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Brain Parasite :(

Sharpie

Warren Scout
Hi all,

I took one of my bunnies (i have 6 in total) into the vets last week as i noticed his teeth were pretty overgrown - I have no idea of his age or medical background as we found him over the fields opposite our house just hopping about! We knew he wasn't wild so i rushed over with a carry box and rescued him as the fields are home to a fair few fox families!.

Anyway the vet checked him and he does indeed need both front and back teeth doing, i also mentioned that i think he has a spinal injury as he falls over a lot and wobbles, she said Nope! Brain parasite :O

I was totally shocked! I did some googling and found that E.conculi is known for causing loss of balance, weak hind legs and incontinence.
My Sid falls over whenever he tries to move around, when he does manage to stay upright he wobbles on the spot, we did notice when we first got him that he didnt have full control of his hind legs, we thought he might just have "big feet" as we've had bunnies before whos feet were HUGE compared to their body size - but as the months have gone on we've noticed more and more issues such as the wobbles and falling over - he does wee on himself as well.

I rushed down to Pets at home today and brought some Panacur as i read online it kills the parasite in 9 days.

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this and if he'll recover or will he be wobbly forever?
Also he lives with 5 other bunnies - none are showing any signs, should i be using panacur on them too? I clean them out twice a week as there's so many it gets smelly quickly! also Sid has a separate bowl of Mushed up nuggets as he is struggling to eat

I did read that it can be spread via eating food which has been pee'd on by an E.conculi bunny - what do i do? and is 9 days enough, some sites said 28 days treatment for e.conculi?
 
Hi:wave: Yes EC is spread through spores in the urine when the infection is most active (typically when you are seeing symptoms as your bun is). I'd treat all the rabbits. 28 days.

I'm a bit worried your vet gave you an EC diagnosis & no treatment? Typically a bun showing signs such as your has active infection & needs metacam too for its anti inflammatory properties. Many vets also prescribe antibiotics as the presenting symptoms of EC can be similar to ear infection.

I'd keep tempting sid with the mushed pellets, leafy greens or forage. Can he get to his water ok?
 
Hi:wave: Yes EC is spread through spores in the urine when the infection is most active (typically when you are seeing symptoms as your bun is). I'd treat all the rabbits. 28 days.

I'm a bit worried your vet gave you an EC diagnosis & no treatment? Typically a bun showing signs such as your has active infection & needs metacam too for its anti inflammatory properties. Many vets also prescribe antibiotics as the presenting symptoms of EC can be similar to ear infection.

I'd keep tempting sid with the mushed pellets, leafy greens or forage. Can he get to his water ok?

All of this - plus you need to do a full deep clean on days 21 and 28 of the Panacur treatment in order to break the lifecycle of the parasite and prevent reinfection. Use 10% bleach on everything you can, steam clean or use Virkon veterinary disinfectant.

I personally would also treat all the other rabbits with Panancur for 28 days if they are all sharing the same space. They don't need the anti-inflammatory (eg metacam) unless they show symptoms. It is quite a common parasite in rabbits but can be cured. The symptoms will probably largely disappear over a few weeks. Some may need an additional round of treatment (ie 28 days Panacur plus metacam). Sometimes there is a slight head tilt remaining if it was a severe case of EC. The metacam helps to reduce the neurological symptoms caused by the parasite, such as head tilt and hind leg weakness, so it is important to continue with this.

Panacur 10% liquid ( labelled for cats and dogs) is usually the cheapest and most accurate way of treating multiple rabbits. It is not a prescription only medicine so you can purchase it (eg online at VetUK and others) yourself without a prescription.
 
Hi all,

I took one of my bunnies (i have 6 in total) into the vets last week as i noticed his teeth were pretty overgrown - I have no idea of his age or medical background as we found him over the fields opposite our house just hopping about! We knew he wasn't wild so i rushed over with a carry box and rescued him as the fields are home to a fair few fox families!.

Anyway the vet checked him and he does indeed need both front and back teeth doing, i also mentioned that i think he has a spinal injury as he falls over a lot and wobbles, she said Nope! Brain parasite :O

I was totally shocked! I did some googling and found that E.conculi is known for causing loss of balance, weak hind legs and incontinence.
My Sid falls over whenever he tries to move around, when he does manage to stay upright he wobbles on the spot, we did notice when we first got him that he didnt have full control of his hind legs, we thought he might just have "big feet" as we've had bunnies before whos feet were HUGE compared to their body size - but as the months have gone on we've noticed more and more issues such as the wobbles and falling over - he does wee on himself as well.

