Paralysis

[Elizabeth]

Hello,

I’m hoping to get some opinions on the tragic death of my rabbit, Beatrix who passed away in May…

I got her from PetSmart in November of 2017 (I believe she was 8-10 weeks old). Within the first two days of bringing her home she became paralyzed and couldn’t move or eat. I took her to the vet where they said she may have had a broken back or GI stasis – but it was hard to tell without extensive testing. Not being able to afford the hefty cost of the bill – I took her home and cared for her myself. I fed her with a syringe, kept her warm, and prayed a lot. Within a few days she miraculously healed! 

Within the next year she appeared to have recovered fully. She bounced, played, ate and pooped normally. This past May I took her outside (not for the first time) and she was having a blast. Out of pure ignorance, I allowed her to sniff around in some ivy (she did not eat any – just played in it for about 1 minute). She was fine for an entire week and showed no signs of sickness. She pooped, ate, and acted completely normal. 

That morning – the day of her death – I fed her as normal (she was eager to eat her food and seemed fine). I then checked on her 30 minutes later as I was headed out for work and she was paralyzed (just like she was when she was a baby). I took her to the vet and they said they had no idea what could be wrong with her (I didn’t tell them about the ivy because I didn’t know it was poisonous). They took an xray and they said she had no broken bones. They thought she may have had parasites of some sort? So they gave her medicine for treatment.

I took her home and within 5 hours she passed away. 

…I’m really just writing at this point to hear others’ thoughts. I understand you all aren’t vets, but I am still very sad because I don’t understand what happened. Was it the ivy? Was she just sick from birth? 

(Other factors could have been that I didn’t feed her hay because my husband is allergic, however I gave her timothy hay pellets and compressed hay cubes. I also feed her bananas often because she loved them along with her greens…) 

I would very much appreciated your opinions. Thanks!

[Sirius&Luna]

It sounds like it could be E Cuniculi, or EC, which is a parasite that many rabbits are born with (and I assume what your vet had started treating for. Treatment takes 28 days). Many rabbits carry it and show no signs, but occasionally it seems to activate for no real reason, or due to other stresses etc.

EC can cause all sorts of horrible problems – head tilt, hind leg paralysis, kidney problems, GI problems… Basically anything and everything that can go wrong with a rabbit. It could be that she had EC, as you saw from her paralysis as a baby, but she recovered and it stayed dormant until it reappeared a week ago. It could also have been causing internal problems that you couldn’t see during the time that she was fine, which could explain why she died so quickly.

I really don’t think you taking her outside and allowing her to play near ivy had anything to do with this.

I’m very sorry for your loss.

[Elizabeth]

Thank you for sharing! This makes a lot of sense now that i’m doing more research on it. I do have a follow-up question, however– I just got a new bunny about a month after Beatrix passed away. I cleaned the cage throughly, but is this new rabbit at risk of getting this parasite? 

[kurottabun]

Sorry for the loss of Beatrix. Unfortunately almost all bunnies are at risk for EC, whether or not they have been in contact with another bunny who had it. It’s just so awfully common in rabbits in general, but in some rabbits the parasite stays dormant all their lives while for others it manifests throughout different stages of life.

EC is pretty much impossible to prevent because it often only shows itself when there are symptoms, which in Beatrix’s case may have been paralysis. Like S&L said, the range of symptoms is so huge that almost anything could be EC. A few months ago my bun lost a lot of weight, had hind leg weakness, drank water and ate hay excessively and I often found his rear end wet. The vet could not pinpoint what was the issue, but they put him on Fenbendazole (an EC treatment) and asked me to monitor if he improved. He did and is now back to normal, so we assumed it was indeed EC.

As bunny owners we would usually keep an eye out for uncommon behaviours or weird poop and pee regardless. So I’d recommend to just keep doing that

[LBJ10]

Chances are, the new bunny was already exposed before you even got him/her. EC is commonly transmitted from mother to baby.

[Author]

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