Well...
My bunny Chester is now on medication and warm compresses for a month!!! On April 4th his chin looked swallon I thought his fur might be getting thicker as everything appeared to be normal. Well the next day April 5th he had food stuck to his chin for the first time ever since Ive had him. So I perceeded to give him a bath. When I got all the food off of his chin his hair started to come off. His chin was all swallon and red. My dad put some antibiotic cream on it and said to leave it overnight and see if it gets better. The next morning April 6th I took him out to clean his chin and it didnt look any better. So I perceeded to clean his chin, and all the rest of his fur came off of his chin. His chin was extremely swallon, he didnt even really have a chin anymore!! When I touched it thick white puss started to goo out of his chin, I knew it had to be bad because the puss smelt like rotten food.
I cleaned his chin up the best that I could and put him back in his cage. I started to call every vet in the phone book. I have never taken my rabbit to a vet before so no one wanted to see me without an appointment and said that they didnt take rabbits anyway. The first place I called wasnt open but gave me the number to the emergency clinic. Well the clinic was a half an hour away and they said that they normally dont do rabbits. So I called another vet they told me that the vet was going on vacation the next day so if it would be overnight they couldnt take him. So I called a third vet but the next appointment they had was a week away. So finally the fifth place I called had an opening but the appointment wasnt until 5:15 that night. So, I sat around practically in tears waiting to find out if my rabbit was going to make it. About a half an hour before his appointment he was laying in his cage motionless and would not wake up. I had to shake him really hard and give him a treat to get him to move. It was very nerve racking.
I brought him to the vet and right away she knew what was wrong. It turns out that he had an abscess in his chin. She said that I was lucky that it burst on the surface, because they usually burst internally and can kill the rabbit. So she had to drain, clean and stitch the area up. She had to make two more insitions in his chin because there was three pockets that needed to be cleaned. After the percedure I was able to bring him home, he was still very doped up and swallon. As soon as we got him home I did his compress and the swelling went right down. My mom and I tried to give him his medicine but everything we tried he wouldnt take it.
The next day I went back to the vet for advice and they gave me a little syringe. They told me to crush his pill and mix it with water to put in the syringe. So far he has been letting me do his compresses three times a day and he hates taking his medicine but, he does take it with a little forcefulness. The most unsettling thing about all of this is that the vet cannot figure ut what caused it. Abscesses in rabbits are usually caused by teeth that cme in wrong or something getting stuck in their jaw that they chewed on.
It has been a little over a week and he seems to be getting back to his old self again. Before this ordeal I never knew that a rabbit could get an abscess but, it is very common in rabbits. So if u have a rabbit and it suddenly gets a bump somewhere on their body rush them to a vet because if it bursts it could potentially kill them. Also you should bring your rabbit for a routine check up so that you will have a vet to bring them to if you ever do have an emergency. Because most vets do not take care of rabbits and will not take an animal that is not already a client there in an emergency.