House Rabbits Blog

Ginger received her first dose of antibiotics at the Vet today.  The nurse showed me how to administer the medicine using the syringe so that I could do it for the first time tonight.

Ginger’s medicine

I have to pick her up and have her lie on her back so that I can feed the syringe to her.  As you can see, this is not an easy task as she is rejecting me.

sigh…finally, we have contact.  I have to inject 1.3cc of medicine into her mouth.  With the syringe, I slowly drip it into her mouth and she will be forced to swallow or lick it off.

…and we’re done!  We’re both pissed off because she got manhandled and I got hair-bombed.

For the past 2 weeks, Ginger had been sneezing on and off.  I would hear her sneezing in the kitchen sometimes and then other times, I would hear the sound of fluid in her nasal passages.  She normally has heavy breathing, but with the fluid in her nasal passages, she has started to snort when I would give her a good petting.

I have just been monitoring it closely hoping that whatever it was would go away.  It didn’t.  Last night while watching TV, Joey and I heard Ginger sneeze for about a minute straight.  I ran to the kitchen to see what was wrong and I saw her swatting at her nose.  It was obviously bothering her.

So the first thing today, I made a vet appointment with Dr. Siperstein.  She was the doctor who took out Ginger’s incisors when she was first rescued by the House Rabbit Network.  Dr. Siperstein gave Ginger a good rundown and suspects an upper respiratory infection.  Bunnies don’t get colds like humans do.  Their “snuffles” are caused not by viruses but by bacteria.  Dr. Siperstein prescribed some liquid medication that I will have to administer to Ginger twice a day for a week to see if the infection clears up.

While giving Ginger the rundown, Dr. Siperstein took a look at Ginger’s mouth.  Ginger shouldn’t have any front teeth at all since they were taken out back in March, 2008.  The reason for the teeth extraction was because her teeth comes in crooked and since rabbit teeth continues to grow, it causes her pain and discomfort.  If left untreated, it could’ve killed her.  This was probably the reason why Ginger was abandoned at the shelter in the first place – because the previous owners didn’t want to spend the money to treat her condition.  So today when Dr. Siperstein looked in Ginger’s mouth, she found 2 peg teeth that had grown back.  This is probably because during the first tooth extraction, Dr. Siperstein didn’t get the root of the teeth and so it allowed the teeth to regrow.

The solution now of course, is more surgery.  Ginger’s molars in the back also need to be filed down.  In a week or two, once Ginger’s infection is cured, she will have to go back in to get the peg teeth extracted and her molars filed.  The filing of the molars is not a big deal but the removal of the teeth will be a bit more uncomfortable.  Dr. Siperstein assured me that it will not be as bad as the first time since peg teeth are not as deeply rooted as incisors.  I’m going to be worrying from now until Ginger recovers from surgery a third time (first time was spay, then her teeth extraction).

On a positive note, Ginger has gain 1 whole pound since her last vet visit about 2 months ago.  She’s now a healthy 14.10 lbs!

*note*
I didn’t know at first that bunnies couldn’t catch a cold.  I heard Ginger sneezing and just thought she had a cold.  Joey and I closed the windows because we thought maybe there was a cold draft coming into the kitchen during these chilly New England nights.  After asking Tiffany and Emily about the situation, they both informed me that bunnies can’t catch a viral cold but instead get snuffles.  Thanks guys!