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Rabbits - sick baby bunny

Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 6/1/2007

Question
Please help us if you can. We have a six wk. old bunny who I believe is the runt & one of 7 altogether. 2 wks. ago we found her lying flat on the cage floor, eyes opened and fixed. Breathing seemed normal and when offered food she/he would eat what it could, same with water from a syringe. Our vet suspected pasturella, gave subcutaneous fluids injection of antibiotic and baytril which we crushed, mixed w/ water and delived via syringe which she took willingly all while lying on her side unable to arise. During this time she has been in a separate cage from mother and rest of the litter as they would simply trample her if not. Obviously she was weaned immediately. She improved over the next few days to what appeared 100% recovery. Then we found her in the same state one morning again. Went back to vet, followed same procedure, she improved to 100% (at least it appeared that way) and again the next day was found in the same state the following morning. this is our 3rd desperate try with her and she seems very good as of tonight but we're afraid tomorrow we'll find her again. During this 3rd try our vet sent us home w/ subcut. fluids and antibiotics that we've learned to inject. We're probably crazy but we just hate to give up on her. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Just a few more points, Tonight and on another occasion when she was (well) I found where she urinated on a paper towel and it was orange! Possibly blood or is it from the antibiotis? I'll also ask vet. Also, could (or her hole condition) this be a reaction to her food. We're giving them Katee brand (fiesta) which has little pieces of orange goodies of some sort. In other words, when she's down and out she can't eat these and recovers but then once she's up she seems very hungry, pigs out, and then we find her again. Please, if you can help us figure out this puzzle we'd be extremely grateful. I hope there is nothing I've left out. We await your reply. Thank you so much
Sandy G.

Answer
Dear Sandy,

A single dose of Baytril will not cure a bacterial infection, so I would strongly recommend that she *stay* on the Baytril (or ciprofloxacin, which can be given orally, and is usually effective against the same strains of bacteria as Baytril) for a full two week course. Otherwise, you're just selecting for resistant bacteria and you could wind up with an infection that does not respond to the antibiotics.

I've found that some babies are particularly susceptible to E. coli from human handling, and this can cause horrible, nasty diarrhea with a very distinctive smell. The E. coli are almost invariably sensitive to Baytril and/or ciprofloxacin, so I would wonder if this might be another possibility of the cause of the problem.

In any case, my recommendation would be to *keep* her on Baytril and keep Lactated Ringer Solution handy for administration if she is not drinking enough to stay hydrated. Normal intake for a mammal is about 90-100ml/kg per day. So for example if the baby weighs 100g (you'll need a good postal scale that does metric), then she should get 10cc of LRS in one day, in three separate doses about 6-8 hours apart.

If she is not eating, fluids must be given with *great* caution, as a starved animal may suffer a serious adverse reaction to subQ fluids. Please consult your vet about this.

To be sure your vet is rabbit savvy, please check the vet listings here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If the baby is showing any sign of runny stool, then please let me know, as there are other treatments that will help save her life.

Thanks for being her guardians!

Take care,
Dana

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