Sammy&Patch
Warren Scout
I am hoping someone has experienced the same as me as I can't seem to find any discussions with similar 'symptoms'.
We have had Shadow since about february, he was estimated about 1-2 years then so he is probably between 2-3 years now. He has one hear that is permanantly up and the other is a lop ear type. His ears are quite long.
In September we were playing with him and Hazel in the bedroom when he seemed to have a strange sort of episode. He was sitting up sort of staring when he did some weird almost tremble or shudder of just his head. He had his eyes quite slit like shut. He did it a couple more times while we watched him with short intervals inbetween some like this and others more just a quick twitch. I was immediatly thinking of something neurological. He then seemed to snap out of it and was fine. I looked in his ears and noticed that although they looked nice and clean for the most part, there was a yellow waxy patch in the lop ear but the sticking up here had some very white little clumpy bits in quite far down. I looked up mites and ear wax but this stuff is very white, I was thinking it could be eggs of something as they are quite round. Anyway I decided to order some vetzyme antibacterial ear drops/cleaner but also booked him into the vets, they were due their injections anyway so decided to take them both in. All my previous bunnies have had very clean ears so I've never really seen ear wax in bunnies. Shadow hadn't been scratching at his ears, or shaking his head around or anythign other than this one incident to suggest anything might be wrong.
Unfortunately my favourite vet has left so I saw a different vet that I do have confidence in but not as much as my previous one, she was just amazing. I explained what I had seen and she looked in his ears. Her scope thing that she put in his ear had some of the white round bits on it when she took it back out the sticking up here and she said it is just ear wax. I was relieved as I was thinking it was something else because of the bright white colour rather than yellow. She checked him over and was happy with him and didn't seem concerned about the weird episode (maybe I should have pushed more about why it happened). Anyway, I was just relieved I think so didn't think much more about it. I just thought I guess some humans have more wax than others so that's the same with him. I did the drops that I bought for a couple of days but they didn't seem to do much so I just left it then.
Nothing happened inbetween (other than him having a skin reaction to the first injection but that healed up and he was fine in himself so that's not related I don't think).
But yesterday we were again playing in the bedroom with them both and Shadow seemed to stumble a bit at one point. I laughed and said he looked drunk and thought nothing of it, he's a bit of a crazy bunny who runs and leaps about so I just thought it was that. Then he was sitting up and did a strange nod of his head but to the side, very quick almost like tipping his hat but sideways. Nothing like a head tilt or anything just very quick. I again laughed and said that was so funny thinking it was nothing sinister, but then he had his eyes quite slit like again and did a small twitch of his head, probably about 6-8 times with little pause inbetween. Myself and my partner both saw him. He also did a slightly longer shudder of his head once or twice. These movements appeared involuntary. Since september we hadn't noticed him do this so it's back then and now that we've seen it. We do spend a fair bit of time with him but he could easily be doing it more and we hadn't seen. It is so slight that you only really notice when you are really watching him closely. I have noticed at times he will just sit upright quite still and seem to be staring but our other bunny does that at times so I'm not sure if that means anything. After this episode, he seemed to snap out of it again and his eyes were back to normal being open and he was pestering our other bunny for some 'licks' back to his normal self. A few minutes later he was running down the stairs and back up again, leaping from half way up to the very top, full of his usual energy.
I checked his ears and the sticking up one still has the white clusters of ear wax similar amount to before. It is too far down for me to want to attempt to remove. I have seen other threads discussing ear wax build up but everyone elses seems to be yellow not bright white and not like a little cluster. I expect my vet should know and is correct that it is ear wax but I'm not sure why shadow's looks different. And he also has a small amount of yellow wax elsewhere.
When I look up ear infections or mites, the symptoms other people describe are different. No one seems to mention the twitch or small shudders and Shadow is not doing the more typical scratching ears, shaking his head like I would expect if he had an infection or mites. He is perectly happy with me touching his ear and messing about with it lookign in it so I don't think he has pain in it and there is no signs of swelling, redness or anything like that. I'm wondering if a build up of wax can cause problems without actually having an infection?
