Rabbit has lumps

Question
Our rabbit "Inky" is 7 years old and recently my husband and I noticed
that he was not eating as much. We would offer him carrots, which he
usually goes crazy for, but this time he seemed to be having trouble
eating it and eventually would turn away from it.  The only thing he
would really try to eat were the usual treats we give him two/three
times a day, which are his yogurt chips, but even with this, he seemed
to be having a lot of trouble chewing.  We decided to take him to the
vet.  They did the usual, which was checked inside his mouth for
anything that seemed unusual. The vet said that she could not see
anything wrong, that his teeth all seemed healthy.  We did show her
where we thought the pain was by putting pressure around an area in
his left cheek.  She saw this, but she said she still could not see
anything physically.  So she sent us home for a couple of days with
some antibiotics to see if it would help.  But nothing changed, he
still seemed to be bothered by something.  So we took him back to vet
and agreed to having x-rays performed on him to see what was wrong and
possibly surgery.  We left him there for the day for the doctors to
look over him because we had to go to work.  My husband got a call
from the vet telling him that there was some puss growing underneath
two of his teeth in the back (the teeth were on the right side, not
the left where he was originally having pain), so they have pulled out
those teeth.  We picked him up soon as he woke up from anesthesia and
we were given baytril shots to give him twice a day for a month.  We
thought that he should be getting better, so we watched him closely.
He started eating normally again and regaining weight, which we were
really excited about.  However, two weeks after they pulled out his
teeth, my husband was checking him out and felt two small hard lumps
around his jaw.  The lumps were on the left side, the location of the
original pain.  By looking at him, he seems perfectly fine, he runs
around the house mostly, playing and following us around.  He still
gets excited when we get home because he usually follows us everywhere
we go and he cuddles with us when we're watching tv.  He is eating
normally; however, we just have to help him out when he is eating his
carrots and yogurt chips by holding it for him or cutting them to
smaller pieces.  If it wasn't for my husband checking him over, we
would think he is perfectly ok.


My question is, should the vet notice these bumps or any sign of its
growth during his visits.  I'm so confused as to how he could have
gotten or developed them and from where.  Is it from the surgery, the
antibiotics, the baytril shots, or something else.  It just seems so
weird that the vet pulled out teeth from the opposite side of the
pain.


We think it might be abscess.  If they are, they seem pretty small
right now, so I was wondering if its necessary to put him through
surgery again to get it removed.  He is getting pretty old and we
really don't want to traumatize him by getting surgery again.  Is
there another alternative that would help him?  We love our Inky and
want to do everything to make sure he is healthy and comfortable.  

Answer
Dear Kristine,

Before you take any further action (especially surgical), please read:

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

Your bunny sounds as if he's having major molar root problems, and rather than automatically using Baytril, I would suggest a culture and sensitivity test, so you will be sure the antibiotic you use is the best one for the job:

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

If the bacteria are sensitive to the penicillins, then I would ask the vet about using injectible bicillin, which is often *very* effective against jaw abscesses.  It appears to have much better penetration of abscesses in rabbits than does Baytril.  Zeniquin (marbofloxacin) could be combined with the bicillin, if the bacteria are sensitive to the fluoroquinolones. The longer "hang time" antibiotics tend to be more effective against the difficult tissue-penetration problems of the jaw abscesses.

At the age of seven, your bunny is not old.  It's the abscesses causing his problems.  And if you think your present vet is not experienced enough with rabbit medicine, then you can get a second opinion from a vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

Hope that helps.

Dana