Hi Everyone,
Im new on this forum because I need some help for my precious bunny. Last monday (a week and 2 days ago) I woke up to find my rabbit Alfie scared and hiding. This isnt normal for her so I spent some time trying to get her to come out. As soon as she did I noticed something terribly wrong. Her head was tilted to the right and because of this she was having lots of trouble walking. I freaked out and took her straight to the vet where they took xrays (which came back normal, other than the fact she had no food in her tummy) and examined her. Her ears has puss in both of them so the vet gave me Baytril for pasteurella, metacam, Baytril Otic ear drops and Critical Care to hand feed her 4 times a day. I started her on these medicines right away and noticed a great improvement. She fought me for the critical care but the vet said as long as she was still eating, I didnt need to give it to her so I stopped the critical care. By Saturday, she still had a slight tilt but was able to get around well and was eating, drinking, kissing and snuggling.
I woke up Sunday to a huge change. Alfies head tilt was extremely worse (worse than day one). My vet is closed on Sundays so I took her to the emergency clinic where they checked her over and told me her ears were looking a bit better. She told me that im giving Alfie all the right medicines and that there is nothing else she would perscribe and that I just need to wait it out and hope for the best. I followed up with my vet the next day (monday, one week after this began) and she told me I need to bring Alfie back. I took her back to the vet where she also gave me Panacur for the treatment of E Cuniculi. We started her on the Panacur that night.
Tuesday was a normal day, woke up and gave Alfie her medicines, she was still standing normally. When I arrived home from school at 5 that day, I took her out of her cage to see if she had improved. As soon as I put her on the bed, she fell once and couldnt get her balance. She began frantically rolling over and over and over again and I couldnt stop her. For fear she would snap her neck or break something, I put a blanket over her and held it tight. By this time, I let her calm down and tried to let her walk again. This didnt work as she just rolled and rolled and rolled once more. This went on for about two hours and by this time her vet was closed so I called the emergency vet again. They told me to bring her in so I placed her in her carrier with LOTS of padding. She just layed on her side and rolled during the car ride. By the time we got there she was under all the padding and on the bottom of the carrier on her back.
At the vet she was lethargic and just layed on her side the entire time while they assessed her. They pretty much told us that this was it and she should probably be put down. They left the room to let us say goodbye to her and came back about 20 minutes later. The vet checked her ears one more time and Alfie managed to get her balance and stand back up. After the vet saw this she told us that they can keep her over night and monitor her for a hefty price or we can take her back home with us and care for her there. She gave us eye lubricant as Alfie wasnt blinking as much as she should and sent us home. The night went pretty well. We managed to feed her lettuce, carrots and hay and a few treats. When I woke up this morning, I noticed she hadnt touched her water or food and there was no feces or urine in her cage at all over night. I have been watching her closely today and she is eating lettuce and hay out of my hands but not drinking at all. I make sure the lettuce is covered in water when I give it to her but I fear that its not enough. She has barely moved from the same spot all day and her head tilt is still just as bad.
She also has nystigmus (eye rolling) which got better after the first day, but came back. Today she tried to move in her cage and had one of her rolling fits again. I sat with her and tried to calm her and helped her get her balance back.
What I really want to know is if it looks like my chances with her are good and might improve and if not, at what point do I even consider putting her down? I will do anything to save her life as I feel like I couldnt live without her and I want her to make a full recovery. But I also dont want her to suffer and I dont want to put her through a life like this if she will never really get better.
Help please?
Caitlin