Drooping eye and mouth – ear infection

[Pomsprings]

 Hello Everyone. 

Springs mate Pompeii died 3 months ago from E Cunniculi and ever since then it has been non stop problems. And as you can expect, it has been a really hard time for me and my husband as well.  After Pompeii died we treated her with panacur just incase. 

About a week after he died, we woke up one morning and her head was slightly tilted. We booked a vet appointment so that we could get more baytril ear drops (she can’t take oral baytril as she completely stops doing everything) and booked a vet appointment. By the time we brought her in, her head was not tilted anymore. we got drops and started giving them. 

Then about a month later, we woke up again and she had a head tilt again. We thought it was probably like last time and gave her ear drops Me and my husband hoped it would fix itself and we had to go to work. My husband got home at 1pm and let me know that she still had her head tilted and her right eye that was pointing down was leaking and looked like she couldnt close it. He decided to call the vet but said they couldn’t fit us in and made us an appointment for the next day at 5pm. When I got home at 4pm, Her 3rd eyelid was out and the eye was all red. Her right side of her mouth started to droop and it looked all puffy, her ear was also laying right back. I called the vet back and said it was much worse than this morning and was afraid to wait until the next day at 5pm. I guess he heard the desperation in my voice and said he would move around the schedule and call me back. 

They were able to get us in at 6:30pm. So we went and the vet took a look and was very thorough. Since spring had always had chronic ear infections, we figured it was an inner ear thing rather than E Cunniculi. Unfortunately because of the ear drops, she couldn’t take a culture. We were kicking ourselves for that. She said she had paralysis on her right side. She was already on TMP (? – I think is what is is) for her nose (sneezing and running). So she put us back on that for another month and gave us some Metronidazole and hoped that would work. Also, we were to give the ear drops. We also got some gel for her eye. She cleaned out the ear, which could be why the drops weren’t working, it couldnt get through all the gunk in there.

We brought her home and the next day the head tilt was pretty much gone which was good. She would twitch her head quite a bit, we think it was because she was trying to blink her eye. She doesn’t do it much now, and if she does, we put gel in her eye.

It has been about 5 days later and her mouth still droops and her eye still wont blink, although her ear seems to have gone up a bit and her right eye seems to not be wide open anymore. Its like she is almost closing it or relaxing it. She has stopped eating pellets because we think her mouth is bothering her. She eats vegetables once in a while but I haven’t seen her eat hay in a while. She doesn’t drink water either. We have been feeding her critical care and syringing her water. It almost takes an hour to do all the medication and feeding, etc..each time we do it.

I guess I am just wondering if anyone has had this problem and if the drooping had gone away? The vet said it could be permanent, which I really hope is not true because she mostly likes to sit in her box all day rather than on her bag that she use to always sit on. She just looks sad. She also is scared of us right now, because I think she doesn’t want us to come pick her up and give her her meds and force feed her anymore…she really hates it all. It is very hard to comfort a rabbit that gets scared when you come near her.

I have heard steroids help with the drooping, so I wonder why we were not given them? Maybe they don’t work with the medication we are already giving her? 

Anyways, any feedback on the matter would be appreciated. Sorry this is so long, I just don’t want to leave any information out.

Thank you!

Alicia

 

 

 

 

[Sarita]

I would have to wonder if it could be e. cunniculi…

Steroids are usually not given to rabbits as they are very sensitive to them and it’s always as a very last resort.

Have you considered getting a second opinion? Does your vet see alot of rabbits.

I know how stressful this is for you and it’s hard to see your rabbit this way.

[Pomsprings]

Thanks for the info about the steroids. Definitely want to be careful with things as she is 8 years old and sometimes reacts badly to some medications.
I had switched to this vet as they are quite rabbit savvy. She also gets high praise from the rabbit rescue I got the bunnies from. If it was the last vet I had been with, I would definitely agree with you in a second opinion as they never once told me about E Cunniculi with Pompeii and he had all the symptoms, where my current vet diagnosed it right away.
Me and the vet definitely talked about it being e cunniculi but because of her chronic ear problems, we are assuming it has to do with that. At least I hope that is true.
Thanks for your comments.

[Sarita]

It does sound like you have an excellent vet who understands rabbits and you feel comfortable with – that is very important.

I think I would ask the vet about drops for the eye that doesn’t close and also see if you can get much more aggressive with the treatment – I’ve found that sometimes you have to ask to be much more aggressive – most vets do start out with more caution and that’s a good thing but sometimes if what you are doing is not working you want to try to be more aggressive. It does sound to me that your vet is trying to be more aggressive adding the metronidazole along with the TMZ (which is also known as Bactrim)…but ask about drops for that eye to help lubricate it if she cannot blink.

Have you done any bloodwork?

[Sarita]

Also do you have some critical care to help syringe feed her since she’s not eating her pellets.

[Pomsprings]

Yeah, we have been doing the critical care which is whats taking so long because she likes to spit it back out. She is still pooping and peeing which is good. We have also been putting gel in her eye that they gave us to lubricate the eye that doesnt blink. Poor girl, must feel like she is being tortured.
We had done blood work about a month ago to make sure all her organs and everything were good (which they were).
I am thinking I will call on Monday to give an update about how she sometimes twitches her head and the 3rd eye lid will come out and go back in again.

[tobyluv]

I don’t have any medical advice for you, but I wanted to say I was sorry for all that Spring is going through, and for the stress and worry you are going through. I hope that the vet can try some other treatments and that they will be successful.

[BinkyBunny]

This is quite baffling because usually the head-tilt, whether it be due to an inner ear infection or e.cuniculi doesn’t go away within a day. It normally is a long road to recovery and so the fact your bunny bounced back so quickly at first really is something! There is a good resource about bunnies with head-tilt that may be helpful to you. They also have a forum group dedicated to head-tilt issues. http://www.onthewonk.com.

IF it is e.cuniculi, though yes it could be permanent, some improvement sometimes can be made and it’s amazing how well many bunnies do actually adjust. It really is an individual thing. I know this is very hard for you though. Hugs!!

[RabbitPam]

I’m afraid I don’t have a medical suggestion either, but am sending you a staple of our site, healing vibes. They never hurt, and sometimes they help.
{{{{{{{{{{{{Healing vibes for Spring}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[littlemissflip]

I am curious (and I apologize if you mentioned this and I just missed it) how long did you treat her with the panacur “just in case”? Is she still taking panacur?

Hope you can find out what’s wrong with her… this must be very sad and stressful

[Pomsprings]

Thank you everyone for the healing vibes. I sure hope they work! At least things aren’t getting worse at the moment. She is not taking panacur any longer. She had taken it for 40 days, every 12 hours. She is definitely a little trooper. The vet isn’t back in until tomorrow, so I will most likely call then. I will update here once I know more.

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