Need your help please *head Tilt*

Our wee rabbit developed a head tilt 3 weeks back, Shes 6 months old and the first signs were flicking eyes and her head going from left to right constantly.

We took her to the vets and they prescribed baytril (2ml) and panacur (0.6ml) per day. Vet said she had a 50/50 chance and might have to be PTS

Within a day she was looking great and we were impressed with her progress.

Sadly a couple of days later her head had tilted over now. We revisited the vet fearing she would have to be PTS and going off their word as sadly we knew no better about head tilting etc.

He wanted to give her another try but this times as well at the baytril and panacur he prescribed metacam as well 0.75 per day

She just doesn't seem to be getting any better and has taken to loosing all balance now quite often ending on her side.

I have read quite a few threads and realise now this can be more distressing to us owners then our wee rabbits, but i still can't help but worry for her. She has lost her appetite but we trying everything to tempt her and shes eating slowly but surely but no where near her normal amount.

Reading this site i have read about stemitil? and zirthromax?

After nearly 3 weeks on the other meds and no progress forward should i be mentioning the above to our vets ? or am i best to source them myself?

Any advice or help is greatly appreciated

Hi hun, sorry i cant advise you on this subject but just wanted to wish you and bun the best, thinking of you both.

Sorry to hear about your poorly bunny.
Do you know whether your vet considered middle/inner ear infection as the cause of her symptoms?
http://www.rabbit.org/health/tilt.html
Whatever the cause, if she is not eating/drinking enough she may need to be admitted for nursing, syringe feeding and fluids.
Zithromax and I think stemitil are prescription only so you will need to talk to you vet about them
I hope she will recover in time xx

My Kermit had head tilt, he was really bad when he first got it and couldnt even stand up, eat himself or drink. I had to put the food and water to his mouth and he rolled alot!
He was on baytril & panacur. He had his meds for 6weeks, and although he started to get back to normal, it took a long time and he never got rid of the head tilt.
Really if your bun is eating and drinking, even with you putting it to them, then they are willing to fight through this and should be given a chance.
My boy rolled ALOT to begin with, sometimes it was quite upsetting, but to be honest he would just get back up again and carry on.
If you do a search for kermit then most of his head tilt story will come up, another bun who got through this but remained with head tilt is wilson.
Unfortunately my wee boy kermit is at the bridge now, but i had about 14months of him with his wee squinty head, and i wouldnt have changed him for the world.
Please ask anything and ill try best to answer from my experience, i know its tough, but so rewarding when they start to show signs of improvement.
Here he is. My wee boy, wee fighter kermit x

As Kirsty has mentioned above, we have a head tilt bunny called Wilson & he started to be poorly on 2nd April this year. We tried baytril, metacam, then steroid injections, stemitil (which is a human anti sickness drug), penecillin, panacur for 6 weeks - then finally switched him on to a drug called Zithromax, which you've mentioned. The last drug isn't licenced for use in animals as it's a human abx, however bunny mad lisa on here gave me the link for a website called On The Wonk. Her bunny & another had been successfully treated, so we decided to give it a go. For us it's really helped Wilson - he still has a bad tilt on his head, but he's happy living with his partner Alice & although he still has a few rolling episodes - it's nothing like it was when he was really poorly.

There's a thread below about Wilson's illness, which has loads of advice on it from other forum members & what we did - hope this helps. I think it's worth mentioning stemetil & zithromax to your vet to see if they think it may help your little one.

It was reading Kermit's story & threads that inspired us to keep on fighting for our little man Whilst we know Wilson will never be fully back to normal, he is happy & living life as best as he can

If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me - I know too well how hard it can be nursing a headtilt bun, like Kirsty, but if you can get them through it, it is so rewarding.

