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Head tilt pictures. I cant find them on here.

karen354

Warren Veteran
I'm in my mum's and I'm trying to find the pictures posted on head tilt but I can't find them. I was looking at them this morning and wanted to show her the pics of the bun before mediaction and the after pics. Can someone find them for me please?
 
I don't know where the pics are, but just wanted to say that even if a buns head tilt doesnt rectify its self, they can still live a normal happy life.

My Kermit had permanant head tilt after EC and he learned to manage fine :)
 
My Tilly improved dramatically but was left with a residual tilt. She loved life and was like every other bunny. I can post before and after pics of her if you like.
 
This is my Kermit, as i said, he managed to get about fine after a while :)
He could straighten his head up to eat :)
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This is Tilly's story and particularly the bit about physio and massage may be worth thinking about.

Tilly was seized by the RSPCA officers from someone who was refusing to get her treatment. At that time she lived with a guinea.

When she arrived at the RSPCA they didn't know what to do for head tilt so Panacured her (funnily enough, to no effect). She had a 3-4 o'clock tilt, and arrived in August 2008. After she had been at the centre for two months (and tilted for a great deal more, but the amount is unknown) I fought to bring her home as a foster knowing that I would be willing to try different things with her and fight for her because I knew there was so much more.

The centre thought she needed someone who would mother her, and I sort of thought she needed someone who could stimulate her. I compromised and gave her both. I bought her home and bonded her with Summer (who would definitely stimulate her) and Roger (who is a mother hen), my other two fosters.

I took her to my vet along with a big blurb that Randy (ra7751) had written about head tilt. I wanted Zithromax for her but my vet had never heard of it, nor used it, but picked up on Convenia that Randy had written about and said he had it. I had never considered using it so had to make a spur of the moment decision based on my trust for Randy's info and also my vets ability to treat Tilly[highlight= rgb(255, 255, 136);] if anything went wrong. Thankfully I made the right decision.

The dosage that my vet used for Convenia was as it was labelled (I believe that's what he said). He said it's given to cats by their weight, and that is what he did for Tilly. We started off giving it every two weeks (which is how it is dosed in cats), but it became clear on day 2 it started to work, on day 9 it stopped working (it was easy to see because we were using it for head tilt so we could see the improvement in her head and alspo in how she behaved). We gradually cut down the time in between injections and found that once a week (every seven days) worked perfectly for her and she was kept on that for 2 months of weekly injections. It changed her life.

The hardest thing with Convenia is that because there is a long time inbetween injections if there are any side effects you have to ride the week out as best you can. The risks seem to mainly be gut issues (cecal dysbosis, chronic diarrhoea, etc) and there is not way to stop it once the drug has been injected. With Tilly, we saw no side effects at all. We did use Fibreplex during that time until we were sure that she was going to show no side effects. That is basically giving her additional fibre and can potentially be useful in some gut situations but not others (I personally don't think it should be used in a blockage situation, but in this situation I had no issue with it at all and would use it again).

When Tilly arrived she could go up onto things, but not get back down, when she looked down she would just roll, she didn't move her ears, she couldn't stand up on her back legs and periscope, she couldn't clean one back leg, she couldn't put her head straight and certainly couldn't tilt it over the other way. She had nystagmus (eye scanning) when we picked her up, she would sometimes roll and mostly ran round in circles.

Tilly was on Convenia for two months. Each week me and my vet discussed her improvement and then when we plateaued and saw no further improvement we gave her I think it was three further weeks on the Convenia to consolidate all that we had battled against.

During the time she improved we started to see things like she could clean both back feet, she started to turn and listen with both her ears, she didn't have nystagmus when she was picked up, her head straightened from roughly a 3-4 o'clock tilt to a 1 o'clock tilt to upright, she could just down from things, albeit a bit cautiously sometimes, we never saw another roll after treatment started, she ran faster, jumped higher and we even saw a half binky effort, which was so funny, she could run in straight lines and all sorts. She went from being a disabled buny to a regular bunny but with a funny head because she can now do everything that all other bunnies do.

