Vet thinks it is E.C, advice please.

Edgar my english lop was absolutely fine yesterday but about half 2 this morning I heard I heard him clattering around his crate. At first I thought he was getting amorous with his girlfriend (they are both neutered but occassionally he remembers he is supposed to do something), but she was under my bed asleep. I got up and he came to over to me but as I started stroking him his head started to severly tilt, so that his eye was staring straight up to the ceiling. I stayed up with him most of the night and this morning his head tilt was almost completely gone and he's was moving around ok (if rather slowly), eating, though very little hay (he normally goes nuts for Oxbow Timothy and could easily eat a whole bag in one sitting).

I took him to the vets first thing and was told that he must have E.C, so I was given some Panacur and advised to treat him for 9 days (I did say that I thought that it was supposed to be 28 days at the very least if they had symptoms, but the vet said to try 9 days and see how it goes :roll.

At the moment he is in his crate with Jerry (his girlfriend). He's very quite and lethargic but is eating, still not much hay, but has had some pellets and a few bits of veg (plus a piece of brown bread that I put the panacur in).

Does it sound like E.C to you? Is there anything else that I should be doing? I usually use F10 disenfectant on their stuff, but I read that I should clean their cage and litter tray with a mild bleach solution, is that just normal everyday bleach that you put down the toilet and drains?

Oh, and I am of course treating Jerry as well.

It may well be EC. The symptoms occur as a result of the EC spores erupting into the CNS/Kidneys etc.

However, I think your Vet should also have taken the precaution of covering him for a middle ear infection too (very common in ELs) The Vet should have prescribed a course of antibiotics plus an anti-inflammatory. It is inflammation that causes the symptoms and the pain. A Bun in pain wont want to eat much and this will mean their GI function is effected.

I would contact the Vet again re antibiotics/anti-inflammatories.

A bleach solution (household bleach is fine) is effective in killing EC spores.
I hope Edgar gets better soon.

My bun has head tilt due to EC, but in the early stages he was treated for EC with 6 weeks of panacur and Inner Ear Infection with Baytril for 6 weeks.

I think the fact that your buns head is back to normal just now might show that this is just the early stages of either, i would definately contact your vets again and ask for treatment for an Inner Ear Infection.....better to be safe than sorry....treatment at this stage could prevent further damage.

In terms of the 9 days thing, I think your vet probably meant to see if the bun responds, then it can be extended. Panacur seems to take effect quite quickly.

I use a 10% thin bleach solution in water (in a spray gun), and leave it for half an hour to soak (I read this somewhere online).

Thanks everyone.

I spoke to the vet and he said that he checked his ears and they are clean and show no sign of infection (though that is just the outer ear), that and the fact that he had improved so much overnight without treatment means that it is unlikely to be an infection but he gave him an injection of baytril this morning just to be on the safe side (he told me earlier that the injection was something to increase his appetite, didn't mention that it was an antibiotic :roll

I had a bit of a panic earlier because he hadn't done any poos since this morning so immediately started thinking STASIS! But he did a few poos a little while ago and has been chewing the odd strand of hay as well, so I have calmed down a bit, though I'm keeping an eye on him. My next thing is that I haven't seen him pee yet, I've split him up from his girlfriend (she is a dwarf lop so it is easy to tell the difference between their poos, but not quite so easy with pee) and given him a clean litter tray lined with newspaper. Hopefully i'll have some wet newspaper soon.