Head tilt questions

[Bacuzoro]

 First off, this is not abou either of my rabbits – they are both happy and healthy.  This is about someone who know and their rabbit. They are outdoor rabbits who live in shed where the walls are basically plywood and it is getting down to 10-20 degrees at night now.  A couple days ago the rabbit developed head tilt and it was taken to the vet today (not really a rabbit vet but better than nothing).  The owner said it started looking better today but they still took it.  The vet said it was suffering from vertigo and gave it a cortisone shot and said it’d be all set. I’m just a little confused because wouldn’t head tilt cause vertigo and not the other way around? And does head tilt usually get better on its own? I don’t have any experience with it but from what I’ve read on here, it doesn’t sound that easy.  What have been any of your experiences with this?  Nos the head tilt wasn’t terrible when I saw it, but definitely noticeable so I’m just a little concerned.  Thanks for the input!

[Sarita]

This vet does not know rabbits at all based on what you are saying. Cortisone is a steroid and rabbits are very sensitive to steroids and are only used as a last resort.

A good rabbit vet would treat for both an ear infection (baytril would work) and for Encephalitozoon Cuniculi with a dewormer (usually panacur). These rabbits need to be indoors and especially the sick one.

Vertigo is a condition and frankly, we don’t know if rabbits truly suffer vertigo, but it’s not an illness and the illness, not the condition need to be treated.

[bunnyfriend]

Head tilt is serious. Is there a way you could convince the person to take their rabbit to a rabbit savvy vet? Perhaps your rabbit’s vet? There’s a list on HRS of recommended rabbit vets http://www.rabbit.org/vets/index.html

[Bacuzoro]

Ok this is what I thought… Will the cortisone cause it to “appear” like the head tilt is gone or will it still be visible? 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I don’t think I could add to what Sarita said-it’s very succinct and clear.

The cortisone will only -maybe-decrease joint pain…I don’t see how it applies at all. Yes some rabbits spontaneously recover from head tilt-one of the studies I read had something like two hundred rabbits with tilt half untreated and they found no difference in recovery of treated vs untreated. It was an older study however and they did not delineate the cause (EC or ear infection) so I would take the results with a grain of salt. Yes it can happen but I wouldn’t bank on it or use that as a sound treatment plan. Other studies show aggressive treatment of both EC and ear infection are the best route to recovery.

{{Vibes}} for the poor bun

[Hillary Mundell]

My 3 year old Netherlands Dwarf, Peter, had head tilt. I am not too sure on what caused it. We took him to a very rabbit savvy vet. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take your little bon to a vet that knows rabbits!!!! The wrong meds can kill a bon. Anyways, he most defiantly had head tilt, and the vet did an inner ear swab to check for infection, he said Peters ears were very clean but that is the only thing he could think of that would cause such a thing to a well taken care of rabbit. His head tilt progressed extremely rapid, he went from a minor tilt to rolling and severe vertigo within 3 days. The vet gave him steroids for 10 days by mouth twice a day, and 7 days of antibiotics via shot once a day. He started showing improvements by the 3 day of treatment, after the last steroid treatment he was 100%. No tilt, eating and drinking on his own, and very active and happy. I heard a lot of stories of head tilt taking months to recover from, by my little man did it within 10 days. If you catch it early and start treatment it can make a huge difference in the recovery. As for relapse in head tilt, i don’t know. Peter seems fine, but every time he cocks his head i have a nervous break down thinking it’s back. ): Best wishes to you and your little bon <3

[Sarita]

Hillary, this post is about 2 years old now – we ask that you do not reply to old posts I’m going to lock this thread.

[Author]

Messages