I rushed down to Pets at home today and brought some Panacur as i read online it kills the parasite in 9 days.

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this and if he'll recover or will he be wobbly forever?
Also he lives with 5 other bunnies - none are showing any signs, should i be using panacur on them too? I clean them out twice a week as there's so many it gets smelly quickly! also Sid has a separate bowl of Mushed up nuggets as he is struggling to eat

I did read that it can be spread via eating food which has been pee'd on by an E.conculi bunny - what do i do? and is 9 days enough, some sites said 28 days treatment for e.conculi?

Hi Sharpie and welcome to RU :wave:

How long has Sid been living with you? As for the vet's diagnosis, it could well be E.C. (brain parasite) but it could also be an ear infection. It's really hard to distinguish between the two. Panacur for E.C. should be given for 28 days, and to all rabbits in the same household for the same period of time :D

The other issue sounds to be his teeth. If his teeth are overgrown, front and back then they need doing as soon as is feasible. A rabbit with wonky teeth can't eat, can't clean themselves properly and are quite likely to be in pain.

As Joey&Boo mentioned, pain relief (Metacam) should have been given to reduce any inflammation (in the brain from EC) and also to cope with ear pain, if that's what it is.

There's quite a bit of info, and potential diagnoses, here:

http://www.rabbit.org/health/tilt.html

Can I ask whether you're totally happy with your vet's knowledge of rabbits?
 
Hi all,

I took one of my bunnies (i have 6 in total) into the vets last week as i noticed his teeth were pretty overgrown - I have no idea of his age or medical background as we found him over the fields opposite our house just hopping about! We knew he wasn't wild so i rushed over with a carry box and rescued him as the fields are home to a fair few fox families!.

Anyway the vet checked him and he does indeed need both front and back teeth doing, i also mentioned that i think he has a spinal injury as he falls over a lot and wobbles, she said Nope! Brain parasite :O

I was totally shocked! I did some googling and found that E.conculi is known for causing loss of balance, weak hind legs and incontinence.
My Sid falls over whenever he tries to move around, when he does manage to stay upright he wobbles on the spot, we did notice when we first got him that he didnt have full control of his hind legs, we thought he might just have "big feet" as we've had bunnies before whos feet were HUGE compared to their body size - but as the months have gone on we've noticed more and more issues such as the wobbles and falling over - he does wee on himself as well.

I rushed down to Pets at home today and brought some Panacur as i read online it kills the parasite in 9 days.

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this and if he'll recover or will he be wobbly forever?
Also he lives with 5 other bunnies - none are showing any signs, should i be using panacur on them too? I clean them out twice a week as there's so many it gets smelly quickly! also Sid has a separate bowl of Mushed up nuggets as he is struggling to eat

I did read that it can be spread via eating food which has been pee'd on by an E.conculi bunny - what do i do? and is 9 days enough, some sites said 28 days treatment for e.conculi?

Did the Vet offer any diagnostics prior to making the presumed diagnosis of EC ? Whilst EC can certainly cause the symptoms you describe, there are other possible causes too. Treating your Rabbit with a 28 day course of Panacur is certainly a good idea, but if there were to be another issue causing the symptoms such as a spinal problem or a middle ear problem, then Panacur wont treat those.

This link gives information about the possible causes of hind leg paresis :

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Differentials/paresis.htm


And this link gives reliable information about EC specifically:

http://www.gwexotics.com/wccms-resources/a/5/0/e/77554b90-a660-11e0-a685-0050568626ea.pdf

With regards to the urine soiling, that will put him at very high risk of flystrike. So you will need to be ultra vigilant about this fact and take extra precautions with your general Rabbit husbandry to try to minimise the risks.

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/leaflet_pdfs/flystrike_sep_05.pdf

*WARNING- Some graphic images on this link*

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Myiasis/Miyasis_fly.htm

Given that the Vet does not appear to have offered any ongoing treatment for your Rabbit perhaps it may be a good idea to seek a second opinion from another Vet, or at least ask the Vet you are currently with why diagnostics/treatment has not been suggested.

