Rabbit worming and e. cuniculi

Hi all,

Sadly my big giant conti buck, Sidney, has recently come down with e. cuniculi hes the first rabbit of mine to ever have it, but it seems that its fairly common. When I took him to the vets (he has hind quarters paralysis rather than head tilt) one of the first things the vet asked me was 'what is your worming schedule?' I said i didnt have one. Her response was that this explained how he came to catch it (the e.cuniculi). I am quite shocked. Would it really have been preventable just with regular worming? I take all my buns to the vets regularly for check ups, they all got neutered, chipped & have regular vaccines. My vet has never mentioned worming before or suggested it, so it never occurred to me.
But now im having a guilt meltdown that its true! Can you really prevent e. cuniculi with worming? The info i got from the Internet implied that you can't.

Do other people worm their rabbits on a schedule? What do you use? Have you been able to keep your buns free from e. cuniculi this way?

Thanks

Vets (or my vet)never mentions it

I hadn't heard of until very recently. What symptoms did he have?

Nope, regular worming (ie the 9 day course) isn't a long enough to deal with EC. The usually treatment for EC is a 28 day course on pancur plus you'll need to do a good clean toward the end of the course to make sure there are no spore that could reinfect.

Was the Vet certain your Rabbit has not sustained a disc prolapse or some other spinal problem ?

Giant breeds are very prone to spinal problems

Re the worming, there are conflicting opinions about the efficacy of Fenbendazole as a method of controlling EC. I have numerous Rabbits and I treat each new intake with a one off 28 day course. I do not treat again unless clinical symptoms of EC present.

As Tamsin mentioned, it is important to prevent re- ingestion of EC spores which are excreted in the urine. So preventing the Rabbit(s) from eating urine contaminated hay/feed and bleach cleaning their environment on days 21 and 28 of the treatment schedule. A 10% bleach solution will kill EC spores.

Did your Vet also prescribe a non steroidal anti inflammatory such as Metacam ? It is another essential part of the treatment of EC to try to minimise the inflammation within the CNS caused by erupting EC spores. It is the inflammation that causes clinical symptoms and longterm cellular damage.

It could also be an injury, the vet couldnt tell for sure, nothing showed up on the x-ray. He is also on metacalm, but only a minute amount (0.3) considering hes such a huge rabbit. The panacar dose also seems very small. I might try a different vets tomorrow just to double check.

Hes currently being housed seperately on compulsory 'hutch rest', so i imagine containing the infection wont be a problem. All the rabbit enclosures are disinfected weekly, so this part should be under control.

His Symptoms got progressively worse very quickly. I noticed he was moving oddly and that his back feet seemed to drag behind him. I took him to the vets immediately. Its 3 days later and now he can barely move at all

bluebellfarm said:

It could also be an injury, the vet couldnt tell for sure, nothing showed up on the x-ray. He is also on metacalm, but only a minute amount (0.3) considering hes such a huge rabbit. The panacar dose also seems very small. I might try a different vets tomorrow just to double check.

Hes currently being housed seperately on compulsory 'hutch rest', so i imagine containing the infection wont be a problem. All the rabbit enclosures are disinfected weekly, so this part should be under control.

His Symptoms got progressively worse very quickly. I noticed he was moving oddly and that his back feet seemed to drag behind him. I took him to the vets immediately. Its 3 days later and now he can barely move at all

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Is he able to empty his bladder ?

Yes his bowel and bladder movements are both normal. His appetite is also fairly good, although not up to his usual high standard!

Something else that it worrying me is that I'm having to handle him a lot in order to give him his treatment and he is hating it and thrashing around a lot. Im worried that, if it is a spinal injury, he might injure himself further. Is there any sort of particularly good method for handling rabbits with suspected spinal injuries?

Thanks for all the responses.

Do you have someone to help re the handling/medicating ?

Have you tried wrapping Bunny securely in a towel so he cant scrabble ?

Something that works for some people, is to kneel over your rabbit with them on the floor between your legs. You can use your feet to keep them from trying to back out of there, and use one hand in the front, to hold them and keep them from going forward while you medicate with your other hand. This way you don't have to pick up your rabbit at all.

Those are both good tips, thanks

I'm sorry to hear about your bunny and EC. Yours sounds very similar to what I went through with my Dexy i.e. he had hind leg paralysis rather than the head tilt. He was on Baytril (antibiotic), Metacam (pain relief) and 28 days of Panacur. He too deteriorated very quickly, but the good news was he was only out for a week before he began to recover again. I had to do everything for him during this time as he couldn't move - hand feed, hand water etc etc. Our bond became exceptionally close due to this so I was devastated when I had to have him pts three months later. He was my soul bunny, I'd have done anything to save him if it had been possible.

So definitely do all you can to prevent reinfection and be aware that your bun may not 100% recover - Dex was able to walk again, but he was unsteady on his feet and would fall over if he ran. He wasn't able to sit up on his hind legs to clean himself, but apart from that, he was fine. I think the hind leg muscles were just too weak as a result of his illness, but he had a very happy and comfortable life with me, even it it was too short.

I'm not saying this will happen to you, this is my experience. I'm off to bed now as I'm shattered, but feel free to PM me any time if you need anything and I will do my best to help. EC is a subject very close to my heart (for all the wrong reasons obviously) so if I am able to help someone save even one bunny, then Dex didn't die in vain.