Jess has E.Cuniculi :(

Hi everyone.

I'm sad to say, I had to rush Jess - pictured having a cuddle in my avatar - to the vet yesterday. I first noticed something wasn't right when she refused her broccoli. She was very still, appearing to be leant against the shed wall. I gave her a stroke and tried to pick her up but she got past me and ran off to the other side of the shed. She seemed very balanced, but she was trembling. I rang the vet straight away and organised a half shift at work so I could get her seen by the vet.

By the time I got to the vet, she was a little worse. The vet put her on the floor and she wandered round in a circle before finding my foot and leaning quite heavily against it. She also stumbled a few times.

The vet watched her movements for a good twenty minutes. He checked her ears but said they were fine. He suspects E.Cuniculi. Sadly, I lost my Diego to E.Cuniculi AND inner ear infection in october. The vet failed to tell me that E.Cuniculi could be spread after he had died so it's believed Jess contracted it from the bugs Diego left behind in the shed after he had gone.

I left the vets with a tube of fibreplex and picked up Panacur this morning (they had none in stock yesterday :roll: ). I was told to give Jess fibreplex three times a day until she started eating again. She is eating grass and rich tea biscuits (I know these are bad for bunnies! My mum discovered they loved them and the vet told me to feed her more or less anything that would encourage her to eat!) so I'm only giving her the fibreplex once a day. She doesn't seem interested in her mix though.

When I picked up the Panacur, I was instructed to give her one graduation once a day for 11 days. Jess weighs 2.1kgs. I've had a look at other e.cuniculi threads that suggest a six week course - I will mention this to my vet.

My main reason for writing all this is that I'm not quite sure what to do regarding my other bunnies. I asked the vet and he said not to treat them unless they show symptoms and to keep Jess and Thistle (her bonded friend) together. I have actually returned Jess to the shed with him, but I'm keeping her in an indoor bunny cage so I can moniter how much she's eating. Thistle's a conti and will scoff her food as well as his own if he gets a chance! :lol:

I also wonder if treatment is likely to be successful - Diego was heartbreaking - he had a mixture of EC and ear infections in both ears and I'd put him on meds, he'd improve, he'd stop meds, he'd get worse, he'd have more meds.... that went on for about three months until one morning I found him laying on his side and took the horrible decision to get him PTS. When I took him in, the vet (the same one as I now have for Jess) shocked me by saying "I expected him to reach this stage sooner". I was kind of peeved that the vet knew Diego would die in a matter of months and yet put me through the ordeal anyway.

Any advice, help, suggestions or just good vibes would be really very appreciated! Thankyou :wave:

I've always treated all buns with a 28 day course when one has shown signs of a flare up. Robbie bunny and Coco definitely have it, Robbie seems to struggle with it more than Coco but they both get treated, my other two haven't shown signs and were clear when first tested, but I will now do them with the same course too. But that's just what I do.

I would give them ALL a 28 day course and disinfect! You can buy liquid panacur (its meant for dogs and cats but is finee for buns) which will save you alot of money doing all the buns etc.

Some people worm their buns every year to prevent EC (for 28 days).

Hope she gets better x

Your Bun should also be on a non steroidal anti-inflammatory (Metacam) aswell as Panacur. It is essential to try to minimise the inflammatory response to the EC spores-its the inflammatory response that causes longterm cellular damage.

I hope Jess makes a good recovery.

I have spent the day disinfecting! I think mum might be a little peeved when she finds I've used her Dettol up and the washing machine's full of fur though! :lol:

Is it ok to keep Jess where she is? She seems to get more wobbly the more stressed she is so I thought it best to keep her in a fimiliar place. Plus as she's in an indoor cage, any pee will stay in there with her. Of course, I will rethink if I'm putting Thistle at any unnessacary risk.

I will ring the vets in the morning and ask for Metacam and more Panacur for Thistle too. Or is there anywhere I can get it online cheaper? Is it important to use a different tube for each rabbit? Or can I just use them as I open them one at a time?

Sorry for all the questions - I'm sure the answers are pretty obvious but it's just nice to have a few more opinions! Thankyou.

**Ohh, thought of another question! Is the illness spread in the air? Or is it only transmissible to other rabbits that come into direct contact with her?

I would be inclined to use a different tube for each bun, but see what others say.

I hope he makes a quick recovery, I would let him eat some of his favourite snacks to keep him eating. I've been giving Ling Jai a bite of Rich tea biscuit every night before bed time for several years now, he know's it's coming and gets ready for bed by running and jumping into his cage

I have a bunny called Lola who had EC with bad head tilt last year.

I panacured all 4 of my bunnies for 28 days once we spotted she was ill. Lola stayed with her partner Henry who was very good with her while she was ill. I used one tube for Lola, another for Henry and then my other pair shared.

I had a lot of discussion with my vet about Metacam as she didn't think it would help but people on here recommended it. In the end we gave Lola metacam and I think it helped a lot. She seemed to love the taste of it and would come running to take her dose from the syringe by the end!

I was told EC is especially spread by spores in urine and people recommend you do the big clean 21 days into the panacur treatment to make sure it has gone.

My vet did a blood test for EC and Lola came up positive although some say 50% of all rabbits are positive so I'm not sure if it was really worth the money.

