HELP PLEASE!!!!

Question
Our rabbit, Bunny Boo is three and a half months old.  We bought him at a flea market.  This past week we noticed his head was tilted and his ear was swelled three times as much.  We talk to a local rabbit owner that said it was an ear infection and to get penicillin and give him shots.  We did he eats well and drinks but now we have a more serious problem on our hands.  He has lumps on his ear.  Today i noticed there was a hole and i mashed it and pus is coming outside of his ear.  Where the ear meets the head it is split and a big gash in between with exposing flesh.  We are afraid his ear will rot off.  PLEASE help us and tell us anything to do to stop the gash from getting bigger.  

Answer
Dear Stacy,

This sounds like a truly horrible, rip-roaring infection.  You don't say how long the bunny was on penicillin (I hope it was prescribed by a vet, because not all types of penicillin are safe for rabbits--and most are deadly to them), but if it's been several days and the infection has only gotten worse, then it is most likely that the infection is being caused by bacteria that are not sensitive to penicillin.

You need to get this bunny to a good rabbit vet ASAP, and not rely on the advice of a fellow bunny owner, however well-meaning they might be.  The pus needs to be flushed out of the ear, and the ear debrided so that there is a clean bed for healing.  Topical anti-bacterials will be applied by the vet, and it would be very wise for you to ask for a culture and sensitivity test to be done on a sample of the pus.  Please read:

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

for an explanation of this, and why it is so important.

While you are waiting for the results of the culture and sensitivity test, you might ask the vet about putting the bunny on zeniquin--a powerful fluoroquinolone antibiotic with broad efficacy against many bacteria--once the pus is debrided and flushed out (leaving the pus will just leave more matter to promote the infection and prevent aeration of the infected site, which will help clean and dry it).

Please get bunny to a good rabbit vet ASAP:

www.rabbit.org/vets

This need not be life-threatening, even if he loses some of the ear.  You can just call him "Bongo".  But I hope his ear will be fine, once you get him on the right track to recovery.

I hope this helps.

Dana