Head Tilt

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misha

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Sep 21, 2011
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North Bay, Ontario, Canada
I have two bunnies, one German lop male and one dwarf female. The German lop, Paterson, is the one who usually gets sick buuuut on Wednesday night the dwarf, Bitsy, started suffering from head tilt.

I took her to the vet ASAP and managed to get her on a gut mobilizer and Baytril. I was generally unhappy with the care that I received so I decided to get a second opinion. In the meantime, I did as much research as I could and took a list of medications to the vet with me.

Unfortunately, they did not have Panacur. They will order it in on Monday after I get the results of her EC blood test on Monday.

Right now, she is on the following medications: Metacam, metoclopramide, and azithromycin (thanks to these forums). We discontinued the Baytril. Unfortunately, I only have enough metoclopramide for a few days and will have to ask them to order more in if you think that it will really keep helping. I only have enough Metacam for a few days but will request more of that if you guys think that it will help longterm, too.

I read about probiotics. Should I get her on some of those? I live in a small town in Northern Ontario so it's kind of hard to have to do anything fast.

I have read enough about head tilt to know that it is going to be a slow recovery and that there are going to be steps forward and backwards all at once. I'm optimistic that she will be okay. She's still really active but I am giving her Critical Care because while I know she IS drinking, I'm not sure if she is eating. There are a variety of foods in her cage and it has been padded with pool noodles to keep her from running into the cage and hurting herself.

sorry for the long post... I am really stressed out. I am feeling better NOW than I was before. At least I know that I am on the right track with treatment now :)
 
I don't have any experience with this, but it sounds like you got on it right away. As well as critical care, you may want to give her some pumpkin puree, not spiced. Baby food would be ok.
 
what will that help with? Right now I'm mostly concerned with the nausea since the vet doesn't have any reglan (metoclopramide) and I'm going to run out on Sunday :(

is there anything I can get her OTC to help with that?
 
I am struggling to help my Becky as well. I give her dramamine crushed up in baby food. It really seems to help with the dizzyness and has kept her eating. From what I understand it's very much like sea sickness.

I'm also giving her panacur incase it is EC. Does your little girl have an obvious ear infection? (hence the antibiotics). Probiotics are always very important when they are taking any oral antibiotics. I use them all the time just to help keep things going well.
 
I read you story and felt a strong connection. Bitsy is really closely bonded to Paterson (like Becky and Houdini) and I am trying hard to keep her feeling safe by keeping him around as much as possible. He has been acting out by eating one of the pool noodles but I've found that giving him treats when I'm fussing with her helps a bit.

I'm going to go and get some dramamine tomorrow. What is the dosage that you give to her? Will it be safe with the other medications? Thank you SOOO much for responding to me. I'm glad to at least know that other people are going through the same thing and that it DOES get better.

I am hoping that the specialty pet store in town has benebec.
 
Your question about Metacam-I'd definitly continue it if possible. It's an anti-inflamatory so be it EC (it would help brain inflamation) or an ear infection (it would bring down swelling etc.) then it would be a good thing.

I'd keep an eye on output-when my bunny Jelly(rip) had headtilt and was on Baytril, she repeatedly ended up with GI stasis. If your bunny does ok with greens, I'd keep up with giving plenty-this helped my bunny alot.

Are there any signs that make you lean towards thinking it's more an ear infection or EC?
 
We did a bloodtest for EC and I will get the results back on Monday. I wanted to get Panacur and start her on it right away (and him, probably) but the vet didn't have any in a rabbit dose and wasn't comfortable opening and trying to divide a dogs dose. Since he will have to order it on Monday anyway (we saw the vet Friday around 5) we decided to wait for the bloodtest results to come back and treat it with ABs until then.

I don't know if she is eating greens yet but I am giving her CC three times a day and also offering her a water bottle. She is drinking and there are poops on the ground so I know she is eating and pooping!!

