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Help! Foxxy laying funny in the hutch and feels floppy{update}** Possible EC**

Scrufox86

Warren Scout
Hi i need help. I'm not sure what to do. We took Foxxy to the vet recently because she stopped drinking from her water bottle. When we took her the vet said she was fine and not dehydrated. We brought her home but had to return twice after for a weight check to make sure she wasn't losing any. Both visits showed she hadn't lost any weight and since last friday she has been eating and drinking again like normal.

Well this morning i go out to feed the rabbits and she is sitting strangely over her litter tray. I put her food in and usually she charges at me and grunts as she hates people touching her food. But today she just sat there and looked like she doesn't care. So i picked her up and she didn't feel right. Usually she feels heavy like her normal weight but she felt slightly floppy. She had been eating and drinking so it isn't that. I just don't know what to do seeing as when we took her to the vets last week they said there was nothing wrong with her.
 
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If a bun is not interested in food, you can consider this an emergency.

I would strongly recommend you treat this as an emergency and get her straight to a (rabbit savvy) vet. An uninterested rabbit who is lethargic and 'floppy' could be extremely ill and in pain.

If you are looking for a second opinion, i'd recommend you pop a thread up in rabbit chat asking for 'Rabbit Savvy vet in <your area here>'.

Loads of vibes for Foxxy!
 
Ok we have been to the vets. Took her as an emergency.

They checked her over and didn't feel anything odd (like last week when she stopped drinking from her water bottle) and they put her on the floor to check if she would hop. She did hop a little but slid as well. The vet weighed her and she is the same weight as last week when she went in. He did take her temperature and said she was a little bit cold which could explain the reason why she wasn't eating this morning when i put the food in. He gave her some injections i don't know the names but from the receipt they are emeprid, oxytetrin and metacam. The vet told us that he wants to see her again tomorrow to see how she's doing but if she does get worse then obviously take her back today.

As soon as we put her back in her hutch she was munching away on hay. I'm just not sure what is going on with her. The vet said that if she hasn't improved by tomorrow then they may need to keep her in and do scans to see if there's something going on inside that they can't check by feeling around her. Does anyone know what this may be?
 
I'm just unsure what to do. I mean they are the vets and they told us that the injections should work. We put her out in the indoor run and she passed wee and poop (though the wee wasn't the normal yellowy colour and was more clearish with yellow and the poops were not as much as she normally does) and just now i checked on her and she has not drunk anything from her bottle since i changed them at 2pm. I did give her some parsley and when we did that last week she didn't drink from the bottle and we got told to stop giving the parsley so she'd use the bottle.

She has been eating hay but not touched the pellets/museli mix. I've been trying to wean them all off the museli stuff and get them onto the pellets and it was working until she started not drinking last week. Do you think the injections could be a reason why she hasn't eaten as normal?

She was acting more like her normal self as well when i went to touch her food bowl and she grunted and charged forward. I just don't know what is going on with her, i thought after last week it was just that she wasn't dehydrated so didn't need to drink from the bottle as it isn't warm anymore so doesn't need to drink as much (that's what the vet told us it probably was as there were no other symptoms and she hadn't lost weight).

I'm so worried not just for her but for all our other rabbits. If what she has is contagious then all our others could get the same thing and what is actually wrong with her?
 
I am no expert by any means and I am sure someone will come on and give you better advice but in my opinion I would give her the favourite foods that you know she will eat...at least she is eating. If parsley is one of them...I would give that too (at least she is then getting a bit of moisture through the food). While she is like this I would give the museli that she likes and see if she eats that. I know pellets are better for her but again, at least she is eating.

Can you bring her inside if she is cold? Would she be happy indoors?
 
With reference to the above comment, dont bring her inside unless you can bring her bonded friend too and keep them indoors until april, as once in a heated room she will quickly lose her winter coat. A snugglesafe in the hutch would be a good idea though, to help warm her.

Does she have a bowl? I would give her a bowl as well, as bunnies often prefer them to bottles, and give her slightly warm water (add water from the kettle not the hot tap) as they prefer to drink this. Try and make it a fairly heavy bowl or a casserole dish so its not easily tipped over.

How much in ml is she drinking a day? Make sure you measure all water, so you have actual figures to give to the vet. My vet always thought I was exaggerating when I told them about Barney's drinking, both when he stopped drinking and normally when he drinks way too much, until I gave him actual figures.

You can always syringe her water if need be, so dont panic too much, although this will mean you can no longer see if not drinking is a symptom, so dont do it without consulting the vet. You could also give her some greens that have been washed in water, still wet, but again theres the same problem in that it wont help the diagnosis process.

