont get changed much. Should i change it often anyway? I might switch from aspen to carefress because i am wondering if it could be an allergy to the aspen. Also I heard aspen could harvest mold is this true? She also seems to sneeze more when eating hay. She will eat forever if i let her and eat anything she has always been like that she even tries to still meat off my sandwich, but what has changed is over the past 5-6 months she started to drink more she has always drank more than the other rabbits but now she drinks 3/4 of a 32 ounce water bottle within a 24hr period. She also pees more than the others and more than she use to. She also seems to have a small lump under her lower nipple. Given the circumstances Im not sure whether to take her to the vet. My vet is 1hour or more depending on traffic away. H is the only great rabbit vet i could find around me. As for the lump im just scared of what it could be, and the sneezing i hope could just be an allergy but if it is an infection since she had white discharge on her nose isnt it true that stress of a vet visit could make it worse? Could it just clear up on its own? Is antibiotics to big of a risk unless things get worse since it could end up messing up her flora to no return? And her excessive drinking and urinating for the past 5-6 months, should i be worried about renal failure, or would other symptoms have to be present already? And could all this be linked to one cause or seperate problems?

Answer
Dear Misty,

All of your questions can be answered by a veterinarian who can do an in-person exam of your bunny including blood work to check her renal function.  Chronic sneezing can be caused by many things, and it can take a bit of detective work to find out. But this might help:

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

Find a rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I hope this helps.

Dana
P.S. - It will be easier for me to answer your questions if you organize them in an easier-to-find format, and not embed them in a massive paragraph that is difficult to read.  Several paragraphs separated by spaces will always get someone to read your message; one huge block of text is just...too much!