With regards to the Dental problems, this will need to be treated and the sooner the better. Otherwise your Rabbit is likely to lose weight and his GI tract will slow down and that would make any Dental treatment necessary more of a risk than it needs to be.

This link gives some information about Rabbit Dentistry:

http://www.rabbitdentistry.com/Contents_files/Preview.pdf

Personally if he were my Rabbit I would be requesting a full blood profile to check major organ function, a specific blood test for EC titres ( whilst this test is not conclusive on it's own, a high EC titre result combined with clinical symptoms of EC makes EC to be very likely) and also spinal Xrays. If there were to be any indication of ear problems (middle ear) then I'd also request skull Xrays. Obviously not many of us have a bottomless pit of funds and if your Rabbit is not insured then I do understand that a battery of diagnostics may not be an option. But there would still be more treatments a Vet could offer, even without diagnostics. I am just trying to suggest some options for you, only you know what may or may not be feasible in your circumstances.

The blood tests could be done prior to any procedures requiring your Rabbit to have a GA-ie the Dental treatment and the Xrays. Obviously significant abnormalities in blood test results would require the Vet to look again at how best to progress with treatment.

If your Rabbit has hind leg problems he may also have very gunky ears. Did the Vet check your Rabbit's ears ? Rabbit's with any sort of hind leg weakness are more prone to ear infections, especially lop eared Rabbits.

I hope that you will be able to access some more help for your Rabbit's problems. Good luckx
 
Hi guys, thanks for the quick responses!!

Basically we don't know how old Sid is because we found him in the fields opposite our house, someone had thrown him out for fox dinner, we estimated he was 8 months when we got him, i have had him for about 5 years now.

When we got him he was a bit "dopey" and he used to trip over his back feet. We assumed he had "big feet" as we've had that before but over the last few years he has become unsteady on his feet, worse the last couple months.
Because we didn't know his history we thought they previous owners hurt him and caused him spinal injuries resulting in his wobbles.

I took him in to the rspca for a teeth check and I mentioned he was wobbly and I thought he had spinal issues and she turned round and said "no its more likely a brain parasite" I was like :O and then she rushed us out (we went in without an app) i really didn't like the way they pushed us off without any advice on possible treatments or anything!

I rang another vets (private) and they have quoted me £100 (instead of £200 from rspca) to do all his teeth and that they'll so a full post op check, so I'll discuss his wobbles with them aswell, as he doesn't have a head tilt, just falls over and struggles to keep up straight, he does have a lump in his jaw which the rspca said is possibly his tooth ingrowing.

Hes booked in for his op on Friday!
He is underweight as he hasn't been able to eat well, but I've been mashing his nuggets with water and pureeing his vegetables so he can sip them up.

I'll let you guys know what they say to his wobbles :)!
 
Hi guys, Sid has his vets tomorrow! But I am getting concerned... When I started him on panacur (5 days ago) he was bad, he just layer their all day not able to move so I would lift him up and support him so he could drink and eat through the day, he then started to get better he was actually wobbly hopping to me for his nightly mush veg and he even ran across the enclosure... But today again he's laying there nor able to get up?? Why has he gone bad again? :( I was getting happy that he was feeling better but he's back at point one again...
He looks such a mess, wee down his legs and and his neck fur has gone dry and clumpy cos he can't clean with his teeth :(
He's so thin, do you guys think he has a chance with the operation or should I say my goodbyes tomorrow? :'( </3
 
Pancar is 28 day treatment but some vets recommend longer - defo ask for some anti-inflammatory metacam. My bam had problems with EC his whole life and lived till 7 however he wasn't paralysed - he went blind with cataracts and had bad diarrhoea everyday which was hard work and he was and indoor bun and got fly strike twice. I decided it was enough when he had a calcium build up in his bladder bigger than the size of my partners fist - he was also doing a hiccup movement which the vet said he hurt so much it was like he was trying to be sick but obviously rabbits are unable to vomit. I quess you have to weigh out how comfortable you can make him. xxx :love:
 
Hi guys, Sid has his vets tomorrow! But I am getting concerned... When I started him on panacur (5 days ago) he was bad, he just layer their all day not able to move so I would lift him up and support him so he could drink and eat through the day, he then started to get better he was actually wobbly hopping to me for his nightly mush veg and he even ran across the enclosure... But today again he's laying there nor able to get up?? Why has he gone bad again? :( I was getting happy that he was feeling better but he's back at point one again...
He looks such a mess, wee down his legs and and his neck fur has gone dry and clumpy cos he can't clean with his teeth :(
He's so thin, do you guys think he has a chance with the operation or should I say my goodbyes tomorrow? :'( </3

Apart from Panacur is he on any other medication ? Panacur alone will not adequately treat 'active' Encephalitozoon Cuniculi (EC), a non steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Metacam is almost always needed as it is inflammation caused by erupting EC spores that causes clinical symptoms.