Has she had her teeth checked, front and back, for signs of needing a dental? This can cause the reluctance to eat and the stasis/gut slowdown, which is what I suspect was happening to your bun earlier if she wasnt eating.
 
With reference to the above comment, dont bring her inside unless you can bring her bonded friend too and keep them indoors until april, as once in a heated room she will quickly lose her winter coat. A snugglesafe in the hutch would be a good idea though, to help warm her.

Does she have a bowl? I would give her a bowl as well, as bunnies often prefer them to bottles, and give her slightly warm water (add water from the kettle not the hot tap) as they prefer to drink this. Try and make it a fairly heavy bowl or a casserole dish so its not easily tipped over.

How much in ml is she drinking a day? Make sure you measure all water, so you have actual figures to give to the vet. My vet always thought I was exaggerating when I told them about Barney's drinking, both when he stopped drinking and normally when he drinks way too much, until I gave him actual figures.

You can always syringe her water if need be, so dont panic too much, although this will mean you can no longer see if not drinking is a symptom, so dont do it without consulting the vet. You could also give her some greens that have been washed in water, still wet, but again theres the same problem in that it wont help the diagnosis process.

Has she had her teeth checked, front and back, for signs of needing a dental? This can cause the reluctance to eat and the stasis/gut slowdown, which is what I suspect was happening to your bun earlier if she wasnt eating.

Foxxy doesn't have a bonded partner. She is not spayed so is on her own. We always go and give the rabbits attention and she has been fine with it. We asked about spaying and a senior vet nurse said it is risky in rabbits around 5 years of age and apparently more than the actual cancer itself at this stage in her life. She usually drank around the same as Scruffy about 50ml a day and in the warm weather it was anything from around 75 - 100ml. We did the syringe water and wet parsley etc last week and got told to stop as this will prevent her from drinking herself. Her teeth have been checked, front ones are fine, they checked for molar spurs and there are none. Also they felt around her jawline for any abcess and found none. I think Foxxy was eating just not eating the pellets/museli but since last week she had been eating some of it so i thought she was getting back to her normal self until yesterday. About a water bowl, i'm not sure if it'll work. She'll most likely wee in it and contaminate it or just kick hay etc into it.

Something different to last year is that we were putting vitamins into the water up until June this year when we got told to remove them by one of the vets could that be a reason why she isn't drinking now? And we did have a heater in the shed last year on low to keep the chill away but this year it isn't working and needs repairs which haven't been done yet.
 
Sorry for the double post. Just an update. Been to vet today for a repeat checkup. Vet said Foxxy looks a lot better today and she does to be honest. She doesn't feel floppy like yesterday. He said to syringe some metaclopramide and we have to do that three times a day. Also he said maybe give some recovery food. It is oxbow recovery which is apparently better than the previous recovery stuff we've used for other rabbits. And he said as she was floppy yesterday that maybe it would be best to use panacur for the nine days. He never confirmed if she had Ecuniculi as she isn't showing the two major signs of head tilt or incontinence but because she was floppy maybe it is a sign of it.

Well we gave her some of the metaclopramide about 12pm and i am going to give the others at 5pm and 10pm. I'm going to give the panacur at 5pm as well and as she has been eating hay and i just gave her some wet parsley (vet said to give her veg she likes to encourage her to eat more) so i may give the recovery later tonight.

Can anyone else help with the possible EC issue? Since Frosty passed away 2 weeks ago we have seven rabbits in total and if Foxxy has EC i am worried all of them may have it.
 
Hi

Sorry to hear Foxxy isn't well. As for the Panacur the course needs to be 28 days long, not 9. 9 used to be what was recommended for "worming" but is advised against nowadays. 28 days is length of time for EC treatment as the lifecycle of the spore is apparently 21 days.

I can't really advise on the likelihood that your other rabbits will have EC but it's unlikely unless they have eaten food/grass urinated on by the infected rabbit (assuming she is infected).
 
Hi

Sorry to hear Foxxy isn't well. As for the Panacur the course needs to be 28 days long, not 9. 9 used to be what was recommended for "worming" but is advised against nowadays. 28 days is length of time for EC treatment as the lifecycle of the spore is apparently 21 days.

I can't really advise on the likelihood that your other rabbits will have EC but it's unlikely unless they have eaten food/grass urinated on by the infected rabbit (assuming she is infected).

28 days!? Oh no. For all 7 rabbits that's going to be extremely costly. The vet told us to just do the nine days and if she improves with eating/drinking and behaves like her normal self then she should be fine.

Since it is damp outside a lot now it is colder we don't put the rabbits outside in the runs. We moved one of them inside our conservatory and they all use it. We only last month put down a vinyl floor sheet for the run to go on. This makes it easy to clean when they do thier wee and poops. We always wash and disinfect where they have urinated. The poops we sweep up. If the poops are sticky we pick them up with tissue and wash and disinfect the area. So they can't have been infected that way surely.

