Safe Antibiotics in Rabbits

Question
My 4 month old lion head was recently attacked by another rabbit - I thought they were both female and ended up being both males. Anyway, I took Leo to the vet and the prescribed antiobiotic warm water soaks to help the wounds heal and SMZ TMP Suspention 2x per day for 14 days. I want to make sure this is safe and wont cause loose bowels.

Answer
Dear Heidi,

Trimethoprim sulfa (a.k.a. SMZ TMP) is safe for rabbits.  It will not cause any intestinal problems.  However, it's probably the most useless antibiotic out there these days, as most bacteria one might expect to show up in a rabbit mouth-inflicted wound are resistant to it.  If these wounds are superficial, then a good disinfecting with dilute povidone iodine should provide all the anti-bacterial cleansing necessary.

However, if these are deep wounds that required suturing, keep a very close eye out for any sign of swelling or pus.  If you see that, then it's back to the vet.  (Or preferably a different vet who is not quite so conservative with antibiotics) for a different antibiotic, such as Baytril.

I hope you won't need it.  It's likely that if the wounds were properly disinfected topically then there won't be any infection.  But I hope this is helpful in case the TMZ isn't effective.

Dana