My rabbit has recently been diagnosed with E Cuniculi, how can I help him?

[Klaire]

Hi everyone,
My 3 year old bun has recently been diagnosed with EC. 6 days ago I found him under the bed a bit lopsided and scanning a lot so rushed him to the vets where they said it was very likely he had EC. He had a check up 2 days ago and the vet seemed to think he was making a good recovery. Then yesterday out of nowhere he just started rolling around. He’d not rolled at all up until this point so again I took him to the vet. They couldn’t give him anything but said to keep giving him his lapizole and metacam. I realise he is probably going to be left with a head tilt but I was just wondering if he will actually stop rolling? I’m worried that he is stressing which will have a negative impact on his heart. Luckily I don’t work many hours and my partner works from home so there is someone there 90% of the time and if he starts rolling or looks like he’s going to, we can stop him. I’m concerned about him in the night and if I have to go out. I have padded his cage with towels so he can’t injure himself. Is there anything else I can do? I feel like I could be doing more for him but I don’t really know what? If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can make him happier, more comfortable and generally less distressed when rolling or anything else it would be appreciated!

[jerseygirl]

Hi Klaire
Im sorry your bun is not well at the moment. {{{Healing vibes!}}}

Dealing with head tilt and the rolling can be stressful and tiring. It’s really a matter of making things safe for him (as you have done) and waiting until medication can make a difference. It’s not unusal for the main improvement to occur after the course of meds.

My rabbit Maple went through head tilt in 2013. It was 4-6 weeks of dealing with symptoms. Her rolling stage lasted for about a week.I know the rolling looks awful and I felt so bad watching her go through it. But I was hand feeding her greens at the time and she would munch away on them right after a roll. So I suppose she didn’t feel terrible!

I would discuss with your vet about starting your rabbit on an antibiotic also, because inner ear infection is more often responsible for these symptoms. If that is the case, the metacam will be helping but an appropriate antibiotic would need to be added in also. And continue on with the lapizole to cover in case of EC.

Some have found that a medication like meclizine (for motion sickness, nausea) can help these rabbits also. I’ve also heard of cerenia (a med given to dogs for motion sickness) being prescribed for these rabbits before.

How is your rabbits appetite?

With the eye scanning, did you notice the direction the eyes were moving in? Side to side, up/down or rolling? This can indicate whether there is peripheral or CNS inflammation and also be a pointer to likelihood of ear infection v’s EC.

[jerseygirl]

I hope this link works okay. Headtilt PDF

It contains a lot of links to a yahoo group On The Wonk. There is a facebook page for this group now also. There is also another FB group called Help for Headtilt Hoppers.

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