Lots & lots of vibes for your bunster, please let us know how they go on xxx

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=178735&highlight=Wilson

I have had a few buns with head tilt , some coped some didn't . I think its up to the owners to make the decision because not everyone can cope, it can be very distressing to watch them fitting or like one of my nethies who started of with the eye twitching then ramming head on into her cage and then fitting . I did give them the chance with all the drugs and special care needed but some i just couldn't let them go on like that .



this is minky she lived happily like this for years before she was PTS

I agree that some rabbits can cope with it, some can't, and if you are doing what you think is best for your bun, then that's the important thing.

Head tilt is not caused directly by EC, although EC can lower the immune system and cause a rabbit to have an infection.

Chances are that this is an infection (although there are a variety of other things it could be, like mites or injury, but you said there was improvement on baytril, so that sounds like an infection to me).

I had a girlie with head tilt and we went for the big guns anti biotics (we used Convenia, once a week for 2 months) because head tilt does need to be treated aggressively to prevent the infection travelling down into the brain stem, etc.

I would say Metacam is a good thing, and maybe wonder if something with Meclizine in it (I can't remember the brand name now), would be good. That is an anti dizzy drug (I believe a car sickness drug for people?) and for some rabbits can help ease the disorientation they feel. You will also probably need a very effective anti-biotic to treat this and there are a variety around. An injectable penicillin, or something that has already been suggested etc, might be an option.

This is all my opinion though, and if it was my bun, this is what I would do, not what anyone else has to believe/do/follow.

Ultimately though, follow your heart with your rabbit, and do what you think is best. If they offer to PTS and you think that's not in the best interests right now then seek a second opinion. If you think your bun is tired and being PTS is the best thing for her then follow that. As long as you are doing what you think is best, you won't go wrong.

Mischa had head tilt.



He had Baytril, loads and loads of Panacur and a few injections of what I think was a steroid? After a couple of weeks of visiting the vet almost every other day the vet (we saw several different people) suggested he be PTS but we refused as we were seeing slow improvement.

Update:

Our little stevie is still muddling along - vets have agreed to try stemitil and shes had her first medication of that this evening.

I am really struggling to know whats best to do - she is eating slowly but surely and we are collecting fresh grass for her every day, she has a constant supply or hay and pellets but isn't interested in them but will eat her grass. We also got her special treats like the dried dandelion packs and herb/leaf packs you can get from pets at home and she munches on these too.

My dilemma...... she keeps herself up in the cage but does have rolling fits very often, she likes to hide away in the tunnel part of her cage, but today has been more willing to come out into the main part but is rolling *alot*

Tonight she is between sulking and lying flat out to semi interested. He eyes are watering alot?

I just don't know if i am doing this for her or me now if that makes sense?

Should i carry on trying or am i actually making her life a misery by trying

I know my vets will just want to PTS so i can't ask them for advice

they have said this could leave her with brain damage ?

IMO as long as she is eating and drinking then she is showing signs that she wants to be here.
To be honest it took kermit months to even resemble the bunny he was, and he really did roll ALOT!!!!!!!! i had people telling me from all directions that i wasnt being fair on him, but i struggled on and he came back to a happy bunster, albeit with a squinty head.

Kermit said:

IMO as long as she is eating and drinking then she is showing signs that she wants to be here.
To be honest it took kermit months to even resemble the bunny he was, and he really did roll ALOT!!!!!!!! i had people telling me from all directions that i wasnt being fair on him, but i struggled on and he came back to a happy bunster, albeit with a squinty head.

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THank you so much for your reply.

It can feel rather lonely in a sense looking after her but it is great to know others have experienced what i am doing at the moment and i really appreciate people advice

Should her eye be watering ? should i get the vet to check this ? anyone experienced this as a side effect to the meds?

I feel so much for you, as I know how heartbreaking it can be watching your beloved bunny with headtilt

Like Kermit's mummy, we went several weeks without seeing any real improvement with our little Wilson. After about 6 weeks or so, we can to see gradual improvement - now apart from his tilted head & the odd rolling episode, you would never know he had been so poorly

His down eye was terrible at times, but we put Tiacil drops in it twice a day & in time it improved & now not a problem to him

Does your bun have a partner or is she a single bun? We found putting Wilson back with his wifey Alice was the best thing for him & she helped to nurse him

We went through weeks of questioning ourselves if we were being cruel battling on with Wilson, but you will know if you own mind if your bun is going in the right direction. If she is still eating, pooing, drinking & washing - then she might not be quite ready to give up yet

redcat555 said:

Should her eye be watering ? should i get the vet to check this ? anyone experienced this as a side effect to the meds?

