Possible allergy in my bunny

Question
I have a 9 year old neutered male Mini Rex who lives in my bedroom and has no companion other than me.  He has access to about half the room.  A few months ago, he began "sneezing" accompanied by the head jerk which I feared was snuffles.  (There are no other symptoms.  He eats, poops, and is as active as he's ever been.)  He's been to the vet a few times now for this.  The first time, the vet cultured his nasal discharge and didn't feel infection was present so no treatment was prescribed.  Since then, systems have persisted and seem to have increased at times.  The vet prescribed enrofloxacin (0.5 ml 2/day) which seemed to decrease the symptom for a while.  Symptom returned at original strength.  Then vet tried ciproflaxin opthalmic solution which didn't seem to make a change.  We're currently trying the enrofloxacin again and, again, I'm seeing no improvement.  I have kept his area as dust free as possible, and have made no changes in diet.  Could allergies explain what I'm seeing.  How are allergies treated in a 5 pound elderly bunny?  Thank you, Marilyn Martin

Answer
Dear Marilyn,

If there is no infection, and the eye drops didn't have much effect, then I would wonder about a foreign body in the nose.  And in an elderly bunny, unfortunately, a "foreign body" could be a tooth root protruding into the nasal cavity.  We've seen this in older bunnies who have started to show osteoporosis.  The tooth roots begin to intrude farther into the skull than normal, as the bone degrades, and sometimes a root actually punctures through to the nasal cavity, sinuses, or even the eye socket/eyeball!

An endoscopic exam would reveal whether this is the problem.  Unfortuantely, if it's a tooth root, the only remedy might be removal of the tooth, and that could create other problems.

If you're not sure your present vet is very experienced with rabbits, you might consider finding another vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

for another exam and a second opinion.

Allergies are just not all that common in rabbits.  Please read:

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

I hope this helps.

Dana