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very swollen hand

22 10:17:37

Question
my 5 years old rabbit have a swollen hand with a lot of past.
I've took him to the vet a few times and the vet have done operations on him to remove the past. The thing is his hand doesn't seem to heal and only becoming even worse.Besides that, my rabbit have cold ears all the time.
Is my rabbit very sick? what disease does he have? how am i going to go about it?

Answer
Dear Joann,

Your rabbit appears to have an abscess on his paw, and the pus will not go away with constant surgeries and flushing.  He very likely needs antibiotics to get this under control, and it would be best to determine which ones would be the best choice with a culture and sensitivity test, as described here:

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

Your bunny also no doubt needs pain medication for this, and I hope he's at least getting that!  Metacam and/or tramadol are very effective and safe for pain relief in rabbits.

Also be sure that the vets who are seeing your bunny are experienced with rabbits and know which antibiotics are safe (and *not*) for them!  Please find a good vet with the list linked here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I hope this helps.

Dana