Feet abscesses

Question
hi!!

My bunny is 13 years old.. ive had him since i was in 4th grade! When i came home from college for the summer i noticed a small white spot coming out of one of his back feet. I gave him a bath and it looked like pus was coming out, my mom squezed most of it out, and it healed from there. (and remained okay)

A few weeks later we noticed the other foot had gotten really bad, not only could you tell there was a ton of pus buildup but it looked like my rabbit had started to chew on it, as it was red and missing hair. We brought him to a local vet who told us that he would need to put him under and lance the absesses but it probably would not work very well. He gave us antibiotics, a soaking solution and a gel with good bacterica in it to put back in his belly.

To say the least this has not helped at all. I soak him everyday and more and more pus comes out but it seems never ending and i dont want to hurt my rabbit. Other than his foot he still seems very healthy, he eats a ton like always and seems to still be happy. But his foot looks extremly irritated (red, breaking open with pus). The antibotic treatment is almost done.. and i think if we bring him in for the surgery it might cause more harm than good because he is so old. If there is any other way i can treat this at home please let me know.

Thank you for youre time,
Sarah H.

Answer
Wow, that's what we'd like every rabbit to be able to achieve.  13 is a wonderful age for a rabbit to live to!

If the pus has not gone away, then unfortunately you probably have the wrong antiobiotic.  The only way to find out which antibiotic will kill the infection is to do a culture and sensitivity.  Since he has been on antibiotics, he would need to be off for several days before doing the culture or the results could be negative.

Epsom salt soaks can help draw the pus out if you haven't tried that.

I am not sure why the vet would want to put him under to lance the abscess, unless it is very large.  At his age he shouldn't struggle too much!

There is a lot of good information on abscesses at http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html#abs if you would like to check that out for some other ideas.

There are some rabbits that have reoccuring foot abscesses, but it's best to find out what the bacteria is first to see if it can be knocked out.

Kim