How long can a rabbit live with e.cuniculi with no treatment.

[justlookingforhelp]

My rabbit has had a blind eye and a head tilt for over a year. The reason I want to know about this is, maybe e.c normally proves fatal within 6 months? And now that he has passed through he no longer suffers from the disease. Maybe the head tilt and blind eye are just residual with no longer underlying issue? Can a rabbit beat this with no treatment. He can hop and run. But is very lazy and just like petting and cuddling all the time.

[Bam]

It does sound like your bun has had/has e cuniculi, because it typically affects the eyes and the central nervous system (of which the eyes are a part, actually). Chances are he could’ve been exposed to the parasite already in his mother’s womb.

How rabbits cope with e cuniculi is very, very individual. The mechanisms are not fully understood yet, but since so many rabbits (estimated at around 60-80 % of domestic rabbits) test positive for e cuniculi (meaning they’ve been exposed at some time in their lives), but only relatively few buns ever develop symptoms, the rabbit immune system seems pretty good at keeping the infection at bay.

We are not vets here, so we can’t really recommend any medical treatment. Standard the treatment for an ec bunny consists mainly of 28 days of a dewormer called fenbendazole. In Europe and the USA (and Australia I think) it’s sold under the name Panacur, but in your part of the world it might be called something else. The active substance is fenbendazole though, that would be the same all over the world. It’s recommended to treat a bun that has had ec symptoms with fenbendazole every six months for 9 days, to keep any remaining e c parasites from making the bun sick again. Fenbendazole is OTC in most countries and mostly sold for cats and dogs and horses, so dosage would need to be recalculated for a rabbit.

[Mikey]

I really would recommend getting him treatment. If you suspect he has EC there is no reason to deny him proper care…

[headpeon]

It depends on the rabbit – it’s age, and emotional and physical health – and how much E. Cuniculi is present. Most rabbits are exposed to E. Cuniculi in their mother’s urine, which is why many rabbits test positive for it. The great majority of rabbits won’t develop symptoms, though. It seems to be opportunistic, kind of like the herpes virus in humans. The body keeps it at bay until the immune system tanks due to some other infection or trauma or old age, and then herpes in humans or E. Cuniculi in rabbits becomes active. 

To my knowledge, again like herpes in humans, E. Cuniculi never completely goes away. The infection lessens and/or becomes dormant after treatment, but it’s still lingering, waiting to activate. 

Treat your bunny, because EC will cause death, and it’s not an easy death at that. I’ve never heard of a rabbit beating the infection on it’s own without treatment. Even if yours has, it’s a waiting game, because it will most likely come back. 

There are differently kinds of E. Cuniculi in different parts of the U.S., and probably in different countries, too. Some strains are fast moving and virulent. Some are slow moving, and not as virulent. Unfortunately, you don’t know what strain your bunny has. So giving you a guesstimate on how long your bun can/will live with untreated E. Cuniculi is impossible. 

You don’t have to treat the bunny every six months, though. Treat the bunny once, and then have your vet draw blood and run a test. If the E. Cuniculi doesn’t show up on the test and/or is almost negligible, then stop treating the bunny. If it’s still prevalent, treat the bunny again. Once the blood test comes back a-ok, then just have a blood test once a year to check E. Cuniculi levels, or if your rabbit starts showing symptoms again. 

Granted, the blood test for E. Cuniculi isn’t cheap. It’s about $125. But the EC meds aren’t cheap either, and they are VERY hard on rabbits; the treatment itself can cause death. So, for your bunny’s comfort and longevity, treat until the blood test comes back clean, and then run the blood test once a year or if the rabbit becomes symptomatic. 

I’ve nursed my bun through E. Cuniculi twice. I learned the hard way that the test is worth the money, and that the meds should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.  

[Author]

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