Head Tilt? Cross eyed? Advice needed.

[SmokeyBunnyRobinson]

Butterscotch is an almost 5 month old Holland Lop from a breeder. I have another rabbit from the same breeder and all is well. So the more I’m around him (about a month or two I’ve had him) I’m noticing this weird kind of tilt. Now I’ve seen the “head tilt” online and that’s not how Butterscotch is behaving. And none of the symptoms. Ears aren’t hot or punk or oozing, blinks on both sides, chews with his when mouth, eating / drinking and peeing / pooping completely normal. Same activity level too. He was even out in the exercise pen hopping around like normal. But because I list a lop a few months ago, now I’m like paranoid for every little thing. I’ll attach some pictures so you all can help me out. You’ve all helped me so much over the years with Smokey so maybe you can steer me in the right direction here?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Is this a permanent tilt or just something he does occasionally?

[SmokeyBunnyRobinson]

My vet was awesome enough to tell me to come in just because I was being a worried bun-mom and it turns out one of his ear drums was ruptured. Odd thing is, he never stopped eating, drinking, pooping, peeing anything. Just the ever-so-slight head tilt. He must be a trooper because all the buns I’ve ever seen with a burst eardrum don’t act like him!

So since I’ve only had him less than 2 months, I asked how this could happen since it was an inner ear infection that lead to it bursting. She said he probably had it from the breeder, the infection just kept growing until his body couldn’t tolerate it anymore, and then he started with the head tilt. I’m very upset since now the poor baby has to get penicillin shots for the next 3 weeks. But I chose that instead of Baytril because I was too scared of it causing him to not eat anymore. This happened to my chinchilla and having to forcefeed critical care was AWFUL. So she said 3 weeks of penicillin should clear it up because his ears are SUPER clean, no redness, no hot to the touch, etc. So I guess I lucked out for an ear infection!

[Bam]

You are an awsome mum for spotting this! I’m so glad you have an awesome vet who asked you to come in.
Get well soon (((((Butterscotch)))))

I don’t know about forcefeeding a chinchilla, but it sounds like it’s a lot worse than forcefeeding a rabbit. If it should come to that, you can absolutely do it. I hope it doesn’t, of course, but if it does, we’ll be happy to give you plenty of tips.

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