Rabbit (passed away)

Question
Hello,
Unfortunately, our rabbit just passed away. We believe it was a stroke, had the signs of partial paralysis. My question is (he was only 2 1/2 yrs old)...he had been bitten by the neighbors cat 6 days before. Of course this happened on the wkend, trying to find a vet who would see a rabbit during normal hours was hard enough, but "after hours" seemed to be impossible. The 24 vet place did give me a few rabbit/rescue contacts. One told me how to clean the bite ect...also told me if I had amoxcillan to give him that. To be honest, by the next day Noah was doing MUCH better. I wouldn't let him out, but kept him in his cage & within a few days he was back to running around my family room/kitchen..eating/drinking so we were shocked when this happened. I know you can't "guarantee" me an answer, but I am so heartbroken...after reading nurmerous sites on the internet, I see that there seems to be a controversy as to whether or not one should give amoxicillian to a rabbit..majority seems to say no. My question is do you think this is  what caused the stroke? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't think we'll ever get another rabbit..he was just so smart, we ALWAYS brought him in at night, but during the day he used the doggie door & came & went, loved being in the fenced in area of our yard. Loved our cats & dog...unfortunately, the day this happened I happened to have our dog at the vet for her check-up & evidently the neighbors cat decided to "take advantage" and attacked Noah.
I would just really appreciate your thoughts/imput on the antibiotic/stroke..thank you so much & GOD BLESS YOU for being a part of this site. I never knew about it until the other day. Thank you!  ann

Answer
Hi Ann,

I am very sorry to hear about your bunny boy.  I am also sorry you didn't have a good rabbit vet around.  I believe the information given to you about amoxicillin was not reliable.  Please know I'm not a vet but all my sources (that come from rabbit vets) do not give amoxicillin to rabbits.  

But to be accurate about this, it was more than this.  Your boy suffered a lot of stress from being attacked.  The physical attack itself could have set things up for a stroke to occur down the line.  He also was bitten and cat saliva was in the wound and in the body.  It is very very lethal to rabbits and will cause infections.  Compounding this was the amoxicillin.  This basically decimated his good gut bacteria and allowed bad bacteria to overproduce and if he had certain strains, they would produce toxins that could kill him.  Further if it didn't get rid of all of the infective bacteria from the bite, what was left would be the stronger strain and be a lot worse to deal with.

So there are a number of factors here, but bad information and a non-regular rabbit vet was one of them.  I would suggest going to the House Rabbit Society web site (www.rabbit.org) and looking for reliable rabbit vets:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a good rabbit vet near you.

And I know you guys are dealing with the shock of the loss of your guy, but don't write off rabbits forever.  If you love rabbits and are 'rabbit people' there are lots of shelter rabbits that are perfectly healthy that are looking for a forever home to people that understand them.  I'm not saying get one today, but I am saying that after you grieve for your bunny, when you feel it's time you guys can move forward, don't shut the door here.  

I would also recommend "The House Rabbit Handbook 4th Ed" by Marinell Harrimann, and "Rabbit Health in the 21st Century 2nd Ed" by Kathy Smith.  

The good kinds of antibiotics recommended for rabbits are ones such as baytril, chloramphenicol and others.  Generally I would give your rabbit probiotics during and after being on antibiotics.

Lee