Head twitch

[Thumper]

Woke up this morning and noticed our rabbit had developed a head twitch. When he’s hopping around, cleaning himself, stressed, nervous or we have him in our lap it doesn’t happen.

Took him to an animal emergency and the “vet” on duty didn’t know much about rabbits and had to speak with the exotic animal vet about his symptoms and even took a video of his twitching and sent it to her. They couldn’t come up with anything without doing more testing, blood work and X-rays, for an extra $1000.00

Thumper is currently 5 yrs old and has never had any problems before, even after eating carpet and electrical wire. He doesn’t scratch his ears but does shake his head more often then before, but not all the time

[jerseygirl]

Sorry you didn’t have much success at the e-vet. Did they prescribe any treatment at all or just further tests?

Its possible its an  ear infection or parasites of some kind, both which can cause some neurological symptoms. Re inner ear infections: you’d normally see some loss of balance or even head-tilt with this. So the fact that he doesn’t have the twitch when moving around,  grooming etc is interesting. It could be when he puts his head in a certain position that triggers it though. 

Are you able to provide a link to share the video here?

[Bunny House]

I do want to add, my lop had middle ear infection in both ears and each canal were filled with pus and she never showed any signs of pain or anything indicating an ear infection, she just ate less, but maybe she was lucky she didn’t develop symptoms. I would agree that maybe it’s some mites or something itching within the ear causing the shaking.

[Kiki]

I know this is a weird one, and a lot less scary but my cat had a similar thing where she was shaking or twitching her head a lot and the vet told me it could be a loose piece of fur in there irritating the canal.

[Author]

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