Vet suggests against Panacur???

[winnie&jinxbuns]

So I told my vet that I want to preventatively give my rabbit Panacur because she’s getting worse and showing symptoms of e cuniculi (head tilt, circling, pooping and peeing everywhere, acting weird), but my vet advises against that until I get a test done because Panacur is dangerous and can cause liver problems, anemia, etc?? I’m not sure what to think. We’ve had my rabbit do every test under the sun and nothing comes up, so why is it so hard to believe that she could have e cuniculi? Is Panacur as dangerous as she says it is??? What do you guys think??

[Bam]

Panacur (fenbendazole) can cause bone marrow suppression. It’s not a  common side effect, but some vets want to do blood tests mid treatment to make sure the rabbit is fine, bc bone marrow failure is a very serious side effect. Many vets do insist on testing the bun for ec before they’re willing to prescribe Panacur or oxibendazole.

I only know of one bun that had to be taken off the ec med (in his case oxibendazole, a drug that’s closely related to fenbendazole) bc of too low red and white bloodcell counts and low platelets mid-treatment.

 

[winnie&jinxbuns]

That’s good to know, thank you. Although when the vet tried convincing me otherwise, they never mentioned bone marrow suppression, which is weird! I frankly have become less and less trusting the more I go to this vet. They have told me twice that Winnie looks healthy in scans, blood tests, urine tests and in a physical and that she doesn’t show the majority of the severe signs of EC. But when I do research of head tilt, urine incontinence, circling, strange behavior and weight loss, I get EC. So I have a feeling that my vet could be overlooking it somewhat…My vet was even acting like they had no idea what else it could be and said, well we could test for GI stasis (which is so random cause she eats and poos normally) and test for an absess (which they said they highly doubt it’s that). Yet its impossible that she could have EC?

[Bam]

EC can manifest in many weird ways. It can affect any organ system that has a high blood supply. The “classic” head tilt is definitely not always present. Not all rabbits present with nystagmus (“tracking), balance issues or hind end weakness, but in those that do, the symptoms can be rather subtle. That EC can affect the kidneys/urinary tract leading to frequent urination and loss of litterbox habits has been well established, but there’s still a lot that’s not fully understood about this parasite.

You could look for another vet perhaps, or you could go for the ec test. EC titres in a symptomatic bun are sometimes (not rarely) very high, which means the rabbit has ec that needs treatment. A positive test is very difficult to argue with even for a vet.

The gold standard treatment is Panacur (fenbendazole) at a dose of 20 mg per kilo body weight and day for 28 days, but its often recommended that the bun is also put on an anti-inflammatory med (meloxicam) to bring down the tissue inflammation the parasite causes. Some vets will also prescribe Pepcid (famotidine) to protect the stomach lining from the meloxicam -this would probably be a good protective measure for a bun that has had GI trouble recently.

For rabbits that for some reason can’t have Panacur (fenbendazole), a med called Ponazuril is sometimes used instead.

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