Wobbly bunny :-( EC or inner ear infection?

Hi
I have a 5 and a half year old male called Sid (neutered) bun. He lives with another male, Monty, (neutered) and female, Daisy, (spayed) bun happily.
I did have another bun Bert, who sadly died very suddenly 6 weeks ago. We rushed him to the emergency vets but he died on the way there. The vet said she thought it was a neurological problem, and that he wouldn't have been aware of it as he was fine 2 hours before I found him, very unwell. I know buns are good at hiding signs of being ill, but losing Bert was a complete shock to us as he was so young (around a year old) and was always causing havok.
Now, back to Sid, on Sunday evening I put the bunnies away at around 11.30pm (they free range when we are home). Then when I went to let the buns out on Mon morning Sid didn't come out straight away with Monty & Daisy. He was trying to hop towards the run door, but kept falling to one side I immediately rang my vets and took him straight down, they saw him straight away.
The vet briefly examined him and said his ears appeared fine (she was checking for an infection I think), his teeth were also fine. But his temperature was slightly low. So she gave him 2 injections, one antibiotic (in case he does have an inner ear infection), and a steriod. He has also been sent home with 6 days worth of Baytril and Panacur, one dose for 28 days.

Now, I am thinking he could have E Cunciculi... what are other peoples thoughts on this? Could Bert of died from a sudden onset of this?

I have seen a slight improvement him today, he now hops without always falling over and can get around ok. He falls over when he tries to groom his face. He is also eating and drinking normally.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks x

It sounds like the vet has covered all bases there, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to treat the other rabbits with panacur too and do a full antibacterial clean out of their areas just in case.

I don't know about Burt, sorry, but I hope Sid gets better soon.

Thanks for your reply, yes I am treating the other 2 just in case.

Has anyone else had a bunny before with E Cuniculi? What is the prognosis? I am really worried about him and don't want him to suffer

Anyone?

I do not have any experience of a bunny with EC. But sending vibes and bumping this up for you :thumb:
I found these links on the web... there might be some useful information there?

http://www.vets-now.com/pet-owners/rabbit-care-advice/e-cuniculi-in-rabbits/
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/ecuniculi.htm

I saw this yesterday, but felt too ill to respond. So sorry to hear about Bert. I hadn't realised you lost him.

Have you been given Metacam? A bunny fighting EC needs an anti-inflammatory.

I don't either but try searching it on the forum and lots of threads will come up as quite a lot of RUers have had bunnies with it. Here's one link:

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...atments-are-there-for-EC&highlight=e-cuniculi

I know some bunnies have survived, I guess it's just catching it early.

Good luck.

I'm sorry Sid isn't well.

Truffle had EC over a year ago and it sounds similar in severity to Sid's. This is her thread:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...nning-UD-video-P58&highlight=truffle+scanning

I would say she made an almost complete recovery within a matter of weeks. Almost complete in that nobody would ever notice anything wrong with her now. Very occasionally I notice an almost imperceptible tilt to her head, but only because I'm looking for it and it's not even all the time. The treatment you've been given sounds similar. We were advised also to treat Fudge with the Panacur.

There are a few members who have nursed buns with much more severe E.C. so hopefully they will pop along with some advice.

I would say if he's hopping about and seems happy in himself try not to worry too much about him suffering - looking back I am very sure that we found the whole experience much more distressing than Truffle did. Watching it was terrible, but she very much seemed to just get on with it to the best of her ability.

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...with-EC-UD-11th-October&p=6099789#post6099789

Cleo's story is here.

She was very poorly with severe EC earlier this year but now, aside from her wonky head and occasional wobble she is totally back to normal.

It was a very long hard battle and heartbreaking to see but she got there in the end.

Once the steroid has worn off I would ask for metacam as it is crucial in the recovery of EC.

Please ask any questions and I'll try and help.

ralphus maximus! said:

Thanks for your reply, yes I am treating the other 2 just in case.

Has anyone else had a bunny before with E Cuniculi? What is the prognosis? I am really worried about him and don't want him to suffer

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I have had personal experience of two bunnies who have developed EC. Not my own bunnies, but belonging to other people.

The first bunny had balance problems, seizures, fits, head tilt, loss of appetite and I really thought he was going to die. However this was over 4 years ago, the bunny made a full recovery and is in the best of health now.


The second bunny showed similar symptoms but also lack of mobility in his back legs. He recovered from everything other than the mobility problem. Sadly though after fighting such very brave battle, he passed away a couple of weeks ago.


Every bunny is different so really I cannot say either yes or no to a full recovery. All I can say though is to do your very best and don't give up hope too early on.

You are welcome to pm or ring me if you want me to go into more detail.


Thinking of you and bunny at this difficult and upsetting time. xx

SarahP said:

I saw this yesterday, but felt too ill to respond. So sorry to hear about Bert. I hadn't realised you lost him.

Have you been given Metacam? A bunny fighting EC needs an anti-inflammatory.

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Thanks Sarah... I didn't broadcast it on Facebook as I found the whole thing quite traumatic. Bless him.
Sid did have a steroid injection... should I now request Metacam from the vets?