If anyone has experienced similar or knows anything about this I would appreciate their advice. Thankyou and Happy Christmas
We have had Shadow since about february, he was estimated about 1-2 years then so he is probably between 2-3 years now. He has one hear that is permanantly up and the other is a lop ear type. His ears are quite long.
In September we were playing with him and Hazel in the bedroom when he seemed to have a strange sort of episode. He was sitting up sort of staring when he did some weird almost tremble or shudder of just his head. He had his eyes quite slit like shut. He did it a couple more times while we watched him with short intervals inbetween some like this and others more just a quick twitch. I was immediatly thinking of something neurological. He then seemed to snap out of it and was fine. I looked in his ears and noticed that although they looked nice and clean for the most part, there was a yellow waxy patch in the lop ear but the sticking up here had some very white little clumpy bits in quite far down. I looked up mites and ear wax but this stuff is very white, I was thinking it could be eggs of something as they are quite round. Anyway I decided to order some vetzyme antibacterial ear drops/cleaner but also booked him into the vets, they were due their injections anyway so decided to take them both in. All my previous bunnies have had very clean ears so I've never really seen ear wax in bunnies. Shadow hadn't been scratching at his ears, or shaking his head around or anythign other than this one incident to suggest anything might be wrong.
Unfortunately my favourite vet has left so I saw a different vet that I do have confidence in but not as much as my previous one, she was just amazing. I explained what I had seen and she looked in his ears. Her scope thing that she put in his ear had some of the white round bits on it when she took it back out the sticking up here and she said it is just ear wax. I was relieved as I was thinking it was something else because of the bright white colour rather than yellow. She checked him over and was happy with him and didn't seem concerned about the weird episode (maybe I should have pushed more about why it happened). Anyway, I was just relieved I think so didn't think much more about it. I just thought I guess some humans have more wax than others so that's the same with him. I did the drops that I bought for a couple of days but they didn't seem to do much so I just left it then.
Nothing happened inbetween (other than him having a skin reaction to the first injection but that healed up and he was fine in himself so that's not related I don't think).
But yesterday we were again playing in the bedroom with them both and Shadow seemed to stumble a bit at one point. I laughed and said he looked drunk and thought nothing of it, he's a bit of a crazy bunny who runs and leaps about so I just thought it was that. Then he was sitting up and did a strange nod of his head but to the side, very quick almost like tipping his hat but sideways. Nothing like a head tilt or anything just very quick. I again laughed and said that was so funny thinking it was nothing sinister, but then he had his eyes quite slit like again and did a small twitch of his head, probably about 6-8 times with little pause inbetween. Myself and my partner both saw him. He also did a slightly longer shudder of his head once or twice. These movements appeared involuntary. Since september we hadn't noticed him do this so it's back then and now that we've seen it. We do spend a fair bit of time with him but he could easily be doing it more and we hadn't seen. It is so slight that you only really notice when you are really watching him closely. I have noticed at times he will just sit upright quite still and seem to be staring but our other bunny does that at times so I'm not sure if that means anything. After this episode, he seemed to snap out of it again and his eyes were back to normal being open and he was pestering our other bunny for some 'licks' back to his normal self. A few minutes later he was running down the stairs and back up again, leaping from half way up to the very top, full of his usual energy.
I checked his ears and the sticking up one still has the white clusters of ear wax similar amount to before. It is too far down for me to want to attempt to remove. I have seen other threads discussing ear wax build up but everyone elses seems to be yellow not bright white and not like a little cluster. I expect my vet should know and is correct that it is ear wax but I'm not sure why shadow's looks different. And he also has a small amount of yellow wax elsewhere.
When I look up ear infections or mites, the symptoms other people describe are different. No one seems to mention the twitch or small shudders and Shadow is not doing the more typical scratching ears, shaking his head like I would expect if he had an infection or mites. He is perectly happy with me touching his ear and messing about with it lookign in it so I don't think he has pain in it and there is no signs of swelling, redness or anything like that. I'm wondering if a build up of wax can cause problems without actually having an infection?
If anyone has experienced similar or knows anything about this I would appreciate their advice. Thankyou and Happy Christmas