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  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

    You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.

    We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.

    Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.

Head Tilt - Urgent

Charlotte333 said:
He is the same as yesterday. I'm worried as he doesn't appear to be very active tonight. He is eating lots of greens, parsley carrots etc. I haven't seen him eating hay but the vet send he had in the day. He is being syringed feed recovery food in the day and I'm giving him his normal food in the evening.

The vet said she would have started with Metacam straight away and wouldn't have used the steroids. He is still on the Baytril. The vet didn't want to change as she said she had successfully treated a number of rabbits with head tilts using Baytril. Smudge had an injection today and will have another tomorrow. They'll also give me Baytril to use over the weekend and next week.

Smudge has put on a small amount of weight. He gone from 1.35kg to 1.40kg. He is normally around 1.5kg. They have also been doing physio on his head by turning it carefully to a normal position. They showed me how to do it but I'm not very keen.
Click to expand...

Do try if you can, it will help in that it can reduce muscle spasms and consequent pain. He is probably feeling very dizzy which could account for his reluctance to move. Even though Rabbits cannot vomit we dont know that they cant feel sick just as we might with any problem involving our balance mechanisms. Rather like sea sickness. So maybe your Vet might consider trying him on an anti sickness medication such as Stemetil, Meclizine or even Metoclopromide.

Anti-emetic drugs
These can be useful for preventing suspected nausea that may occur secondary to vestibular damage.
Metoclopramide: 0.5 mg/kg orally or via subcutaneous injection every eight hours. (B601.11.w11, J15.28.w1)
Antihistamines and phenothiazine derivatives can prove useful in patients with a head tilt because these drugs act on the vestibular pathways. (B601.11.w11, J15.28.w1)
Procloperazine (Phenothiazine derivative) : 0.25 mg/kg orally every eight to twelve hours (this dose has been extrapolated from human medicine). (B601.11.w11)
Meclizine: 6.25 to 12.5 mg per rabbit orally every eight hours (this comes from anecdotal reports in the USA). (B601.11.w11)

Taken from here:

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Bacterial/BacterialOtitisMediaInterna.htm
 
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