E cunic. med.

My son's dwarf rabbit was diagnosed with e cunic. back in March. A blood test was done to confirm. The vet we take her to specializes in rabbits. She was given meds. to help dizziness, head tilt, etc. One of the meds was a 28-30 day treatment. After that, we started another type of daily med. that comes in a huge syringe. Not sure of the name. It is given daily and expensive. We had her bloodwork done again last month and we were told her titers were higher. All of her symptoms went away probably 2 weeks after she was first diagnosed back in March. The vet has told us that the e cunic will always be in her and it can travel to other body parts and kill her if meds are stopped. I don't plan on stopping meds, but wish I could find something less expensive. The vet has told us there really is nothing else out there. I read about panacur online. Has anyone used this on their rabbit? Thoughts?

What meds is she currently getting? Please list their names and your current dosage

Typically, the first med of choice is panacur (fenbendazole). That may be what she was started on, and it is inexpensive and usually works. It sounds like your rabbit responded to that med based on symptoms. If the blood titers showed otherwise then that's probably why the med was changed. Unfortunately, there isn't much out there to treat EC and though I don't remember the name of the alternative drug, I know it's expensive. Ideally, the med would put the EC in remission and you could stop the meds, but it also depends on how strong your rabbit's immune system is. Maybe Jenny (jbun) can add more. Unfortunately, there's still a lot we don't know about EC.

I am actually on vacation now so I cannot look up the names of the meds. Since the initial 30 days of meds her titers have gone up so he said the med she in now cannot be stopped or eventually the disease would travel to her liver I believe and eventually kill her. This vet is excellent and knows so much about e cunic., but at the same time he makes a lot of money by us continuing this expensive med.

If you can find it on a third party site, it might be cheaper- or better yet, try to see if you can order it from the manufacturer. Keep in mind though, that generally if a med is expensive from the vet, it's expensive FOR the vet (yes there is some overhead, but it's less than you think). Most vets really are not in it for the money (they literally just want to pay mortgage and loans). I don't know where you are but in the US, the average veterinarian does graduate $150,000 in debt (and that's in-state tuition) and makes an average of $76,000/year. If you cannot get this medication from a RELIABLE (aka not 1800 pet meds- they are horrible) please keep giving it to your rabbit despite the cost (or euthanasia, if you cannot afford it). Generally speaking (of course there are exceptions) vets are not in it for the money- they just want to eat dinner and feed their own pets.

Many rabbits I know are on panacur for their lives for EC, you must have just gotten lucky enough to grow some resistance in there.

When we first brought the rabbit to the emergency vet she was put on several meds for her head tilt, dizziness, etc. Some of those were meclizine, flexeril, zenequin and meloxicam. She is now only on ponazuril (marquis) daily. This is the expensive med that comes in a 150mg/ml tube which lasts about a month and a half. When I inquired about another med for her, the vet said no. He even told us to increase the daily amount she gets since her titers have gone up. We have not done that & actually have just been giving her the meds every 2-3 days. If panacur is for helping e cunic. then maybe I can just give that? It was also mentioned to get ahold of the manufacturer of the med. she is on now, but I would not know how to find them. Any info. would be appreciated.