Got home from work today and let Peanut, 7 month old Netherland Dwarf, out of his cage to binky around and enjoy the night. I noticed he was walking on his tip toes, almost like he was walking while streching, then he just fell over. He jumped up and was swaying around. Every few steps he would just fall over. I flipped out, called our local EmergencyV and they had no one on staff that has experince with bunnies. They did give us the number to a different EV and we called, they had one doctor that had seen a few rabbits when he was still in school and was pretty good friends with the only exotic animal vet in our area, he told us to bring Peanut in and let him check him out. We drove straight there, still freaking out. .

The vet comes in and explains that there are two possible causes of his balance issues, 1. Pasteurella and 2. E.C.

He says that Pasteurella is a bacterial infection and is the more common cause and that it is treatable. He also says that E.C is incureable and usually results in the loss of the bunny. He told us that he did not feel comfortable with trying to draw blood to do any testing. That Peanut doesn’t currently show any “REM” but his head is slightly tilted and that his ears are a little droopy, not that I couldn’t have told him that, he is my bunny after all. He told us the best thing to do is euthanize Peanut so they could run some tests, find the cause and potentially save our other bun. He started Peanut on .3CC of Baytril a day and recommended us to get him to the vet that knows what he is doing. Everything else is normal, pulse, respriations, weight is good, chest is clear.

This is how he is acting, taking food from our hands, his head has the slightest tilt and his ear will lean but he quickly fixes it. He walks around fine and he is acting like his normal self. When he does lose balance he will try to quickly correct himself. He isn’t dragging or spinning, just falls and jumps right back up then sways a little. If you watch his head, he sways it side to side. He keeps trying to shake his head/ears and will start to fall but quickly catches himself. He doesn’t have a big appetite but he will eat if we hand it to him, he is drinking from his bottle and he just chomped down a banana piece I hand fed him.

We will be taking him to our local exotic vet tomorrow, first thing. Anything that I should make sure to speak with the vet about other than the symptoms?

I apologize for any typos and obvious rambling, been crying my little eyes out for the last 3 hours. I never thought this furry little bunny could be so much like my son. This picture is Peanut from a few days ago. Thank you to any and all that respond. I’m still freaked out.