Why is my bunny having seizures?

[Bunniesareamazing]

Just to start this off I am working with a new vet soon so I just need some help from others with possible experience with things like this

I adopted my rabbit a couple years ago, she used to be a very happy, strong, and energetic bunny. She began having a problem with urinating on herself after about 5 months (couldve been because the litterbox was high sided and small?). About 7 months after her adoption I took her to the vet for stasis, I don’t really know why she had stasis but it could’ve been because I hadn’t refilled her hay for a while. When I got her back from the vet there was a small blockage which was shown in an x ray and we treated her and she got better. Looking back I see we used metacam, cisapride, critical care, and baytril.

The problem was that she came back with head tilt and was really uncoordinated.  And after that we went to another vet to get some testing done. We got an ec test done but she was better at the time and there was no active infection supposedly. We got another ec test done when she began having issues again, no active infection again. We had done ec treatment before the testing (no idea why) so that could’ve tampered with the results. She began having seizures and we had a full body ct done but there was no issue with her. Also did a toxoplasmosis test which was negative. Another issue was that she did this thing that kind of looked like hicupping, when she laid down she’d kind of have this small head jerks and make click noises but if I made a sound that distracted her it would kind of go away. She was and still is on gabapentin and meloxicam for her seizures and possible arthritis (she has most if not all the symptoms and she’s 7 and a half + a larger breed, so it would kind of make sense)

I’m kind of stuck, sorry if this isn’t in order or with full detail just going off records and memory. I have no idea what started all of this in the first place, I wasn’t the best owner but I knew how to feed her appropriately, groom her, give her toys, set up her litterbox, etc.

I still kind of feel like it’s ec because all I got on the record was “negative”. We changed vets and got another ec test done and it indicated she had no active infection but was exposed to it at some point, this test was done when she was acting normal.

We moved and she was doing ok there, some occasional pee tracking if I didn’t cover up the spot where she peed with her litter. One seizure for the 6 months we were there, I wasn’t really good about making sure she got her doses on time and I do think the seizure was my fault because of the fact that I wasn’t taking her medication seriously enough because she was okay at the time.

Her problems became even bigger when we moved again (final move). About 3 seizures in one day, we had an emergency visit and they upped the gabapentin and recommended we didn’t travel. When she has seizures she typically becomes “floppy” after them, her lower back does not stay upright but her legs still seem to kick when she’s trying to move. When we were taking her home she had a seizure in the car and I gave her a dose of gabapentin when we got home. It’s been a week since then and she’s still a bit floppy, I’ve been giving her meds as recommended and have set alarms for them and she is much better than she was before, she can sit up straight and do straight hops but when she gets tired she becomes floppy again.

Does anybody know the potential cause and why she becomes floppy after her seizures? I have a vet coming to visit me so that we don’t have to travel but the appointment is in a month. I am trying to read more about seizures but her cause it still a mystery to me.

sorry this is really long, I’m happy to answer any questions about her.

[White Rabbit]

This will likely have no correlation, but I used to have seizures as a kid do to an autoimmune issue, and I always felt tired for 24 hours after like all I wanted to do was sleep. The seizure basically took all my energy and could by why she is “floppy.” Sometimes. Im no vet but as someone who has had seizures there are two main types are petit mal seizures which are basically hard to spot as they can be as small as looking off into the distance, then you have grand mal seizures which are the seizures everyone thinks of with the kicking, flopping, etc. Yours could be having petit mal seizures which is why it took awhile to catch on and sometimes can seem “off.” You may want to bring up petit mal seizures to your vet next time just incase they are only looking at grand mal seizures.  My experience comes from being a human though, so if you want a good medical reading on rabbits here you go, just a quick quote, but a lot of good reading in there.

“The most common seizures observed in
rabbits are absences, also known as “petit
mal”; more rarely seizures are of the tonicclonic or “grand mal” type”

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Metabolic/Seizures_en.pdf

[DanaNM]

Hmmm, this does sound like EC, but it also sounds like a very complex case. The tests are very often unreliable. Did you do the full 28 day course of medication? There are times when bun needs another round. Also, the damage done by the parasite is irreversible, so symptoms do not always resolve completely, but anti-inflammatories can help with any symptoms due to swelling.

Has the vet ruled out ear infections?

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bunniesareamazing]

White rabbit, I am actually concerned about the petite mal seizures too. From what I’ve seen, one of her seizures she began trying to flip herself on her back and lost awareness of her surroundings and was very disoriented. Another one she had a head tilt and peed herself. Another one she couldn’t get up and started freaking out, she just stared at me and wouldn’t even take a banana treat, she took it from me and spit it out (not fully sure if it was a seizure). She also tends to stiffen up and/or lose balance from her seizures. I am concerned she may have petite mal seizures however she doesn’t really have the symptoms besides the “empty gaze” but she kinda has that like 24/7 anyways. About the tiredness, her floppyness is strictly in her lower back, think of her like in a seal position. I’m still researching types of seizures  to see if I miss any.

