URGENT - follow up to pasteurella

Question
Went back to my vet today, and she has dropped 2 of the bunnies to 1ml inj pw down from the 3 inj pw of depocillin. The other she wants off all meds after 2wks. She says resistant bacteria will happen if they're kept on the 3 inj pw. I don't know what to do or what is right. The strain, she said that my bunnies have is pasteurella pseudomonus putida. What is this, and how can it be cured? How do I proceed?

Answer
Dear Helena,

There is no such thing as Pasteurella Pseudomonas putida. But there *is* Pseudomonas putida, which is a common soil bacterium.  It is not known to be pathogenic, unlike some other species of Pseudomonas (e.g., aeruginosa).  So I am afraid if this was determined via culture and sensitivity, then the P. putida may be merely a contaminant.  It's *very* difficult to get a reliable nasal culture without very specific protocols to avoid swabbing bacteria that are just there because they were in the bunny's environment.

If the causative pathogen is Pseudomonas (perhaps aeruginosa, which is very common in rabbit upper respiratory infections), then penicillin will not be effective, as it doesn't work against gram-negative bacteria. However, many species and strains are susceptible to the fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as Baytril (enrofloxacin), ciprofloxacin, marbofloxacin, leviquin, etc.  They also can be sensitive to the aminoglycosides, such as amikacin, but I would not use these as a first choice.

If your vet refuses to treat the bunnies, or will not do a followup culture and sensitivity with more rigorous collecting methods, you might want to take them to a different vet.  I hope you can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope this helps.

Dana