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Kermit had a very bad and watery 'down' eye....and his upper eye was quite dry, due to it being up and staring. He also had nystygmus at the early stages (flickering eye). He had eye drops from the vets, i would recommend getting them. He had antibiotic eye drops for his down eye and fake tear type eye drops for his up eye.

Feel free to pm me (or any others that have responded to you on here) any time to ask anything, i know i had loads of questions when it first happened to kermit!

The photo is of Mischa when he was on the road to recovery so his head tilt had turned slightly. We also had problems with his eyes and had some drops for his down eye, his up eye seemed fine but his down eye got quite sore.

thank you so much for your support - i really can't express how comforting your words are being at this time.

Stevies up eye is the one thats watering the most - like its crying (which is tearing my heart apart) its constantly watering.

I was extremely worried like night as before her meds she just seems to lay flat out and not be interested in anything (kind of a i have given up let me die lay?)

After her meds (now withs stemitil and before we went to sleep) she seemed a bit better.

This morning her eye is very watery still but shes moving around more:shock: at last!! she still can't function but shes actually acting interested in her surroundings and trying to shuffle about. even leaning up and trying to nose out the cage sides which she hasn't done for ages.

Hoping this is a good sign, will dread to return this evening and find it was just a one off seeing her like that

One question i do have - i give stevie all her meds at the same time? So 2ml baytril, 0.6 panacur, 0.75 metacam mixed with babyfood and stemitil diulted in water. These are given all after each other to not stress her at 8pm each evening and her stemitil again in the morning. I am worried they are all mixing ? if it ok or should i actually split them out time wise?

My rabbit Daisy-May had head tilt which we are very sure was EC.

Unfortunatly Daisy didn't make it but one thing I will say it that all the time Daisy was ill I didn't give up on her purely because I could see she was trying her hardest to fight what was wrong with her.

Even though it was VERY distressing and upsetting (I know exactly how you feel it is heart breaking) I took a lot of comfort watching Daisy in the garden, because even though she wasn't anywhere near to her normal self at least she was trying to get around and was eating the grass like she normally would.

You are doing what is best for your rabbit, you have taken her to the vets and are giving her her meds, love, affection etc at least you know in your heart you are giving her a fighting chance.

I wish you all the best with Stevie and have got my fingers and toes crossed that she makes a recovery.

Thanks Sarah x

P.S I remember talking to Squizz who has Martha who was very ill at the same time as Daisy-May (simillar thing). The last time I spoke to Squizz Martha was a lot better much to Suizz's surprise.

Kermit got all his meds one after the other, i think its ok as they are all doing different things.

Just a thought, i could send you some links to video clips i made of kermit to let you see how bad he was and how good he got.....pm me if you think it will help, might let you compare your bun at the moment and give you a bit of hope, cos i do know how upsetting things get.

Thanks Kermit – videos would be really appreciated and a fantastic way to do a comparison to how stevie is doing.

I will also try and take a picture/vid if you guys don’t mind having a look and assessing also from your experiences. (she is our first rabbit)

Update on stevie – the stemitil has been good – and has improved her to come out of her hding hole and eat more which included her nuggets!! I was thrilled to see her doing this.
She still looses balance and rolls, still has heavy breathing? But is more alert and wanting to try and move about in her cage. When shes out of her cage getting meds I have to admit she just totally goes dead and doesn’t try just lies in a heap upside down, but as soon as shes back in her cage shes up on her feet and moving about.

Sorry, haven been on for a while, glad she is doing a bit better. Ill get the video links pm'd to you. x

Hi Redcat,

How is Stevie getting on?

Sarah