Advice please re CT scan for recurring ear problems

Ellie has had two separate bouts of being wobbly and falling over. These have happened a couple of months apart and the vet has put it down to an ear infection/abscess of some kind. Never had any discharge though, treated with a month's worth (I think) of Baytril and Metacam. She is wobbly for 3-4 days...has both times stayed at the vets for a couple of days in the hope that they see what she's doing, but in true unhelpful bunny style she's right as rain there, not a wobble of any kind :roll: :?

Well, she's been off baytril for a couple of weeks now so if its going to come back again I want to be prepared... the vet has said if it happens again its time for a referral to Frances Harcourt-Brown to make sure they haven't missed anything obvious and most probably a CT scan/MRI afterwards.

It seems that a lot of people say that Baytril is no good for ear infections so am wondering should I push for a course of different antibiotics to see if that shifts it or just go ahead with the referral and scan. Harrogate is nearly 2 hours away from me, Ellie's fella Bandit HATES travelling with a passion so would have to think whether to take him anyway but is it worth trying a different ABX to avoid this or just go ahead and get her scanned to see what we're up against?

She's doing a fair bit of ear scratching so am figuring this could be sooner rather than later...

Just to add both buns have had a 28 day course of Lapizole as a precaution, they covered everything when this 1st happened. Worried about the next step now though

Having had a lot of first hand experience with Rabbits and middle ear disease I have learned that they need to be treated using an 'all guns blazing' approach from the outset. If the symptoms resolve after a month of Baytril but then return it seems to be a reasonable idea to suggest changing to another antibiotic/combination of antibiotics. I have seen success using a combination of Depocillin injections and Metronidazole. Others say that Zithromax has proved to be effective. Sometimes the treatment needs to continue for months rather than weeks. The longest course Morse has had has been 4 months.

A CT scan would be useful in that it could give some details of the extent of infection there is. But it would not offer any addition medical treatment options. It may give the Vet an idea about the feasibility of surgery, but personally I would need to think long and hard about putting a Rabbit through a major and painful surgical procedure that only offers a very guarded prognosis of a recovery. All too often the infection/abscess seems to recur not that long after the surgery. In all honesty I would take a lot of convincing before I would opt for surgical intervention for a Rabbit in my care. Others do feel differently though, this is just my personal opinion.

Jane, once again thankyou...That's what my heart is thinking just need reassurances and to get things straight in my own mind before Ellie takes a turn for the worse and I have to discuss the next step with the vet.

Ellie does improve very quickly when she starts on Baytril, but I know its just not cutting it. Bless her its just a waiting game to see when things are going to go down hill, I'm sounding very pessimistic, but we shall see. xx

Having dealt with these I would definitely go for a CT scan (vital to assess extent) as well as tougher abx - but also ensuring a sample is taken first to ensure correct abx used.