Thank you so much everyone else for your responses and links to previous threads in relation to this, I am literally about to head to bed so will reply in full tomorrow. A quick update though: Sid is still wobbly, not as bad as he was on Monday when I found him. He doesn't come out of the run though (out of character), just tends to stay inside and hide. He is nibbling on food and eating some hay. His appetite is not as big as it usually it is though. Daisy and Monty are completely normal, grooming Sid too, which is nice to see! I only have one day left at work before xmas then have nearly 2 weeks off so am glad I will be home to monitor him more closely.

x

I'm glad I didn't miss it on Facebook and not respond. Sorry you've had a bad time of it.

I definitely think you need some Metacam. Active EC causes inflammation. Good to hear that he's doing a bit better though.

Sorry you lost Bert I joined the forum because my Storm had EC. She recovered completely. I hope Sid does too. Sending lots of vibes xx

Captain Helen said:

Sorry you lost Bert I joined the forum because my Storm had EC. She recovered completely. I hope Sid does too. Sending lots of vibes xx

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Thanks Captain Helen. That's good to know that your Storm recovered fully.. how long did this take and what meds did you use?

I contacted my vets this morning and they prescribed some Metacam without Sid needing to be seen again. They also said that he may need some more steroid injections, as he was better after his steroid injection on Monday, then deteriorated through Weds & this morning. I collected the Metacam after work and gave him his dose this evening.
So my plan is to continue with the Metacam, Bayrtil and Panacur over the weekend and hopefully see some improvement. I will also try and get a video of him tomorrow and upload it to hear to see what you guys think - but at the moment he doesn't really do much bless him! His head is definitely tilted slightly to the left


x

Come on Sid.:thumb: Get better soon. xxx

Just came to see how Sid was doing - I hope he picks up again over the weekend with the Metacam.

I'm sure your vets know this but steroid and metacam must not be used at the same time. The steroid must be out of the system before metacam is given. They are only meant to have 3 doses of steroid 48 hours apart.

Cleo was initially treated with steroids. She was doing great on them and it kind of gave us a false sense of hope as once it wore off she took a real turn for the worse, 4 days after her last steroid we found her collapsed, her head upside down and her body twisted.

We continued with the metacam and lapizole. The vet also treated her with a 2 weeks course of strong antibiotic.

She was on metacam from early May until October this year.

EC often gets a lot worse before it gets better. It's likely he's feeling a bit dizzy/disorientated with the head tilt so that's probably why he's not so active.

Sending lots of vibes for Sid!

Topping up vibes for Sid. xxxx

I'm sorry to be late to this thread.
Mimzy came down with head tilt in June of 2012. He was prescribed Baytril twice a day (and continued taking it for about 4 months as his tilt was severe), Panacur for 28 days (there is a special regimen for cleaning the habitat on certain days of treatment but I can't recall the exact dates), Metacam he was already on for early onset arthritis and spondylosis unrelated to the tilt, and also we gave meclizine twice a day which seemed to help him with the rolling/tilted head. We are not certain to this day what exactly caused his tilt, but we hit it on all fronts. We did not use steroid injections and I'm glad we didn't as in my experience it doesn't work long enough and has unintended side effects. For a time we also used chloramphenicol instead of baytril, but it took a toll on his stomach so we discontinued it. He also received metaclopromide as he wasn't moving much and his output was low (input wasn't great either, he had to be force fed at some points and given sub q fluids.)

I really hope Sid's case is not as severe, but I would expect it to take more than a weekend for him to recover fully. I have seen bunnies manage to heal in a few months at the earliest, depending on how ill they become. Mimzy has residual tilt, most likely because the organism damaged his inner ear quickly and severely. He also tilts to the left.

You can find his thread here: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...Tilt-U-D-for-Oct-4-An-Unexpected-Joy-post-221

Sending all possible healing vibes for dear Sid. Please don't hesitate to PM me if you'd like to ask other questions or just need an ear. xxxx

*Bex* said:

I'm sure your vets know this but steroid and metacam must not be used at the same time. The steroid must be out of the system before metacam is given. They are only meant to have 3 doses of steroid 48 hours apart.

Cleo was initially treated with steroids. She was doing great on them and it kind of gave us a false sense of hope as once it wore off she took a real turn for the worse, 4 days after her last steroid we found her collapsed, her head upside down and her body twisted.

We continued with the metacam and lapizole. The vet also treated her with a 2 weeks course of strong antibiotic.

She was on metacam from early May until October this year.

EC often gets a lot worse before it gets better. It's likely he's feeling a bit dizzy/disorientated with the head tilt so that's probably why he's not so active.

Sending lots of vibes for Sid!

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Yes, the vet said he would need to come off the metacam before going back for a steroid injection.

Thanks for the heads up anyway.

Sid seemed better this morning, he came out if the run in his own, which is a first since having this. But this afternoon/evening he seems to have gone downhill again

I feel quite helpless really. He hates me as whenever I go near him it's to medicate him, he seems pertrified and really unhappy Still eating which is a bonus, it's just not fair