think everyone should keep this for reference on how to treat EC. A lot
of EC is now proving resistant to the bendezole drugs due to prvious
treatment becuase of worming or previous EC treatment. Non symptomatic EC
rabbits are being treated proactively and this is also causing resistance.
This EC treatment has had phenominal success rates in the states and so
far I have not heard of a rabbit it did not work for. Personally if any
of my rabbits have any EC issues now I would head straight for this
protocol and bypass the bedezoles altogether due to the fact I lost one of
my bunnies to EC resistant to bedezoles. Its something to tuck away god
forbid you ever need it. It is based on a similar protozoan found in cats
and horses.
It is the cat toxoplasmosis protocol and should be in a cat
medicine book at the vet's office as it is standard and used worldwide. The
metacam is not in that protocol but should be used because the die off of
cells as the protozoans hatch from the cells/die cause inflammation. Horses
being treated for a similar disease, EMP, are given a nonsteroidal
antiinflammatory as part of their pyrimethamine treatment too (although
horses can use a different sulfur drug). The treatment time that has
apparently worked best for most was 8 wks, not just 4. That is the
internet report for EMP also --- 8 wks. Although the protocol kills the protozoans
pretty well, they keep hatching from spores in the tissue. The rabbit needs
the longer treatment apparently to handle that. From experience you
will notice improvement after 5-10 days.
More information (the researchers who found the pyrimethamine info. and
suggested it as a possibility to my vet) is
www.medirabbit.com.
Protocol
metacam each day Dose depends on rabbit weight.
For a 1.5 kg (3 lb) rabbit (these may have to be made by a compounding
pharmacist)
Folic acid 5 mg/ml 1 ml by mouth once daily (give this
dose a few hours after the others below, to help get max effect- this is not
in the medicine book but was suggested by a research article i read online;
and, yes, the dosage is that high)
Pyrimethamine 1 mg/ml 1 ml by mouth once daily (don't compound
medicine with a sucrose based sweetener)
sulfadiazine 50 mg/ml 1 ml by mouth twice daily
It is not infallable but seems to have worked
for rabbit when panacur and oxibendazole could not help any
more.
What happens in this protocol is that the sulfadiazine keeps the protozoan
from adapting to the killer drug, pyrimethamine. So Pyrimethamine keeps its
effectiveness. I am not a vet, and this is just how I remember/interpret
the information that medirabbit researched, what i have read online, and what
vets prescribed/did.