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Help! One of our bunnies can't move his hind legs!

S

Stephanie Cutler

Warren Scout
Hi everyone, i have been searching for paralysis on google and found this forum. Myself and mum are involved with an animal sanctuary and are caring for over thirty bunnies at the moment 14 of which are in my house at the mo as they need medical care or are not suitable to be re-homed. 2 days ago a pair of rabbits were braught into the sanctuary. They appeared perfectly well until this morning mum found the little boy could not move his hind legs. He was hopping nicely last night. We have braught him home and i have rang my bunny vet. He advised the bunny be put down. I dnt think that is an option yet as he has just eaten 3 choc drops! So far i have administered 0.1ml of Metacam, 4ml of tomato juice, Panacur, 4ml of science recovery and the 0.7ml of the syrup to keep the gut moving. Does anyone knw how much tomato juice i should be giving for the potassium content? Iv also heard of giving vitamin E capsual and also vitamin c tablets. Im slightly wary of giving the tablets incase they react with the other medication.

Any advice would be wonderful!

xx Bunnyhuggersxx
 
hmmm...I don't understand why a rabbit savvy vet would advise the rabbit be put down without seeing it first....unless it's a financial issue.

It sounds like he has sustained some kind of back/spine injury during the night which may have caused the paralysis. Obviously without the rabbit being seen by a vet you won't know for sure and all people can do is speculate. Great that you are giving meds but really he needs to see a vet asap....preferably one that chooses to see the rabbit before advising on treatment.
 
Hello there, sorry to hear about the bun but it could be an injury due to overactive playing, a sudden shock etc.
I'm not sure how much of a vitamin E tablet to give but someone should come on soon to help with that.
Have you given the little on painkiller? I can't understand how the vet can say pts if he has not seen the little one and has not had a good examination of him. He may just require cage rest for a while or he may need longer care and physio but to find all of this out he needs to see the vet.
If he doesn't appear to be in pain then that is a good thing and if he is lively and eating then please don't give up on him.
Metacam would ease any inflammation that has been caused if it is an injury and would need to be given over a couple of weeks whilst he is on cage rest.
The vet would have to see if he could feel any breaks and check all his reflexes to see what he thinks.
Whereabouts are you?
Please keep us informed about him - we will all be sending out positive and healing vibes for the little one. It really could be something as simple as a sprain and he doesn't deserve to be pts for that. I know you won't do that anyway:D
 
Yes bunny is on Metacam 0.1ml as it the Dog variety of metacam- mum has gone to collect the cat variety as bunny can have 0.25 of that one (although i think the amount of active ingredient is the same). My vet is generaly Fab i have used him for three second opinions from the animal sanctuary's vet when they wanted various bunnies put down and he has shook his head and said no need for that try this etc. We have been up there 4 times this week so i think he may be thinking of my finances!
Im in Litherland in Liverpool and my bunny vet is in Woolton! Takes practically an hour to drive there!
Thank you for the advice
xxbunnyhuggersxx

Animals in Need - Magull
 
charlie82 said:
hmmm...I don't understand why a rabbit savvy vet would advise the rabbit be put down without seeing it first....unless it's a financial issue.

but really he needs to see a vet asap....preferably one that chooses to see the rabbit before advising on treatment.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, thats shocking that he advised that without even seeing the rabbit!

I would also advise you take him to another vet asap :)
 
Hi,
something similar happened to one of our bunnies, she was elderly and we rushed her into the vet. They did not suggest PTS, and this was when they were less bunny savvy, she was x-rayed and found to have spondolytis. She was given a steroid injection to reduce any swelling and we were advised to give her some physio for 10 mins, 4 times a day. In fact our vets were very sure that as long as she was eating and pooing and not in any pain we could even consider a trolley for her! However we, sadly, didn't have to think about that option, as she started to lose a lot of weight and behave strangely so we decided to PTS. I now wonder, with a bit more awareness if it was E.C.
Anyway, I would certainly get your bunny X-rayed before making any other decisions, its a bit harsh to suggest PTS, without finding out what is going on.

ps- dog metacam is stronger than cat metacam, dog is 1.5 mg/ml meloxicam, cat is 0.5 mg/ml. You will use more cat but should be able to give a more acurate dosage.
 
Stephanie Cutler said:
Does anyone knw how much tomato juice i should be giving for the potassium content? Iv also heard of giving vitamin E capsual and also vitamin c tablets. Im slightly wary of giving the tablets incase they react with the other medication.

Any advice would be wonderful!

xx Bunnyhuggersxx
Click to expand...

I gave whole tomatoes, as much as he wanted but he generally had around 2 a day along with some banana but not too much of the banana due to possible bloat problems.

I also gave the natural vitamin E from holland a barrett, the capsule form and gave him 1 on his pellets daily until he was back to normal. The capsules are alot easier as you just snip off the end and drip the oil out;)

I did however, have an X ray first though to rule out any spinal injury and my bun was treated with panacur, metacam and the potassium and vitamin E under advise:)

Is your bun not eating for himself?
 
Hope!

Are little Millie Monster (2 years old) suffered the same symptons about 6 months ago, the vet thought it was e. cuncli and she was treated, they also thought she would not recover and to consider bunny heaven. She lost the use of bothy legs for about 3 months but never gave up, so we brought her a cart with wheels which she loved, she then started to improve and now gets around the garden very well without her cart! we also brought Profleece to replace sawdust etc to help with the loo problem and kept her clean with some warm baths, we then brought her in more, kept her warm while giving her lots of love and attention, she also lost weight but as now put it back on,i think you need to look at them like you would a human, and you would never give up on one of them, so look into her eyes and i am sure you will see someone who wants to survive so never give up!:wave:
 
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