E Cuniculi or Injury?

Hi, i wonder if anyone can give me some advice on my bunny.
I have been away for a while so I am unsure of the specifis of what happened or how long she has been ill for but my grandma was looking after her and her sister while i was away. They were staying in her shed, and about 10 days ago her dog got in to where the bunnies were for about 20 minutes until she realised. He is a small dog and wouldn't have tried to kill them but would have been trying to play roughly with them.

Since then one of them (Toothless) has lost some weight and isn't moving much and looks sad. I took her to the vet and he said she seems fine just abit underweight. He checked her for injuries and found nothing. He gave me Baytril, Panacur and some food to syringe feed her which she seems fine with.

However when i took her home i realised she is dragging her back legs slightly and is abit wobbly. I am wondering if she was loosing weight prior to the dog incident. I think she still may be in shock from this but i am also wondering if it could be E Cuniculi?

The vet put her on Panacur for 9 days but i have heard EC can be treated with a 28 day treatment of it. I wonder if it would be harmful to her to treat her with it for 28 days instead? And if it sounds like it could be EC? The vet didn't seem ti know too much about rabbits so i am unsure if he will consider it.

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Welcome to the forum :wave: I'm sorry that your doe is unwell. Based on what you have said, especially the fact that you do not know exactly what has happened, I think it would be worthwhile taking her to a vet, who is more expert in rabbit care to try to establish what the problem is and what medication to prescribe.

If the vet suspects that she may have EC, then yes a longer treatment with Panacur would be appropriate, but if that were the case, she should also be having an anti-inflammatory as well. However, I think it's more important at this stage to get a proper examination and therefore the correct treatment.

I don't know which part of the country you are in, but if you start a thread in Rabbit Chat, you could ask forum members to recommend a vet experienced in treating rabbits close to where you live.

Why did the vet prescribe food to syringe? Is she also not eating for herself?

sophietheveggie said:

Hi, i wonder if anyone can give me some advice on my bunny.
I have been away for a while so I am unsure of the specifis of what happened or how long she has been ill for but my grandma was looking after her and her sister while i was away. They were staying in her shed, and about 10 days ago her dog got in to where the bunnies were for about 20 minutes until she realised. He is a small dog and wouldn't have tried to kill them but would have been trying to play roughly with them.

Since then one of them (Toothless) has lost some weight and isn't moving much and looks sad. I took her to the vet and he said she seems fine just abit underweight. He checked her for injuries and found nothing. He gave me Baytril, Panacur and some food to syringe feed her which she seems fine with.

However when i took her home i realised she is dragging her back legs slightly and is abit wobbly. I am wondering if she was loosing weight prior to the dog incident. I think she still may be in shock from this but i am also wondering if it could be E Cuniculi?

The vet put her on Panacur for 9 days but i have heard EC can be treated with a 28 day treatment of it. I wonder if it would be harmful to her to treat her with it for 28 days instead? And if it sounds like it could be EC? The vet didn't seem ti know too much about rabbits so i am unsure if he will consider it.

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Hi Sophie and welcome to the Forum :wave:


I will just add a little to Omi's excellent info above ...

From what you've said it could be either an injury, or E.C. It could also be that in her desperate attempt perhaps to get away from the dog she injured herself and that injury hasn't healed up.

There are several ways to take this forward. As your vet suspects it's E.C. then yes, it would be a 28 day course of Panacur, and both rabbits would have to be treated. Damage can be done to a rabbit’s organs when E.C. spores erupt in the tissues, the kidneys, brains and the eyes, and cause cellular damage. Infected spores are shed in the urine, and so one rabbit would easily become re-infected by the other:

http://www.dechra.co.uk/therapy-are...cs-antifungals/disease-information/e-cuniculi


Metacam is essential not only for pain relief which would be good if she has an injury, Metacam is not only a pain killer, but an anti-inflammatory medication, and it will reduce the inflammatory response and prevent so much damage occurring when the spores erupt in tissue. Spores can erupt into organs such as the brain and kidneys which are particularly vulnerable:

https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-health/e-cuniculi/

The other way of tackling this would be to have an X-ray of her spine and lies to ascertain if there's any actual physical damage to her skeleton.


As Omi says, if you want to find another vet, then you can start another thread in Rabbit Chat with the header:


Rabbit Savvy Vet needed in (your location)

...and members will help you out with their recommendations.

