My rex Monty has FRS. This is my experience of it...
I went to feed him one morning when he was around 6 months old and to my horror found him collapsed in his hutch. I could tell my vet nothing. I said "I just found him like this. He was out in his run the day before, it was sunny but not hot. He got brought in at around 9pm, put in his hutch and covered up. He can't get to plants in his run, we never use stuff on our garden anyway, nothing painted and no contact with other rabbits, plus he'll happily chase of cats." My vet said that he was so ill the best form of action was to work out what we did know -
His temperature was 97'C !!!! (A normal rabbit is 103-104'C)
He was unconscious.
He had no feeling in his body anywhere. If she pinced his feet he did nothing. If she pinched his toes he did move a little though but that was all.
My vet said the best theory was shock...Maybe from being in a sunny run and then because it was early summer the temperature had dropped quite a bit in the night. This seemed to be the most logical answer.
Of course he was admitted and had intensive care of force feeding, warmth, and was given steriods and baytril injections plus fluids every day. He couldn't even urinate on his own. The nurses were having to press on his bladder daily. Nothing happened for FOUR days...
Everytime I rang the vet and they said "no change" I felt my heart sink. You can imagine I felt very cruel and was contemplating putting him to sleep to end this but then something stopped me. Rabbits as we all know succumb to disease pretty quickly and don't tend to fight it. The fact he was hanging on made me talk myself out of this idea. Rightly or wrongly I refused to put him to sleep until I was 100% sure there was no chance of recovery. On the fifth day I rang the vets to see how he was, with heart in my mouth. The nurse replied "Hes sat up this morning. Hes urinating on his own." I nearly fell over. I was so shocked I asked her to double check we were talking about the same rabbit. I said "Monty, a blue rex?" And she said "Yes. He literally just suddenly got the feeling back in his legs. " His recovery was fast. I rang the next day and he was pooing and weeing on his own, feeding himself and generally back to normal. They said he was well enough for me to take him home but to watch out for some "little fits" he'd had. On the way home in the car he had one of these fits. He didn't loose his balance or become spaced out. He just shook, like a shiver and that was it. I never saw it happen again....
Until 4 YEARS LATER....
I'd got him out for his usual run round the yard and remember thinking he felt a bit floppy but put it down to me being paranoid. Well thank god for paranoia. I checked on his regularly and found he was not really using a back leg. Not dragging it, just not using it. I assumed he'd probably sprained it, while playing with his new friend, my new lionhead. I'd just managed to bond them and this was their first day out together actually interacting with each other. Up until then Monty had been very coy. So I put him back in his hutch to rest it. He happily jumped in his litter tray so this confirmed what I thought. Just a sprain. I went out to check on him around 4 times that evening and he was fine.
At half 6 I went to check on him again, for the millionth time and found him on his side, awake but limp. He was rushed to the emergency vet. Luckily my vet, Fiona was still there. I said "this has happened before. " She agreed whatever it was was the same thing happening again, but that I'd caught it early this time. This time his temperature was 100'C. He was able to sit up if aided. This time she let me bring him home and care for him and just like before there wasn't really much change for 4 days. However, he was eating, drinking and pooing on his own without problems. He could urinate on his own but the vet showed me how to help him out and told me to just press lightly every few hours just to check he wasn't in any discomfort. Again, on day four I pinched his legs and he'd got the feeling back. Later that night he sat up. I watched in amazement as like a new born foal he just regained use of his legs. Then by day 5 he had regained all feeling in his body. He was a little unstable, almost drunk but it did not faze him. Throughtout the week he has had these little fits the vet nurse described last time. I would not describe them as fits but more as spasms. His body jolts but he doesn't fall on his side or roll over or anything like that. He doesn't space out either. His heart races before, so loud I can hear it but then onces hes had the fit it regains normal speed. In my opinion I feel its caused by the muscles "waking up " again. First he could lift his head up again, then his neck, then his back legs and then last to come back was his front paws. All within the space of a few hours.
This is taken from my book of Rabbit Textbook Medicine by Frances Harcourt-Brown...
Quote:
"Floppy Rabbit Syndrome" is the colloqiual term for an idiopathic condition that affects pet rabbits causing generalized muscular weakness. The cause is not known, although several possibilities exist. These include, hypokalaemia and plant toxicity, or neurological, metabolic or muscular causes, which could be infectious, metabolic, congenital or nutritional in origin. A feature of this condition is the recovery that can take place. It is important to recognize the good prognosis and not euthanase rabbits in the initial stages. Interestingly, recovery usually takes place within 2-3 days, whatever treatment is perscribed. Supportive care, especially assisted feeding is required.
This is his condition down to the last T.
A vet I spoke to had seen ten or so previous cases of FRS and maybe coincidentally but all in REXES. Monty is perscribed Baytril, dexadesren, steriods and Panacur (in case related to E.Cuniculi) but the second time did not need fluids.