If Foxxy does have EC then most could also have it too. Four are her children so if she had it when they were born then they could have been born with it. Scruffy was the one who mated with her (at the time we thought it was just him telling Foxxy who was boss as we were told repeatedly that she was a male rabbit) so i guess if she had it at that time then he would have got EC from her then. Dinky is unrelated and lives separate but we had her and Foxxy share one of the runs (not at the same time) so she may also have EC. We were told by one of the vets that the rule is not to treat a healthy rabbit so if they are not showing any signs then don't treat for EC. I am not sure what is the best thing other than to give Foxxy her medication and see what happens after a few days.
 
You can get Panacur a lot cheaper online at VetUK than from vets. :) It doesn't need a prescription.
 
You can get Panacur a lot cheaper online at VetUK than from vets. :) It doesn't need a prescription.

Thank you so much. I can't believe it is only £4 from that website. Vets price is almost £8

Well i gave Foxxy her first dose of panacur at 5pm. She seemed to like it. I gave her some more wet parsley just now and it looks like a tiny dribble of water has been drank from the water bottle as well but i am not 100% sure on that. When being held it does feel like i am holding her now rather than her being floppy. The vet did say that over 50% of domestic rabbits have been exposed to EC and most live with it staying dormant and not causing any problems for thier entire lives. Things that can trigger it are stress and other illnesses. It may not be EC and he did say that and only gave the panacur as a "just in case" thing. I really hope she doesn't have it. I hope a proper cure for EC is found as well, it is horrid.
 
Thank you so much. I can't believe it is only £4 from that website. Vets price is almost £8

Well i gave Foxxy her first dose of panacur at 5pm. She seemed to like it. I gave her some more wet parsley just now and it looks like a tiny dribble of water has been drank from the water bottle as well but i am not 100% sure on that. When being held it does feel like i am holding her now rather than her being floppy. The vet did say that over 50% of domestic rabbits have been exposed to EC and most live with it staying dormant and not causing any problems for thier entire lives. Things that can trigger it are stress and other illnesses. It may not be EC and he did say that and only gave the panacur as a "just in case" thing. I really hope she doesn't have it. I hope a proper cure for EC is found as well, it is horrid.

One of my eight bunnies was recently confirmed to have EC. The rabbit savvy vet advised that he have 28 days of Panacur and all the others have 9 days, even his companion was only to have 9 days of it. Everything else you've said here matches my understanding and I've got to the point where I'm not greatly worried about EC - they could well have it all their lives and not show signs of it. Trying to prevent my other rabbits from getting it would be nigh impossible so I just live with the risk.

I hope you get to find out what's ailing Foxxy or that she just improves without further need for investigations.
 
I cant believe your buns drink so little :shock: thats the same size as a hamster bottle. My two do drink a lot though, its around 800ml day atm.


I would try a bowl, whats the worst that can happen, you'll have to clean it. It is a much more natural way to drink.


5 years of age is also not too old to be spayed, although you may want to get bloods done first. The risk of uterine cancer by this age is 85%, that is way higher than the risk of a spay. The only prevention of, and cure of uterine cancer is a spay.
 
I cant believe your buns drink so little :shock: thats the same size as a hamster bottle. My two do drink a lot though, its around 800ml day atm.


I would try a bowl, whats the worst that can happen, you'll have to clean it. It is a much more natural way to drink.


5 years of age is also not too old to be spayed, although you may want to get bloods done first. The risk of uterine cancer by this age is 85%, that is way higher than the risk of a spay. The only prevention of, and cure of uterine cancer is a spay.

The bottles we use are 600ml ones. The coloured ones that can be found in pets at home. The rabbits all used to drink much more when we had the vitamins in the bottles. We used to leave it for a few days due to the vitamins being in it and the water would go down to about half way so around 300ml in two or three days. But we were told by one of our vets that they don't need the vitamins in the water bottles so remove them. Once removed they did drink less but it was still more than now because it was summer. Since the weather has cooled they haven't been drinking as much. When we mentioned to the vet about Foxxy not drinking last week he asked how much she was drinking before she just stopped and when we told him 50ml a day he measured it out and poured it into a bowl and said that was about right.

With the amount of medicines we've been given to help her at the moment i haven't put a water bowl in. I have given wet parsley again but not a lot as she has drank a little more from her water bottle today. We did syringe some oxbow recovery (she didn't like it but we got one syringe worth in her) and she's had her metoclopramide and pancur doses for the day. I just hope this works and she doesn't deteriorate.
 
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