I assume that you are grooming him and giving him 'bum baths' to try to minimise the risk of urine scald/flystrike ?

It sounds as though he also has advanced dental disease, the lump on his jaw may be a tooth root abscess. So he may well be fighting both EC and a bacterial infection. For the latter he would obviously need to be on antibiotics. Given that it appears that his immune system is taking quite a bashing it is not really surprising that he's so skinny. He will be burning off the majority of his dietary calorie intake fighting infection.

Personally I would want a Rabbit savvy Vet to admit him ASAP. I realise that a lot of diagnostics can be costly, (eg Blood test to check Kidney/Liver function, Xray of skull to assess tooth roots and to check for signs of abscesses/osteomyelitis,Spinal Xrays, full oral examination under sedation to fully assess his teeth etc), especially if the Rabbit is not insured. But you could discuss all options with the Vet to enable you to decide how best to proceed.

I do hope that the Vet will be empathetic to your situation and that your Rabbit can be helped.

Good luck x
 
I agree with loobers.

Many bunnies do relapse during the course of their recovery - mine did but it was much less severe than initially. It sounds like she was making good progress. I hope you see a vet you are confident with & can help you might the right decision for your bunny x
 
Hi guys, Sid has his vets tomorrow! But I am getting concerned... When I started him on panacur (5 days ago) he was bad, he just layer their all day not able to move so I would lift him up and support him so he could drink and eat through the day, he then started to get better he was actually wobbly hopping to me for his nightly mush veg and he even ran across the enclosure... But today again he's laying there nor able to get up?? Why has he gone bad again? :( I was getting happy that he was feeling better but he's back at point one again...
He looks such a mess, wee down his legs and and his neck fur has gone dry and clumpy cos he can't clean with his teeth :(
He's so thin, do you guys think he has a chance with the operation or should I say my goodbyes tomorrow? :'( </3

Oh Sharpie I'm so sorry to hear this :cry:

I totally agree with Loobers. He should also be having Metacam, as one way or another he's going to be in discomfort if not pain.

It's not a foregone conclusion that EC is the whole of the issue. It could be that with the teeth problems he has, he also has an abscess. If that can't be lanced and drained to the outside then it's delicate surgery to get the infection away.

You know what, I think if you have the finances, he needs an exam by a rabbit specialist. Even a one off appointment (which won't cost more than a regular vet) would be useful for an assessment. It may be that you need to let him go, but if it were my bunny I would want to know the options/chances/possible outcomes first.

Wishing you loads of luck xx
 
Hi guys... Took him this morning and vet said he's far too weak and would die If he did anything he said he's lucky to be alive atm, his breathing was shallow and slow :( he clipped his front teeth and I brought some oxbow hoping to bulk him up but 10 minutes after returning home I had him in my arms to feed and he passed :'(
My little Sid is now playing on rainbow bridge :(
 
Hi guys... Took him this morning and vet said he's far too weak and would die If he did anything he said he's lucky to be alive atm, his breathing was shallow and slow :( he clipped his front teeth and I brought some oxbow hoping to bulk him up but 10 minutes after returning home I had him in my arms to feed and he passed :'(
My little Sid is now playing on rainbow bridge :(

I am so sorry :cry:

RIP Sid xx
 
So sad, I'm glad he was with you at home when he passed . Sweet dreams Sid xx
 
Last edited:
Hi guys... Took him this morning and vet said he's far too weak and would die If he did anything he said he's lucky to be alive atm, his breathing was shallow and slow :( he clipped his front teeth and I brought some oxbow hoping to bulk him up but 10 minutes after returning home I had him in my arms to feed and he passed :'(
My little Sid is now playing on rainbow bridge :(

Lovely little Sid :love: I am so sorry Sharpie. xx
 
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