Bunny swaying and falling over

[jman1783]

We have a beloved 5 year old English angora who’s been a member of the family since he was a baby, now suddenly swaying and falling over pretty much all the time as of 2 months ago. He had previously been in perfect health and has had annual exams. Around December, he was jumping around in good health, on and off the couch quite happily, and perhaps a bit more than usual. Then all of a sudden on one jump down his legs kind of gave out and he went skittering off. Ever since then, he’s been acting strangely, with symptoms worsening and evolving into near constant swaying except when laying down, feet giving out, inability to get up on hind legs, no jumping up on things (though he will sprint and jump over small objects when he feels like it), running in curved lines, and generally being unbalanced. We have had him at the vet twice over the last month to check this. They tested him for E. cuniculi, which came back negative. Multiple checks for an ear infection were negative, though only superficially. Blood work came back very healthy, everything in normal ranges. Short of x-rays, we can’t turn anything up, but he is definitely unsteady, and it seems to be getting worse.

At first I figured he injured something, but I now believe that whatever is wrong with him is what caused the original fall, not the other way around. Regardless, I am trying to figure out if he has some form of injury, a deep ear infection, arthritis, or some kind of degenerative nerve condition. And more importantly, what we should do for him, ideally to make a recovery. He still seems very happy, he eats like a horse and pees / poops constantly, he’s got the same loving personality as always, but he’s not really able to groom himself without falling over, and he’s having a hard time getting to his cecotropes. I don’t want to put the poor little guy through a series of x-rays unnecessarily, which I guess includes sedation, or giving him medication for an ear infection that the vet said could affect his appetite and cause him to have stasis problems. I’m hoping for some advice based on similar situations, that might lead us to check some things more likely than others.

My wife is in tears, and it’s really hard to watch our little man falling apart like this. Any help would be greatly welcomed.

[Kiki]

Did he have a stroke? Is there a way the vet can check for that ? Does he seem unnerved by his unsteadiness ?

[Bunny House]

E.C tests are unreliable so you should always treat on suspicion as tests can be false positive and false negative.
I would also do xray (for arthritis) or a CT (for inner ear infection that you can’t see with an otoscope) Did the vet look in his ears to see an ear infection? Did you go to a rabbit savvy vet?

Is he still eating and pooping normal? I would treat for EC for 2 months and see if there is improvement as ec affects balance, as it can’t take months to see a result, and do xrays to see if there is arthritis

[Jacobwal]

I have had a similar situation to yours so I hope I can be of some help….

I recently rescued a bunny that was abandoned by someone I know in my neighborhood. She was outside for around 2 months before I could catch her outside and rescue her. When I rescued her she was very underweight. Long story short she ended up gaining weight and becoming healthy.

Around a month ago I noticed some of the same signs you have described in your rabbit. My rabbit started to loose her balance at first. I was concerned but did not know what to do at the time. Around a week or two after she started loosing balance I noticed she started loosing weight and not eating as much. I also thought that she may have a broken back leg because one of her legs was constantly off to the side of her body and not aligned like it should be. She was still producing pellets though.

I did some research online and came to the conclusion that she more than likely has e cuniculi as it effects the nervous system and I didn’t think my buns leg was broken. I also found out that it is spread by urine and my rabbit was probably exposed to wild rabbits over her 2 month period outdoors. I learned that tests are not a reliable way to find out if your rabbit has e cuniculi. I also found out that fenbendazole does not cause harm to a rabbit even if they don’t have EC.

After looking up treatments I found out that panacur (Fenbendazole) is a common treatment for e cuniculi. I looked online and found out that you can buy a panacur paste online but it was kind of expensive. So instead I bought panacur-C online that is meant for dogs. I am a nurse so I am decent with drug conversions so I weighed the granules out so that I would be giving the right amount of milligrams for my rabbit that weighed 2.2 pounds at the time.

I mixed the granules with mashed banana and my bun loves it

After around 7 days I noticed a major improvement in my bun. She started eating more and was moving around her cage more frequently with no more balance issues. I am currently on day 7 and her leg is back to normal and no longer off to one side. She is also eating way more than she used to. I am planning on treating her for around 28 days.

I hope this helps and think it might be worth a try for your bun. I am lucky I caught this early enough or who knows how sick she would have became.

[Author]

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