My rabbit has Pasteurella

Question
Hello.  My rabbit was diagnosed with the pasteurella virus september 5 of this year.  My vet put him on Baytril .4 ml twice per day.  Then I took my rabbit in a week later and he had mite problems so he was given ivermectin in two injections and that problem went away fairly quickly.  Soon I was taking my rabbit every 5 days to the vet for re-checks and to clean the crust off of his nose.  The vet moved up his dose of the Baytril to .7 ml twice per day and he seemed to do well.  My main question is, my rabbit has this crust that keeps building back on his nose.  He has no weezing and his appetite has always been good, stool is normal.  My vet made it a point to me that rabbits should only take Baytril as an antibiotic.  What should I do to relieve my rabbit of that?  I live in San Bernardino, CA.  Are there any vets who are highly knowledgable with rabbits?  He's been on Baytril for almost 3 months and it has never cleared his nasel problem.

Answer
Dear Michelle,

My advice:  it's time to find a vet more knowledgeable about rabbit medicine.  Baytril (enrofloxacin) is by no means the only antibiotic that's safe for rabbits.  Yes, there are some that can be deadly to them (oral penicillins of any kind, and lincosamides, for example), but injectible penicillins, sulfas, chloramphenicol, various macrolides, etc. all can be used, depending on the problem.

The most important thing is to have a culture and sensitivity test done.  If the vet looked at your rabbit's nose and pronounced "Pasteurella" (and if s/he really told y ou it was a virus! Which it's not:  it's a bacterium, which is HUGELY different), then that vet really needs to stick to cats and dogs and leave the rabbits to someone with more current education in this species.

Please read this:

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

and use the list linked here to find a more experienced rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

(You might have to travel a bit, but it will be worth it for the sake of your bunny.)

Now a question:  Is the bunny's nose *runny*, or *crusty*.  If it's crusty and sore looking, another possibility is rabbit syphillis, which is most easily treated with a 5-7 day course of *injectible* Penicillin-G Procaine.  I can't see the lesions to make a guess, but if the bunny's nose is crusty with sores and a little bumpy, then the causative bacterium could be Treponema cuniculi (the bacterium responsible for rabbit syphillis).  It's not contagious to humans, so don't worry.  But a good rabbit vet will be able to have a look and see if that's the problem, and not Pasteurella.

If the nose is runny, then the culture and sensitivity protocol described in the article above will tell the vet which antibiotic will be most effective (it might not be Baytril, as you've already learned!) and exactly what bacteria are causing the infection (it might not be Pasteurella!).  Please also see:

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

And for more information on mange and ear canker, please see:

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

Ivermectin will work, but it's not quite as effective and long-lasting as its more recent (and topically applied) cousin, Revolution (selamectin).  That's all we ever use on our rabbits any more, and it's excellent and safe.

Hope this helps!

Dana