DanaNM we did do the treatment and it seemed to help, honestly I don’t really know what they tested in the ec test because they didn’t really give me the result beside “negative”. We might go back on treatment to see if it helps, but I will ask my vet first of course. All her ear tests have been perfect so I don’t really think this is simply an ear infection

ill try to update this as I find out more, thanks for the help 🙂

 

[White Rabbit]

Yeah petit mal seizures can be hard to diagnose, generally your vet needs to see it happen in person or will request videos(going off what my doctor wanted, granted videos weren’t as clear back then haha). The distant gaze is generally telling for petit mal seizures as she could be having many but it very well could be EC causing it as stated above. Hope another EC treatment helps and it isn’t anything neurological, but if it is hope they get her all fixed up 🙂

[DanaNM]

If you noticed improvement with the EC treatment, then that means it really could be EC, so another 28 day round of treatment could be a good next step. Many vets treat on suspicion without a positive test since they are so unreliable.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

Hind end weakness is another common sign of ec. Maybe she’s capable of compensating for some hind end weakness when she’s alert and “herself”, but after a seizure she doesn’t have the strenght to? Exhaustion or/and mental confusion after an epileptic seizure is very common, as White Rabbit explains. (Oddly, the person often feels better mood-wise once the intial confusion and/or exhaustion wear off (which can take several days for humans, probably for buns too). This is the rationale behind electro convulsive therapy (ECT), which can be very useful for deeply depressed people whose condition doesn’t respond to anti-depressant drugs).

[Bunniesareamazing]

Update: The vet suggested we do another ct and compare with the previous one. We did agree that the previous ec testing was a bit off because they couldn’t find the results but they didn’t recommend an ec test. So we are going to do the ct and see how that goes, they also suggested they wanted to speak to the neurologists about doing a test on her spinal fluid (not fully sure about that yet). She also has discharge present in her ears, one of her eyes is bulgy, one of her eyes seems cloudy, her eyes also seem gunkier than normal. We might get that stuff checked out with the ophthalmologist after her ct. She’s staying with them for a couple days so that we don’t have to travel her back and forth and they’ll be able to observe her and let her recover from the ct (the drive is really long). Hoping for the best!

[Bunniesareamazing]

Another update: ct results didnt show large abnormalities in the brain nor spinal cord. However there is evidence of arthritis in her mouth and lower back and she might have some dental disease (suspected as she’s an avid hay eater but then she only started eating as a few bites while pooping) I’m not really sure why it happened but they’ll have somebody come look at her mouth. Another thing is that we sent in another titer for ec so we might do treatments for flare ups if it comes back with indicators of infection. There’s not really much else they said they can do besides that, we will get her some physiotherapy done for her back as that’s the main problem she’s having besides the seizures.

[LBJ10]

I’m late to this. What your describing does sound like EC. Cataracts is another symptom and it a really bad cataract can cause distortion of the eyeball and weeping as well. Everything from the incontinence to the seizures to the head tilt match up with EC as well. Unfortunately, the test for EC isn’t reliable. It can look like there isn’t an “active infection”, but damage can still be occurring which results in symptoms. We know more about EC now than before, but we still don’t know everything about it.

Many vets will simply treat if they suspect EC. If the medication seemed to work before, then perhaps he needs a longer course to send the EC into remission.

[Bunniesareamazing]

Yes I agree, many people have informed me about the accuracy of the tests and my vet knows as well. She still wanted to send a test in just to see more because the previous ones didn’t really have a lot of data. She said we should treat for it when she has flare ups as it isn’t good to go on long term treatment. I did ask her about the eye problem and she said it doesn’t seem like cataracts however it would be good to get the ophthalmologist to look at her eyes. I wanted to rule out everything before because of the negative tests but learning this information now has helped a lot. Thank you all 🙂

 

[Bunniesareamazing]

Ec Titers showed even LOWER signs than previous tests? Even though at this point she was at her worst? We did find that her crp levels were abnormal however. Unfortunately she did happen to have another seizure today (right after I told the vet she didn’t have any episodes 😑)  but I believe it was because I decided to do her medicine after exercise (gabapentin makes her drowsy so I thought it would help her more). The first sign was that she was biting at her legs then she fell onto her side and starting shaking squinting and stiffening up. It lasted about a minute-minute and a half and she’s doing much better now. Still floppy. Vet suggested it could be bacterial but it’s hard to say without another checkup, she has a 1 month check in soon so we will see there.

[Bam]

It is possible that the ec has been fought off (or rather adequately subdued) by your bun’s own immune defense, but that there are persisting microscopic lesions on the brain, causing these seizures. Lesions like that can heal with time. I have a (human) friend who got epileptic seizures post encephalitis (that in turn was secondary to a particularly bad bout of seasonal flu). She healed, and was given her driver’s license back once she’d been seizure-free for two years.

You should tell your vet that she had this recent seizure, regardlessof what you think triggered it. There are meds that can be given to suppress or ameliorate epilepsy-type seizures.

[Bunniesareamazing]

Yes I am going to inform my vet regardless (it is a little hard to contact them sometimes). The ct showed that there weren’t really any major lesions but then again you can’t really get that close with it as you can an mri (they don’t have a machine suitable for rabbits). I don’t really know about epilepsy type seizures, she’s on gabapentin but I’ll ask about giving medicine like that.

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