Alongside all the treatment I gave her physio using pellets and pear (and later a wider variety of food when I was sure what she could tolerate) and also gave her daily or every other day neck massages, and she also liked a heat source to lay her neck on so sometimes I used those too.

A characteristic of Tilly that kept her fighting through it all was the fact she is so VERY stubborn, and boy does she know her mind. That shows now because sometimes she refuses to do something, or believes she can't, so just doesn't try, but now I know it's not due to her head tilt, it is due to her very stubborn nature.

This is Tilly as she is now, 8 months after finished her treatment. The video shows her periscoping (for food), also turning her head the other way (also for food), shows how she sleep, shows how she cleans herself properly, etc. She was very obliging

Tilly is obviously the girl on the right. This was when she arrived and we were bonding.
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This is her after. You can see the marked improvement.
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This is her tribute video when she died (we suspect uterine cancer that spread to her lungs). You can see all she could do here. It also shows some of the physio things we did. There are other videos on that account of her and Summer and Roger ('The Fosters') which may be of interest with regards to physio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBTwHDwZC5s
 
Thank you so much for posting them :D it does make me feel better knowing there is a chance for my special little boy :love:
I was just so shocked this morning I didn't expect the slight head tilt which he had yesterday become so bad he couldn't walk :(
 
It is amazing how well they adapt, and some even get their head back totally straight!

I do hope that your wee man comes through this, i know how tough it is seeing them looking like this, but it feels so good when you see improvements x
 
:( I didn't know he had become that bad. You could try putting him in a carry case with rolled towels to prop him up (and the lid off), if he wants to be upright but can't be.

Also, this might be the time when Stemetil is of use. I would also strongly be thinking of antibiotics and getting him on something very appropriate if he is not already (sorry, can't remember off the top of my head what he is on).
 
:( I didn't know he had become that bad. You could try putting him in a carry case with rolled towels to prop him up (and the lid off), if he wants to be upright but can't be.

Also, this might be the time when Stemetil is of use. I would also strongly be thinking of antibiotics and getting him on something very appropriate if he is not already (sorry, can't remember off the top of my head what he is on).

I've put lots of cushions and pillows in his shed but good idea about the carrier will do that now..
He's on panacur, Metacam and antibiotics ( even thought i'm back to the vets tomorrow because they haven't given me enough)
 
I'm really sorry that I've missed your recent threads about your poorly bunny :(

I thought I'd share our story of our headtilt bun Wilson. He became very poorly last April with headtilt - which we didn't find the exact cause of :( However, very long story short - we had Wilson on all sorts of different meds.

To start off with he was just on baytril (antibiotics), panacur & metacam - this was when his head was only slightly tilted. He then got progressively worse & his tilt changed sides - it was so bad his down eye was almost horizontal to the floor. We then changed him to steroid injections, depocillin injections & panacur - again sadly these did nothing for him.

He was having severe rolling episodes & we had to confine him to a padded cage for around 6 weeks. Eventually after bunny mad lisa on RU suggested it - we talked to our vet about Zithromax - it's an antibiotic that is used for humans & not licensed for rabbits, but Lisa had, had great results with it her for her headtilt bunny - so we felt we had no options left but to try it.

We switched him onto Zithromax & also started him on stemetil (human anti sickness drug) - continued with his panacur & I *think* his steroid injections. After just over a week of this treatment he was well enough to come out of his cage & go back with his partner Alice. We'd kept them in the same room at all times, but had to confine Wilson to a cage so he didn't hurt himself or Alice.

I have been told & read that the best way to deal with headtilt is to treat with as much strength of medication as possible - I think basically to try to beat the infection before it gets worse.

