Rabbit with infected foot lesion

[LexsPeeps]

I acquired a doe rabbit from a friend who got her as a rescue. She had been doctoring up her feet for about 2 weeks, not exactly sure how she got the sores/lesions on all 4 of her feet but my best guess is they never cleaned her cage/area and constantly standing on the urine and feces "ate" through her skin. 3 of her feet are healing up nicely but 1 is still pussing and very sore. I've cleaned it with alcohol and blue kote but I was wondering if she could have a dose of Tylan50 or Duramycin 72-200 or if I needed to get something else. Any advice on how to help her is welcome!

 

[Bunnylady]

Just a couple of things to note:

You need to be very cautious when it comes to rabbits and antibiotics. A large part of their digestion is done by beneficial bacteria in the gut, and antibiotics don't discriminate between the "good" and the "bad" bacteria. A rabbit-savvy vet really ought to be consulted before any antibiotic is used on a rabbit (particularly oral antibiotics), since possibly fatal diarrhea can result from the use of the wrong one.

Rabbits have an almost uncanny ability to "wall off" infections. Rabbits occasionally develop abscesses that do not respond, even to months of antibiotics, because the antibiotic simply isn't getting into the infected tissue. No guarantees that flooding the rabbit's whole body with an antibiotic will make this foot any better.

I would continue to try to treat this foot with topical treatments, though I would stop with the alcohol. Alcohol damages healthy tissue, which might impair the ability of the wound to heal. I would clean it with a milder antiseptic soap, and try to keep it as clean and dry as possible.

 

[LexsPeeps]

Great to know! I definately don't want to cause her more damage, just didn't know if an injectible/oral antibiotic would help her heal faster. I haven't been using the alcohol every day, just today when I saw she still has puss comming out of the sore I thought it would kill all the nasty bacteria so the good could begin to thrive. I ran out of sterile saline I had, need to get more

 

[cassie]

Try soaking the foot in epsom salts. Hot water and epsom salts is an old fashioned time honored remedy and it does a great job of drawing out infections. Add enough epsom salts to the hot water to make a saturated solution (meaning all that will dissolve) and soak the foot in it for about ten minutes twice a day. You want the water to be fairly hot, but not hot enough to burn. After soaking you can put some peroxide in the wound to fizz out the pus and stuff.

 

[LexsPeeps]

Thats a great idea!! I will do that starting tonight!