Help with E.C (long post sorry!)

Hi everyone, my name is Laura and I'm from Spain. I've got a 5-month belier-angora rabbit called Yo-yo with a diagnose of Encephalitozoon cuniculi. All started with some sneezes and a slight lost of weight. At first the vet thought I was a sort of allergy, but as the rabbit didn't get better we decided to take blood tests. The tests were EC positive. We are treating her with Panacur, a treatment of 28 days. She also had a small white spot in one of her eyes. We are on the 18th day treatment and the spot has got a little bigger. We took her to the vet again and they gave us antibiotics because according to them Panacur damages the rabbit's defenses and the increase in the spot size could be due to a secondary infection. We also asked the vet if the spot in the eye would dissapear and he suggested us that if the spot grew bigger he would have to remove the eye
I'm really really worried, and I have a few questions:
(The problem is that in Spain it is not very common to have a rabbit as a pet and most of the vets do not have enough experience with them)
-Has any of you had a rabbit with active EC?
-Do the rabbits recover fully from the illness?
-What about the spots in the eye? Do they dissapear by themselves? If not, what's the treatment? We are also putting gentamicine in the eye.
Please, if any of you has had a rabbit with this problem, help me because I'm really worried.
The rabbit eats and drinks normally. She also looks happy, she runs and plays... It doesn't look like as if the treatment had affected the kidneys.
THANK YOU SO MUCH (and sorry about my English).

Welcome to the forum :wave:
I've never had a bun diagnosed with active EC ... but I'm sure someone will be along soon to offer some advice.

Your English is better than mine! I have never had a bun with EC either but i just wanted to say i hope things work out for your bun. you sound like you've done a lot of research. I'm sure more people will post soon

Hi and welcome.

I'm not sure about the eye problem (I'm sure someone else will be able to advise), but it is now considered by many vets that at least a 6 week course of Panacur is required, rather than the 28 days initially recommended by the manufacturers.

Other things to consider are thoroughly disinfecting all areas where the EC spores might be lurking (anywhere where there has been urine). You can eradicate the spores with a 10% bleach solution in water - normal pet disinfectants etc are ineffective.

Hello and welcome!

My rabbit has/had EC. It presented itself as a spot on her eye and gradually grew to cover the whole eye. This was described as Uveitis (swelling of the inner eye I think). The eye is bloodshot and Flossy is now blind in that eye.

My rabbit has had at least 3 courses of Panacur in the past year. 28 days is now not thought long enough to stop the parasite. I think 6-8 weeks is now the recommended course. My vet thinks my rabbit's eye will always be like this and recommends that I Panacur her regularly.

Flossy has good quality of life and her eye does not seem to bother her in the slightest. It sounds like you are doing the correct thing - the main thing I would recommend id extending the course of treatment.

Good Luck!

Thank you all very much. You really have helped me and I feel a little bit more positive. I'm going to clean all her stuff with bleach and I'm going to control the spot in her eye, too. I have taken a couple pictures to compare the size of the spot in the photos.
Because of this illness I cannot still vaccinate her (the vet has recommended me not to do anything until she's allright) and she can't undergo surgery either (I was thinking of neutering her before June).
I have had back luck with my poor thing. I bought her from a pet shop and she came home ill with coccidiosis, she got so ill that I had to leave her for almost to days in the vet clinic. She fully recovered... and now this bacteria!! I really hope she gets well to vaccinate and neuter her and avoid new health problems.
She is really cute and adorable (I'll show you all pictures of her). The problem about buying bunnies in pet shops in Spain is that 98% of them come with bacteria, worms, etc. This is a shame!!! Lots of bunnies die because their owners buy them for 30€ aprox. 24 GBP but are not able of taking care of them properly, sometimes when people discover that the animals are ill they just get rid of them in order not to pay the vet fees!! I kind of saved Yo-yo from the pet shop and I'll do everything possible for her wellbeing.
Thank you to all (more suggestions and experiences are welcome). I hope my experience can help, too.

Hi Laura:
Great to hear from somewhere who cares so much for their rabbit in amogst a culture where that is not so common.

EC may or may not be the problem - although given the eye spot I suspect it is.

EC is something that up to 60 or 70% of rabbits 'carry' - and not all of them come down with any symptoms at all. In fact most don't. It is usually picked up by a blood test when there is a completely different problem or different reason for taking the test.

However some rabbits do have symptoms which can include a tilted head and dizziness (which gradually goes with treatment), and very commonly a white area in one or both eyes that is permanent and leads to loss of sight in the eye. (however rabbits are very very good at adjusting to this so DO NOT worry or let your vet say that this means she should be put to sleep). Sadly in the long term many rabbits succumb to kidney failure with EC - but this can be something that does not happen at all, or does not happen for many many years.

In the meantime: keep treating with Panacur for 6 weeks. Try and clean everything she has wee'd on with a very dilute bleach (making sure none of it gets near her!!) as te parasite is in the wee.

To be honest I would not worry about the EC affecting neutering or other vaccinations - most of mine that have EC go through operations/ vaccination just as normal. However as neutering is probably less common in Spain and your vet less used to doing it, it may be best to wait until she is feeling her best in 6 weeks time - after the Panacur treatment. I would definitely go ahead with vaccination for Myxi now and not wait.

Is she well in every other way other than the eye?

PM me if you wat any more advice - although there are also lots and lots of people n the forum wh have more knowledge than I do - but I have several EC buns - all with different severity of symptoms!! and many now quite elderly! (Sweet Pea is 9 now and has had EC at least 5 years!)

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. This morning I cleaned EVERYTHING with bleach and I'll continue doing it for a while!
Appart from the EC diagnose on a blood test, she feels perfect now. I think panacur is working well on her. She eats, plays and wakes me up in the morning always at the same time The vet told me the illness and also panacur could damage her kidneys, but I keep an eye on her and she looks normal for the moment. After the treatment with panacur (I'm definetely going to follow your advice, 6 week treatment) I may repeat the blood test just to make sure her immune system is getting better and to make sure there is no damage on her kidneys.
Whenever I have a little bit of time I'm going to post a pic of her eye just for people to see how the spot looks like.

Thanks again!

Just as a note of caution, my 2 developed active cases of EC immediately after their spays. So, my view would be that the rabbit should be fully recovered before any operation.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things.

Spot in the eye caused by EC



This is how the spot looks like. The picture is not very clear but a small white spot can be appreciated. This spot was caused by EC.

:wave:HI LAURA, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR BUN HAS A VERY SPECIAL MOM, YOUR DOING YOUR RESEARCH AND DOING THE BEST FOR YO-YO.I HAVENT HAD ANY EXPERIENCE OF THIS DISEASE, BUT NOW AM AWARE OF IT.THANKYOU, AND HOPE YO-YO SOON GETS BETTER.