Alternatively you could look here:

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/vetfinder/vets-owners-recommendations


http://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/rabbit-friendly-vets/rabbit-friendly-vet-list/


Good luck xx

Just to add, whilst I am here ... There are some other causes of hind leg weakness:


http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/paresis.html

http://rabbit.org/hind-limb-weakness-in-the-rabbit/

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


Also, you must check that the other rabbit isn't eating more food and therefore causing one to lose weight. The vet (a good rabbit savvy vet) can begin some checks on the state of the rabbit's teeth. Looking into the back of the mouth isn't easy, but thats a start to determine whether there's anything going on there.

You see, what you are seeing *may* be a coincidence and there could also be some dental issues going on causing the weight loss

Omi said:

Welcome to the forum :wave: I'm sorry that your doe is unwell. Based on what you have said, especially the fact that you do not know exactly what has happened, I think it would be worthwhile taking her to a vet, who is more expert in rabbit care to try to establish what the problem is and what medication to prescribe.

If the vet suspects that she may have EC, then yes a longer treatment with Panacur would be appropriate, but if that were the case, she should also be having an anti-inflammatory as well. However, I think it's more important at this stage to get a proper examination and therefore the correct treatment.

I don't know which part of the country you are in, but if you start a thread in Rabbit Chat, you could ask forum members to recommend a vet experienced in treating rabbits close to where you live.

Why did the vet prescribe food to syringe? Is she also not eating for herself?

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Hi, he gave me food to syringe as she has lost weight, and I couldn't be sure whether she was eating or not, as i have been away and took her to the vet on the day i got back. He said I need to moniter her eating and should still be givng her the syringe food at the moment even if she is eating.

I have her home now and she is eating a little but will mainly just eat her favourite foods.

I have a follow up appointment tomorrow but i will also look for a more rabbit savy vet.

Thanks
Sophie

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Hi, I think I would want to get a second opinion on whats going on and as MightyMax said, rule out the possibility that she has been injured by the dog. Were the rabbits loose in the shed, meaning that the dog could get to the rabbits or would she have had to injure herself, because she was scared?

Did your grandma notice any difference in her prior to the dog incident or had she seemed her normal self till then? x

TheThreeB's said:

Hi, I think I would want to get a second opinion on whats going on and as MightyMax said, rule out the possibility that she has been injured by the dog. Were the rabbits loose in the shed, meaning that the dog could get to the rabbits or would she have had to injure herself, because she was scared?

Did your grandma notice any difference in her prior to the dog incident or had she seemed her normal self till then? x

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The rabbits were loose in the shed so the dog definitely could have got to them. My grandma did say that she had lost a bit of weight prior to the dog incident but not that much.

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sophietheveggie said:

The rabbits were loose in the shed so the dog definitely could have got to them. My grandma did say that she had lost a bit of weight prior to the dog incident but not that much.

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I know we have 'spoken' via PM but I just wanted to re-iterate that it really would be a good idea to try to obtain a second opinion from a Rabbit Savvy Vet who should carry out all the examinations I have already mentioned.

Hopefully Toothless (who is not toothless !!) will soon be doing a lot better x

sophietheveggie said:

Hi, he gave me food to syringe as she has lost weight, and I couldn't be sure whether she was eating or not, as i have been away and took her to the vet on the day i got back. He said I need to moniter her eating and should still be givng her the syringe food at the moment even if she is eating.

I have her home now and she is eating a little but will mainly just eat her favourite foods.

I have a follow up appointment tomorrow but i will also look for a more rabbit savy vet.

Thanks
Sophie

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I am glad your vet is advising syringing food into her right now

Good luck with finding another vet :thumb:

We took her to a more rabbit savvy vet today and I'm less worried now, she seemed to check her over more thoroughly and gave her some more medicine to get her stomach going better. They gave her a painkiller injection and injected her with under skin fluid as she's started drinking way less. She also seems to have stopped dragging her legs. The vet expects her to be looking way better by tomorrow morning, so hopefully she will be ok. We think she may have been in shock and is starting to calm down after being people she knows better in a quiet environment. So hopefully she will better soon

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sophietheveggie said:

We took her to a more rabbit savvy vet today and I'm less worried now, she seemed to check her over more thoroughly and gave her some more medicine to get her stomach going better. They gave her a painkiller injection and injected her with under skin fluid as she's started drinking way less. She also seems to have stopped dragging her legs. The vet expects her to be looking way better by tomorrow morning, so hopefully she will be ok. We think she may have been in shock and is starting to calm down after being people she knows better in a quiet environment. So hopefully she will better soon

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I am glad that you managed to consult a different Vet and I hope that Toothless will make a full recovery

Jack's-Jane said:

I am glad that you managed to consult a different Vet and I hope that Toothless will make a full recovery

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Thank you! I hope so too

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sophietheveggie said:

Thank you! I hope so too

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Good luck

I hope she's feeling better soon x