Anyway good luck with Jess! Lola made a full recovery despite not being able to stand up at her worst, so there is hope.

Sorry to hear your bun has EC
My bun might have EC, as his eyes have gone cloudly one being more noticable, can also be a sign they have EC.
I have been told to do big clean on day 21 of the treatment and day 28, Buttons is now on day 18. His on Lapizole fenbendazole which the vets gave me.

I hope your bunny gets better.

Sorry to hear your bun is poorly.

I would definatley heed Jacksjane's advise and get the metacam.

I would keep going with the fibreplex and keep tempting with lots of healthy food, fresh herbs are popular, a little grated carrot maybe.

All your buns need to be treated with Panacur and particular attention needs to be made to cleaning anything and everything that could have been in contact, even via paws, with rabbits urine on days 21 and 28 with a bleach solution (10%) sadly most disinfectants will have no effect. If your buns have access to the garden I'm not sure what you do there, perhaps you have to keep them in until the 28 days is up?

My vet stopped using metacam and replaced it with an equivalent... Ummm, I want to say meloxodil but I'm not sure if that's quite right I assume it'd be ok to use in place of metacam?!

Thistle and Jess do have access to my garden - when I'm feeding them and pottering around, I open the shed up and they come and go as they please. I won't let them out again for a month or so and I'll make sure I pick their grass from the top of the garden as they never venture up there.

My vet explained Jess had probably picked it up from being in contact with something that Diego had touched - he said that I shouldn't have used his housing again for a year. :shock: I wish he'd told me that when Diego died and not when another one got ill too.

Plan of action for tomorrow = metacam/other weird med my crazy vet uses, lots of panacur and a big bottle of bleach! :lol:

It's really reassuring to know that bunnies CAN survive EC. My vet is not rabbit savvy and couldn't answer my questions about life expectancy. Sadly, being on an island, I don't have a good rabbit vet.

Good job I got you guys!

Just looking into ordering medicines online - Do I order metacam for cats or for dogs?

Ta!! :wave:

EDIT - nevermind, it says I can only get it on prescription! :roll:

You only need to do the bleach cleaning on days 21 and 28 to break the cycle of reinfection and PLEASE dilute the bleach to make a 10% solution, leave it in the litter trays for 10 mins or so, rinse really well and dry thoroughly before returning. Do it well away from the buns so they don't get any fumes.

I don't know for sure that it is effective but maybe steam cleaning would be useful if your buns are in a shed? Mine have lino lined accomodation and use litter trays so its easy to do the bleach cleaning safely - I steamed the rest of the hutches, the wire, walls etc with a small steam cleaner I gleaned off freecycle!

Fresh air and sunlight are old fashioned but useful killers of many nasties so if the grass can be cut short and if we have some sunny days......ha,ha, then that should help.

Its a shame vets aren't very good at telling you all you need to know isn't it and its us that ends up paying, in more ways than one.

Wikipedia says that Metacam is just the brand name for Meloxicam so maybe that's what your vet gave you?

Ohhh, meloxicam sounds right! I was close! :lol:

I will definately clean on the 21st and 28th days. I gave everything a good soapy wash and a spritz with Dettol today as I kind of figured, as Thistle is still loose in the shed, he may get less of the bugs?! That probably doesn't make sense but it made me a little less worried about leaving him down there. I'll do a full clean with bleach for sure though - and don't worry, I will dilute it! I think my sister has a steam cleaner so I may well have to go and thieve that off her at some point too!

I have to admit, I sometimes wonder if my vet neglects to tell me things on purpose. :? They gave me so many different medicines for Diego and told me when he was PTS that they were surprised he'd lasted so long, even though they'd been convincing me the medicines would work and he'd get better. I felt like they knew he wouldn't make it, but tried to make as much money out of me as possible in the meantime. I'm glad I got an extra few months with Diego, but they were the most saddening few months ever.

I'm sorry to hear Jess is poorly.
One of the problems with E.c. is that it is impossibly to know whether a particular bunny will recover partly, fully or not at all- it depends how much damage has been done by the parasite. I agree that fenbendazole needs to be used together with anti inflammatories for the best chance of success. A full recovery is possible though: Tippex Porkychicken recovered completely in under a week- I know many need longer though.

I hope Jess is one of the lucky ones xx

Thankyou I hope she's one of the lucky ones too!

I have rung my vet this morning and asked for metacam. I've taken some notes from all the advice I've been given and will mention that fenbendazole has been recommended.

Fingers crossed!

georgie_f said:

Thankyou I hope she's one of the lucky ones too!

I have rung my vet this morning and asked for metacam. I've taken some notes from all the advice I've been given and will mention that fenbendazole has been recommended.

Fingers crossed!

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I think you'll find Fenbendazole is what is in Panacur which I believe you are already giving:wave:

Dustyrabbit said:

I think you'll find Fenbendazole is what is in Panacur which I believe you are already giving:wave:

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Yes, sorry didn't mean to confuse things: fenbendazole is the name of the drug, panacur or lapizole are brand names

:lol: Sorry! I'm easily confused! :lol:

I don't suppose anyone knows how I can get some cheapish matacam do they? I picked up some from my vet yesterday (it was Meloxodyl!!) and a five day supply cost £15. I'm not sure I will have enough money to give her a six week supply. :shock: