Inner ear infection

[Hayley]

I am currently fostering a Holland lop named Zues who has an inner ear infection (at least thats what the vets hopeing vs. E. Cuniculi). I am just wondering besides his medicine how can I make him more comfortable. He has pretty bad ballance problems, he rolls to his left side when he tries to hop. I already moved him from a wire bottomed cage (he has lived on wire his whole life) to a solid floored cage. The only problem I am running into is that he doesn’t have the balance to reach back and eat his cecal poos so they get stuck to his bum meaning evey morning he has to have his bum washed/dryed. Has anyone had experience with this and have some advice for me?

~Hayley

[Deleted User]

The best advice I can give is based on my experience with my rabbits head tilt. (we are not positive what the cause was).
If Zues’s head is tilted, odds are his neck hurts. if he lets you hold him, you can give him neck rubs. our boston loved that-it really helped her neck.
does zues only lose balance when hopping? if he loses balance in his cage, considering giving him blankets to lay on/ roll on so he doesn’t hurt himself.
possibly giving him a small restricted area to play in might help with balance problems. It just depends though, with boston, the restricted area made it worse.

good luck! i’m sure others will stop by with other good advice!

Lots of healing vibes to Zues from Boston!

[Beka27]

has the vet taken a sensitivity culture to see if it is indeed e. cuniculi? that will help them determine the best course of treatment.

[Hayley]

The vet want’s to try and treat for inner ear infection first and see how it goes. I don’t believe the vet took a culture, but I’m not sure as I didn’t have him yet so I wasn’t there.

Also I was wondering is e. cuniculi contagious? Could my rabbits get it?

Zues does loose his balence in his cage, he pretty much falls over anytime he moves and then he just flails his legs in the air trying to right himself. It’s quite a sad sight. I piled hay around the sides of the cage to cusion him when he falls is there anything else I can do? And no he doesn’t have actual head tilting, thank godness. Although if he just had a tilted head and no balance problems I’d be happy.

~Hayley

 

 

[Beka27]

the sensitivity test is good b/c it will tell you what bacteria is causing the infection and what the best med might be to fight it. there are different types of antibiotics that work with specific bacterias. will your vet do one if you asked? if it is e. cuniculi it will require a different treatment…  if he’s just now starting to have balance problems, that is probably good and you caught it early.  i really hope everything works out well.  if this is being cause by EC, it can be passed to your other rabbits, but i believe only if they come in contact with their urine or feces… someone correct me please if i’m wrong.

[Hayley]

oh geeze why didn’t they tell me that!

I have let him in the x-pen that all my rabbits share! …… I am kind of freaking now! As everyone knows rabbits are not neat with their poos, plus I didn’t even try to clean them up as there weren’t that many. The girls were smelling the poo alot too!

I really do hope that it is only an ear infection and not EC, I can’t deal with loosing my girls. It sounds harsh but I would definatly rather loose the foster I have only had for a week.

~Hayley

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Actually E. Cuniculi can live outside of the body for up to thirty days, so they don’t even need to come in direct contact.

When fostering (or volunteering around other buns) come home strip your clothes-right into the laundry basket, and get in the shower; Do not allow direct contact.
The best disinfectant to use is VIRKON if you can get your hands on it (Should be available at industrial feed stores) or you can use bleach. Virkon is great because you can spray it on carpet and clothing and anything. Both will work..

Your buns are at risk but it’s not a death sentance so take deep breaths. They may have been exposed ages ago (from where ever you got them from…) and developed resistance. And the bun your fostering may have Pasturella (Which also causing tilting and falling) or something else entirely.

For peice of mind, take your buns in and have them tested. Some info on both diseases

Testing for E. Cuniculi: A positive blood test indicates only that the rabbit has at some point contacted the disease. It is suggested to do two tests approximately one month apart. A value that rises over the testing period, or both readings being high indicate the rabbit is acutely infected and needs treatment. Values that are low on both readings indicate that the immune system has the disease under control.

Treatment for E. Cuniculi: Treatment by Oxibendazole, Albendazole or Fenbendazole. Improvement may be seen immediately or after several weeks. Blood tests to monitor liver values should be done during treatment as treatment can cause elevation of these levels.

Testing for Pasturella: Culture sensitivity test
Treatment for Pasturella:Antibiotics for the disease are given-systematic and general. Abscesses are surgically removed, blocked tear ducts or conjunctivitis are treated by flushing of the ducts.

[Beka27]

wow! 30 days! thanks K&K! if this is something that is going to be beyond your ability to deal with, i wonder if you’d be able to return the foster. i hate to say that, but maybe there is someone with more experience in this that could take the poor guy on…

[Sarita]

Well at this point you are just speculating and you do not know what it is – I would advise you to discuss any concerns with the vet about the situation.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

^^ Ditto Sarita, vet knows best!

[Hayley]

Okay I’ll ask.

~Hayley

[Deleted User]

Boston got an eye infection from rolling on the hay, i would maybe just put blankets in his cage and small pile of hay at all times.

hey good luck, don’t freak out, i know your super scared, but its great of you to be taking care of this bun!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ditto don’t freak out, you’re doing an awesome job and exposure does not equal sickness!! *HUGS*

[Hayley]

Okay, so I talked to my vet and he said that pretty much all rabbits have come in contact with E.cuniculi at one time or another. So I don’t need to be worried. We still don’t know that Zues even has EC, but the vet is putting him on Fenbendazole (Panacur) just to be safe. So that little worry is over with, thank goodness.

The biggest thing now is Zues’s poopy butt every morning (cecal poos mashed to his bum). What do I do? I think I am going to end up just shaving his bum furs because this butt bath thing is kind if a pain (especially to do alone). Any thoughts?

~Hayley

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Best thing to do for a shave is have the vet do it, it’s called a hygeine shave. Their skin is super stretchy and you can easily trim it, then because it’s thin and stretchy a little nick becomes a huge emergency.

You can use cornstarch to clean up poopy bum, just put a bunch on the bum allowing all the moisture to be picked up, then comb it all out. It cleans the bum with no need for a bath.

[BinkyBunny]

Stats are that 1 out of 4 will show positive for e.cuniculi and some will never show symptoms. I am so glad that your vet decided to treat for e.cuniculi though straight away because IF it is it’s best to at least treat early to help prevent permanent damage. e.cuniculi is not curable but many times the treatment can get the parasite levels down so that they can’t harm at that time. Later the levels can rise, but then you can treat again. I won’t load you down with e.cuniculi facts until you know for sure. Is your vet going to test for e.cuniculi?

Keep us updated.

Beka: Yes, the most common form of E.C. transfer is via urine (supposedly can only happen when the parasite is active in the bladder) however, they still really don’t know for sure. I can tell you that I know FOR SURE that Rucy was e.cuniculi negative when I adopted her. (she had been tested since she had ear infection that caused a few days of head tilt)

She shared a pen for a short time with Bailey when she was healthy, but then because they weren’t getting along, they were separated from that point on. I even had separate litterboxes out in the “general” shared area. When Bailey had to go back into her pen, her litterbox was never left out.

I even had separate rugs for them in exercise area. I would take up “Bailey’s rug when she was done and in the rest of the house none of them urinated or pooped, so it was very difficult for them to come in contact with each other’s urine and feces….. BUT Rucy recently tested positive to e.cuniculi. Doesn’t mean she’ll ever get symptoms but she has been exposed even with all of the precautions.

[Beka27]

thanks BB! just a side question? is it generally good practice to test for EC beforehand? i’m thinking there’s a good chance Max might have it, b/c he was kept in a warren-like situation in a rescue along with about 20 other free-range buns. is there any benefit in testing for it just to see if he is positive to help in future illnesses?

[BinkyBunny]

It could be beneficial to know that IF he has it what his current “titer” levels are. Then later IF he gets sick, you can check out the titer levels to help judge if it’s the e.cuniculi that’s making him sick at that point or if it’s something else. It could help with future treatment.

Also, I have heard that if a rabbit is tested and then treated when the titer levels are low and there are no symptoms, it can help kill of the parasite. But this is all still up in the air since they are STILL searching for a cure. Ponazural was hoped to be a cure, but I haven’t heard long-term results yet that confirm it.

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