Wilson's original thread is below - warning though it is very long, as we had another 2 sick buns at the time :oops:

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

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I just thought I'd share this pic of Wilson with you as he looks now :love: His head sadly never righted itself (although a lot bun's do :)) - but it does not stop him living a full life at all :D He's just got a wonky view of the world - he bombs around their bedroom & our upstairs like a good un! He's just learnt to live with his head on oneside & adapt completely.

I hope this helps in knowing that buns can & do come through these dreadful illnesses & hope your bun is one of them. Sending lots & lots of vibes, feel free to pm me if you want to ask me anything else xx
 
I'm sorry you're having to deal with EC :( It's a terrible illness and it seems to take forever to treat it. Don't loose hope though, my Jess had it a while back and she's now fine. :) She had a tilt, but it wasn't as severe as a lot of buns get. However, she would fit if I moved her against her will and if I picked her up, she would spin around and around in my lap and once she stopped spinning, she'd fold her head right under her body. It was quite shocking and, oddly, I think I was getting frustrated that she wasn't getting better and I used to find myself getting quite angry when I couldn't get her to just sit still. :oops:

Here are some pictures of her in the midst of her EC -





Recovering (still a bit squiify!) -



And Jess today, with the straightest noggin I ever did see :) -



Good luck with your bunny, I hope his recovery will be as full as Jess's. :wave:
 
I've put lots of cushions and pillows in his shed but good idea about the carrier will do that now..
He's on panacur, Metacam and antibiotics ( even thought i'm back to the vets tomorrow because they haven't given me enough)

I think you might want to look at what antibiotics you have been given. Something like Baytril or Septrin will not be effective enough. You want to be looking at Penicillin or Zithromax and what I have used in both my head tilt buns to very good effect was Convenia. Its something you need to discuss with your vet because, as I say, recent research from the guy on the forum I PMed you about says EC does not cause head tilt, and that the majority of times it is an infection.
 
I think you might want to look at what antibiotics you have been given. Something like Baytril or Septrin will not be effective enough. You want to be looking at Penicillin or Zithromax and what I have used in both my head tilt buns to very good effect was Convenia. Its something you need to discuss with your vet because, as I say, recent research from the guy on the forum I PMed you about says EC does not cause head tilt, and that the majority of times it is an infection.

I've been in touch with the guy you mention and he's been so helpful. I'm going to get my husband to read the messages off him tonight he'll understand better than me. Cookie is on Baytril, what do i say if she say's the other antibiotics isn't lisenced for animals ? My vet is 2 minutes away from me but I'm not so sure they actually know what they are doing with rabbits :(
I had to go yesterday and ask for Metacam and antibiotics, the vet I saw did say if it was me that checked Coookie out the night before I'd of given him Metacam.
 
Oh I'm so glad he has been helpful :D his knowledge to me has been invaluable.

Most medicines for rabbits are not licensed. When me and my vet discussed using Convenia (we used it on the recommendation of said person I put you in touch with), I made it clear I knew the risks, I knew it wasn't licensed, but that it was what I wnated to try. Thankfully he knew me enough to know that I was making an informed decision.

If your vet won't prescribe anything like that, could you maybe find a vet via a recommendation from this forum?
 
Please excuse the nibbled litter tray and general mess!

This was only a week or two after symptoms appeared. His body was straight as he was standing so that indicates how twisted his head was.

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These were a bit later on after he'd started improving...

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Head tilt pictures.i cant find them on here

You could join the Yahoo group "on the wonk" it,s for head tilt bunnies and you will get lots of very good advice and help on there:)
 
www.onthewonk.co.uk

they are fantastic and will give you ll the help you need! Katy who runs it saved my bunny when i didn't kno were to turn. My bunny had severe headtilt and i had tried all kinds of meds.Katy put me on to zithropmax and withing 2 days my bunny showed drastic improvements.
My vets don't know too much either but are always happy to listen and take on what info i tell them. My vet was amazed by zithromax and now stocks it!
 
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