I'm about to give her dramamine and all of her meds. I'm really hoping that this is an ear infection and not EC since I won't be able to get Panacur until Wednesday if it is :(
 
I'm using the dog panacur and dividing it up. I use a day of the week plastic pill dispenser, like old people use to track their medicine. I divide the dog packet into 8 even doses, one in each day of the week and the last into the little cup I mix everything in. It has worked well. It would probably be easier if you can get the specific dosing you need, but that wasn't really an option in our case so we did the calculations.

Oh, you can also try fresh lavendar. Becky likes that a lot. I think it helps her sleep better at night so I have been giving her some every evening. The other buns have to get their stalk too, it has been very popular.
 
I'm stressing out so much about not having the Panacur. I'm kind of mad that no one gave it to me even though it's possible that she has EC and I'm annoyed that I didn't push harder to get it.

The vet said that they couldn't give it to me because it had to be ordered specifically for her but then someone else told me that they divide it on their own. I hate not having what I need for her. I will divide it for her myself from the dog one on Monday if her results are positive or if I haven't gotten the results back yet.
 
misha wrote:
I'm stressing out so much about not having the Panacur. I'm kind of mad that no one gave it to me even though it's possible that she has EC and I'm annoyed that I didn't push harder to get it.

The vet said that they couldn't give it to me because it had to be ordered specifically for her but then someone else told me that they divide it on their own. I hate not having what I need for her. I will divide it for her myself from the dog one on Monday if her results are positive or if I haven't gotten the results back yet.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat: I can agree on that-when Jelly (rip-my headtilt bunny) was sick they wouldn't give medication for it until they were positive EC was the cause...I was going insane konwing she was so sick and couldn't even try anything while we waited for the results. I know they don't want to treat something wrong, so I completely understand, but its about enough to make you wanna rip out your hair waiting till you can treat it.
 
I know it is not useful to second guess, but I now think that Cinderella passed from EC. I had even mentioned it at the time but the vet dismissed my concerns, expaining that it was rare to cause symptoms. She was convinced that there was an ear infection- so we treated it with some apparent success. Two weeks later she went into seizures and never came out of it. I'm left wondering if I would have treated for EC if she would still be with me? Perhaps the vets really underestimate what EC can do?

I'm treating Becky on my own, which is why I'm dividing up the dog medicine. I gave her the prescribed anyibiotics, presumably for an ear infection. I'm not letting her go down the same road as Cinderella. So, since I can get the panacur and ivomectan on my own, that is what I'm doing. I have decided to use the ivomectan every 3 months on all of them as a preventative. I never want to be second guessing EC again.
 
I'm going to demand the Panacur tomorrow until I find out the results. I'm pissed that I am unable to treat her for a possibility. I don't understand why they won't just help me help her.
 
I honestly think that vets underestimate EC as a disease agent. It is very wide-spead among rabbits and many show no signs of illness. Until recently they really havn't had any way to treat it successfully. Once it has progressed they advise putting them down, so who knows how many more have died from this cause that they thought was something else? It's frustrating trying to educate the vets, but I think this is one of the "newer" diseases that they are learning is more of an issue than they were taught about in vet school.

Even if the vet won't give you the panacur, you can get the dog version at petsmart or petco and divvy it up. It's better than not treating at all. I tend to be conservative, but on this issue I go rogue. :hug:
 
I have called every pet store in the area and looked for it under Safe-Guard and Panacur. All the vets I have called have shut me down and I just found out that the results may not come back for up to a week. I am losing it.

I don't know what else I can do at this point. Like, I called and tried to make them understand but it's like no one is listening to my concerns or taking them seriously...
 
If all else fails you can get ivermectin from a feed store 1% injectible formula. Give 1/10th cc per pound orally. This has really helped my little guy who has ec .
 
FINALLY got the Panacur!!! Thanks to everyone in this forum and thread. Without the info in here I doubt that she would be even remotely on her way to getting better regardless of what her illness is....
 
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