Nutmeg's Feeling Dizzy - Ear Infection

Hello, friends. Hope you and your buns are all well
I'm afraid Nutmeg and I are in need of assistance again.

A lot has happened so I will try and summarise it as well as possible.

Monday - Nutmeg was taken in to Vets Now for not eating all day around 10pm. We checked her ear and it was full of pus. Vet cleaned it, gave her metacam and Baytril injections. Got home and she was sticking her head out. Not sure how to explain but was acting strange like she was forcing her self forward (lunging?). Phoned vet, we were told it was the drugs.

Tuesday - Vet appointment. Prescribed something other than ear drops (thank god!) and was told infection present in both ears. 10 day course of Baytril and we were to try a spot on treatment (she explained but I can't remember why. She said that she has had rabbits get persistent ear infections which clear up with a spot on, can't remember reason). She gave us home some Metacam. She suggested we try another antibiotic if Baytril has no affect within 10 days. She said she would teach me to inject Nutmeg if I would like.

Wednesday & Thursday - Eating better, did her head lunging a few times, but nothing more.

Friday - Eating almost back to normal. No head lunging.

Saturday - Absolutely fine. Eating well, even hay. We come back about 3 hours later and she is doing her head movements, slightly wobbly, acting strange. I give her some Baytril and she lies down and seems fine.

Then comes today...
She couldn't lift her head more than an inch off the ground, she stumbles and wobbles every time she takes a step and she does her head lunging and flicking. Her eyes were moving a couple of times and I saw her move her head side to side a few times. Phoned Vets Now, took her in, he gave her Metacam and some Penicillin drug. He explained that it Penicillin was "a big no-no in Rabbits" but he has given them this hundreds of times and there was a tiny risk (I'm not sure the details in depth but if I'm right in saying so, I believe there is a Penicillin combination that is okay?) and to get 1 injection every week for 4 weeks and to continue the baytril. Anyway, he says it's most likely a middle ear infection.

That was at 1pm and it's now nearly 11pm.

Sorry for the length and detail. Here are my questions!

1) When will she be able to walk around without falling over and being wobbly? Will that resolve soon? Should it have resolved as soon as the drug had time to enter her system? Will it take a few weeks/months?

2) She also was going a bit mental. It wasn't a binky, but it was similar. She would just throw herself in the air and several times landed on her back. We were told that would go away when the drugs kicked in and she hasn't done it since (fingers crossed she won't cause it was scary stuff!). What was this? Has anyone experienced this?

3) Have I caught this early enough for it to be treatable? Does she stand a good chance since it only started Monday and she has been on Anti-Biotics since?

Thanks for any help. I will be honest, Nutmeg has never given me such a scare. She just looks so confused and helpless. I really don't know what I can do to help her. Any help is much appreciated - you have all been so helpful over the past few months!

Thanks again.

Dee


U/D - I just realised the length... I'M SO SORRY! I'm sure all you helpful people don't intend to read this/need to know all of that! Sorry

I haven't had anything like this with rabbits, so can't be sure of specifics, but have had something similarish in my old rats.
A respiritory infection he had has as a baby turned into an inner ear infection. He developed a head tilt, was circling, generally very strange. Took him to the vets, given a poor prognosis, but wanted to try anyway as he was only very young. I was given a course of Baytril. Used Baytril in the past and always found it about as much use as nuns p**s, but that was the only option at the time, so tried it. Contacted some rat savvy people and was told to get azithromycin (sp? azithromicin maybe?), much stronger than Baytril. Rang the vets, they ordered it, came in within about 5 days. In the meantime the Baytril was doing nothing, within several hours of starting azithromycin he was much better. With an infection fairly deep, that has caught hold, it might need a stronger antibiotic to get it under control. I don't know if azithromycin is bunny safe, but maybe worth bringing up a stronger antibiotic with the vets?
Good luck to you and Nutmeg!

tasteofchaos said:

I haven't had anything like this with rabbits, so can't be sure of specifics, but have had something similarish in my old rats.
A respiritory infection he had has as a baby turned into an inner ear infection. He developed a head tilt, was circling, generally very strange. Took him to the vets, given a poor prognosis, but wanted to try anyway as he was only very young. I was given a course of Baytril. Used Baytril in the past and always found it about as much use as nuns p**s, but that was the only option at the time, so tried it. Contacted some rat savvy people and was told to get azithromycin (sp? azithromicin maybe?), much stronger than Baytril. Rang the vets, they ordered it, came in within about 5 days. In the meantime the Baytril was doing nothing, within several hours of starting azithromycin he was much better. With an infection fairly deep, that has caught hold, it might need a stronger antibiotic to get it under control. I don't know if azithromycin is bunny safe, but maybe worth bringing up a stronger antibiotic with the vets?
Good luck to you and Nutmeg!

Click to expand...

Thank you for your comment, and for reading my long post :lol: I might just take her in tomorrow to ask my usual vet about what else we could try. Do you think this might make her worse by stressing her out? She did ask how I felt about Baytril and I said I'm neutral about it - it's 50/50 whether it works or not, and if it does, it's only a temporary fix!

I'm pleased to hear about your rat, it's a shame when they get struck with horrible things like this when they are still young. Nutmeg isn't even 2 yet and all the vets recognise her :lol:

Sorry to add more to an already long topic!
But what is the likelihood of her getting worse? Is there a chance she could get worse or should she start to improve?

If it is a middle ear infection it can take many many weeks, even months, of ongoing treatment. Symptoms can get a lot worse before they get better

I would consider asking the Vet about adding Metronidazole to the drug regime. I have found a combination of Depocillin Injections (actually given every 48 hours) and Metronidazole to be the most successful for treating severe ear infections.

If your Rabbit is not eating then she will require ongoing supportive feeds and fluids


http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Otit/otitis.htm

Hope Nutmeg feels better soon

What Jane said! My bun Mimi had Metranidazole when she had an ear infection, but she was severely imbalanced.

Just a word about nursing her. If she is off balance she may need help grooming and also getting her caecotrophs. If you see any uneaten ones offer them to her (you might want a peg on your nose!)
Keep an eye on her back end incase she sits in her wee and needs washing.

Bring her water bowl, hay and other food right to her mouth regularly as she might be feeling too poorly to get to them of her own accord.
Like Jane said it could be a matter of days, weeks, even months until she is better. But dont lose hope, ear infections are very stubborn but they CAN be beaten. And theres no better feeling in the world than seeing your scarily sick bun back to her normal happy self

Loads of vibes xxx

Is the penicillin being given with a needle? Just wanted to check cos penicillin should never be given orally.

Like Gemma has said, it's horrible to watch and to nurse but they can make it through with minimum leftover tilt and regain almost all mobility. Mischa has head tilt aged one, so bad after a couple of weeks treatment we were told we 'will need to PTS'. We saw progress in him, yes his head tilt was worse than before but he had regained some balance, he still fell a lot but we were seeing progress, plus he was eating so we refused and continued treatment. He's going to be six this year and gambols around just as spritely as my other three.

We used an indoor cage to keep him in and regularly held him as he was much more comfortable in our arms (i know others have had the opposite experience to this however). We handfed him as although he was hungry he struggled to get to the food.

Hi. I know how u feel. I've got 2 lop ears and am having a nightmare trying to get rid of ear infections!!!

Harley was the worst... Partial paralysis of right cheek, major head wobbleand unbalanced!

Smudge had never really progressed with hers.

Harley on metacam which helps with wobble ...middle ear infections are a pain!

Vet says baytril useless. They were on Septrin, tried Zithromax....complete waste of time. Now on Septrin again and fortnightly ear flushes! Which is an improvement as they were having flushes every wk. So far has cost £3000 odd...thank god for petplan! And been ongoing since last year.

Unfortunately, patience and persistence are r a must!

Good luck though! Xx