twitching head

[MD]

About a week ago, I noticed Daphny twitching her head a little, as though she were sneezing or coughing, but she wasn’t making any sounds.  I’ve seen her do this a few more times during the week and am trying to figure out what this is about.  This is a new thing, and she does not have a head tilt or any other odd behaviors (that I’ve noticed).  She also spontaneously knocked her water bottle off the exercise pen around the time of twitching, so I’m wondering if she’s anxious about something.  Her bonded sister, Misty, passed away about 6 weeks ago, and I don’t know if this behavior is still part of the grieving process or not. 

[MooBunnay]

Hi MD! Its nice to see you back online

How long do these twitching episodes last? And are they very frequent? Could you possibly take a video of one of the episodes and bring it to the vet with her? I have one bunny who does something called “scanning” where she kind of sways her head from side to side because she can’t see very well, and it is kind of “twitchy” looking, but that only happens when she gets nervous or excited about something and is trying hard to see. I hope that Daphny is OK!

[jerseygirl]

Perhaps had her looked at by the vet. Hope she’s okay.

[RabbitPam]

It could be she has something bothering her ears. Sometimes I see my bunny just flick her head rather than go to the trouble of lifting a paw to scratch an ear. If she keeps doing it, a vet visit would be a good idea just to get her checked out. Does she need her nails trimmed? You could get that done and have the vet take a look for the head twitch while she’s there.

[bunnytowne]

Thats curious.  Could it be a seizure?   Or itchy ears and she flaps them around.  Cotton does that.  Then he decides to finally scratch or groom  (sometimes) after shaking his head around.  This is normal for Cotton.  If this is what it is then yours should be ok.  If this isn’t it or you are concerned a vet visit may be in order.

[MD]

I spoke to the vet on the phone, and she asked if Daphny had been trying to scratch her ears at all. Then I remembered seeing her licking her back foot and trying to scratch the inside of her ear. She only did it a few times, and I haven’t seen her do it since, so maybe it was just a scratch in her ear? Misty used to groom Daphny’s ears, so maybe that’s why she never had an itch before. The twitch was a few movements of her head from side to side, like if you were tilting your head to each shoulder. Hopefully that’s all it was, but I’m keeping an eye on her in any case.

[RabbitPam]

Does sound like she was getting a good ear grooming before from Misty. It’s summer, so maybe some little gnats got inside and were around her. Sometimes a thorough cleaning of the habitat will eliminate some sneaky bugs and flying fur that can get into their ears.

[Maggie]

Saw someone say “just a rabbit”. Real love my bunny to bits she’s given us so much enjoyment and is so loving I would be devastated if we lost her! X

[LBJ10]

Hi Maggie! Welcome to BB! This thread is VERY old (2009!). We ask members to avoid replying to old threads because it causes confusion. It seems like someone needs assistance and then it turns out the issue is long resolved. I’m going to lock this thread now so others know not to respond. =)

It sounds like you love your bunny very much. Don’t worry, no one thinks “it’s just a rabbit” here. I think you mistook Jerseygirl’s signature for a post. She has a great quote in her signature that says “Whoever says “It’s only a rabbit” has obviously never loved a rabbit”, which is so very very true.

[Meatloaf_the_bunny]

Hello, I have a bunny named meatloaf. Meatloaf was recently twitching and I was confused on what to do. So I searched it up on google and found this website. I looked at all the comments that told me he may have an itch in his ear or something like that. So I went over to him and picked him up and started inspecting his ear, that’s when I found fleas! So I just wanted to give people a heads up about this. If your bunny is twitching, he may have just a simple itch or it could be fleas (in my case)

[Azerane]

Hi Meatloaf_the_bunny. I’m glad you were able to find the cause of your bunny’s twitching head and have hopefully found a rabbit safe flea treatment (revolution or advantage are safe brands, speak to your vet regarding the dose), never use Frontline (fipronil) on rabbits as it is fatal.

If you wish to discuss your bunny’s fleas more, please feel free to start a new topic as we encourage members to start new topics, rather than respond to old ones to avoid confusion.

[Author]

Messages