On antibiotics for Snuffles but violently shaking head. Connection?

[Amundawah]

Hello, my 8 year old Holland Lop was diagnosed with snuffles about 7 years ago and until now it hasn’t really been an issue. Over the last few weeks he’s been treated for persistent sneezing fits with a little clear to whitish mucus coming out his nose then a runny eye. (During this time we also found out all the rabbit savvy vets had left our vet surgery and they were no longer accredited, after they gave us some TERRIBLE advice I will no into, so had to find a new one, register with them and get him on the right meds... which meant for a fortnight he was on the right meds but a too low dose) So he’s currently on antibiotics for the sneezing and eye drops for the watery eye.

Last night he was acting completely normally and then all of a sudden started attacking his right ear, like violently scratching it and frantically running around, shaking his head really hard, clearly in pain and distressed. I have never seen him or any bunny do this. We managed to calm him down with head rubs, but he absolutely will not let us touch his ear to look inside because he freaks out again and runs away scratching it. We gave him some metacam for the pain and rang the emergency vet but they didn’t have anyone trained in rabbits on and suggested another hospital, rang them and they didn’t have one either, once the metacam had taken effect he basically went back to normal, eating, drinking, pooping- he’s sneezing often and sometimes shaking his head though so we stayed up all night with him. Then the hospital said they’d only see him during the night if he wasn’t eating, and he is, pretty normally so I guess that’s out. As it’s Sunday I can take him to our rabbit vet tomorrow (in about 22 hours from now) but I don’t know if I should be taking him to see the regular vet before then? Or if anyone has heard of anything like this? Is it connected to the snuffles? Or the meds? I’ve tried googling and found absolutely nothing… any help appreciated

 

[InspectorMorse]

Ear infection are frequently seen when the Rabbit has an upper respiratory tract infection.

Medirabbit

Rabbit Pasteurella Disease

Pasteurella symptoms, diagnosis and treatment in rabbits. This chronic disease can be severe

lbah.com

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/342918894/In_Practice_Review_Article_Accepted_in_press.pdf

Your Rabbit does need to be seen by a Vet today if they are in pain and not on any analgesia. Pain can cause a Rabbit to stop eating. This then leads to secondary gut stasis.

https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/pain-management-for-rabbits/

So I advise you to contact the out of hours Vet for advice.

 

[Amundawah]

He is eating fine, both veggies and hay. We’ve had experience of stasis in the past so have fibreplex and recovery paste that we will give him if he stops eating or appears to be slowing down. And he’s on pain relief (Metacam) which was prescribed a few weeks ago so we know is the correct dose. Aside from what happened last night and not letting us near his ear he seems completely fine.

 

[InspectorMorse]

He is eating fine, both veggies and hay. We’ve had experience of stasis in the past so have fibreplex and recovery paste that we will give him if he stops eating or appears to be slowing down. And he’s on pain relief (Metacam) which was prescribed a few weeks ago so we know is the correct dose. Aside from what happened last night and not letting us near his ear he seems completely fine.

A Veterinary examination of his ear is still definitely needed. It’s up to you if you are happy to wait until tomorrow for this to be done.