so it's been 2 months and not much improvement

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jwark

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So, what a journey. After two months and so many different medications (I lost count), my poor bun still can't walk. In fact, she's starting to decline. At one point she was standing up a lot but she pretty much just lays down on her side all day long now.

The last thing the vet tried was steroids but it really hasn't done anything. She still has a little head tilt and every time I put her on antibiotics she gets GI stasis and I have to take her off of them.

The vet says she has nerve function in her rear legs but he is pretty convinced it's neurological, he said I would have to get her an MRI if it is but that is very expensive and said we wouldn't really be any better off knowing if it is or not since that's the only thing left to treat her for anyway.

Right now, she's on steroids and panacure. I cut out everything else. I've learned to adapt to control her urine scald but it's really a huge process every day for me. I'm wondering if she'll ever walk again. Does anyone know if it sometimes just takes this long?
 
Steroids really aren't a good choice for bunnies. They already have a compromised immune system--a vet once told me they are like AIDS patients because they don't have the full complement of immune cells that most mammals have. Steroids knock down the immune system.

Has a different antiparasitic been looked at, like Marquis (ponazuril)? It is better at dealing with infections in the brain. It sounds like e cuniculi might be what's going on. Is the panacur dose high enough? You can see if it's right here:
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html
 
Yes, the vet discussed this with us. He felt that it was worth the risk and he waited until the right time to do it when she was completely healed as far as infections go. He believes her chance of even surviving unless we improve her situation by a good margin is low and we're running out of time.

She keeps losing weight. I don't know why. I wish I was rich and could afford the things he says might help but I can afford to take her to the vet 4 times a month and that is it. She eats like a maniac, twice as much as she ate when she was healthy. She drinks water, vet says she's never dehydrated, her temp is fine. The vet says her brain is just shutting down. I wish I knew what was right and what isn't but he was recommended by the professor at A&M university and is in the top 3 leading rabbit vets in the state. I just do what he says. And believe me, he's not cheap.

Wow, I'm really rambling. Anyway, I will definitely ask him about the medicine, I do appreciate the info! It's really nice that people like you are out there helping us.
 
I just wonder if there is still a head tilt, it may be from an unresolved ear infection. I'm so sorry this is happening. Rabbits are complex animals and we just don't know enough about their health, mostly because they are a bit new as a companion animal as opposed to livestock. Rabbits live much richer lives as house pets than they used to, but we don't have the years of medicine to explain all their issues that we do for other house pets because their raw commercial value is so low.
 
yeah, I don't know if it's head tilt as much as it is 'entire left side of the body tilt'. She goes absolutely crazy if I try to lay her on her right side and her eyes roll up in her head. She will struggle until she lays on her left side. If there is an ear infection still I just don't know how, she's been on a lot of antibiotics and two different kinds of ear drops. The vet says he can't see anything in her ear, not even hear ear drum in her left ear.

What's also strange is it really seems like her left hind leg causes her a lot of pain. She goes crazy when I even touch it but doesn't mind me touching the right hind leg at all.

I just spoke with the vet again . He did say maybe it's time to take her off all the medications except injectable pain killers just to see what happens. We need to get her gaining weight again somehow.


 
Oh dear. Yeah, that sounds like an inner ear infection or maybe permanent damage from a prior ear infection that has been healed. What antibiotics did you use? A lot of vets are hesitant to use stronger, newer antibiotics on rabbits because they don't react to antibiotics like most pets do--for instance you can't give a lot of them orally to rabbits because rabbits' GI tracts are very sensitive to having the correct microbes that some oral antibiotics will wipe out the good GI microbes and actually kill the rabbit. However, many of those antibiotics that are toxic orally are good and safe if given via injection.

It is possible, though, that the infection is gone, but it created permanent damage to her inner ear structures so she's having some of the same symptoms (tilt, lying on the one side) as if she still had the infection.

Did they do a test for EC? I also wonder if maybe she injured her left hind leg, because in EC rabbits it usually doesn't bother them but instead they just lose the ability to move it or feel in it properly.
 
I don't remember all of the antibiotics, honestly. There was baytril, penicillin, zeniquin and something else.

They didn't test for EC, he said the results are often inconclusive so we would treat for it regardless.

I have to say, when she does sit up, her head is not tilted at all, it is perfectly straight. I think the head tilt itself is gone, the majority of the problem is with her left hind leg.

I hope it's not permanent damage. It supposedly was a very bad infection in her ear, it bursted her ear drum (or so they think.)
 
I see. It sounds like your vet put a lot of good effort into treating the infection, but there may have been permanent damage to the ear or brain. Both of those could cause the mobility and tilt issues. I do think that it would be good to switch out the Panacur for Marquis, at least for a week or two, to see if that changes anything.
 
It may be permanent damage but its' definitely getting worse now. Over the past week she has lost more and more function in her entire hind section. Her right leg is almost just as bad as her left leg. I took her to the vet again and he thinks whatever it is is spreading to her spine.

She also has starting twisting her body around and laying down like that and she shivers sometimes now which is also new.
 
:pray::pray: stories like these make me very upset.

re: urine scald, has your vet taught you how to palpate the bladder yet? there is a certain way of pressing on it which can cause your bun to urinate. if you control when he/she urinates then you can soak it up immediately so as to reduce possibility of urine scald?
 
I try to do that but it only helps a little. I have to work all day when I come home she is completely soaked. Anyway, she is getting worse and worse. She has a hole in her left side from the urine that I just found today and it's all gooey so I'm going to try shaving her entire left side.

I tried diapers and different creams but when I shave her that part is ok but then the urine goes to other parts where she has fur and sits in there and I can't really clean those with all the fur on it. The diapers just make it worse they fill up fast and then trap it on both sides all the way up her body.

I've started building her a wheelchair. Hopefully that will keep her off the floor while I'm at work.
 
jwark wrote:
I try to do that but it only helps a little. I have to work all day when I come home she is completely soaked. Anyway, she is getting worse and worse. She has a hole in her left side from the urine that I just found today and it's all gooey so I'm going to try shaving her entire left side.

I tried diapers and different creams but when I shave her that part is ok but then the urine goes to other parts where she has fur and sits in there and I can't really clean those with all the fur on it. The diapers just make it worse they fill up fast and then trap it on both sides all the way up her body.

I've started building her a wheelchair. Hopefully that will keep her off the floor while I'm at work.
Click to expand...
could you try to cover her entire area with puppy pads? or even really large womens sanitary pads? hopefully that will draw the urine away quicker and maybe make some improvement?
 
Her cage is covered with the dog pee pads. I change it out 3 times a day/night. She urinates a lot, though. They fill up while I'm away at work. She used to kind of move out of the way but now she just sits in the same spot all day long. That's the main reason I'm building her a wheelchair. I'm trying to make it as comfortable as I can, enough so that she can sit in it all day long.


 
jwark wrote:
Her cage is covered with the dog pee pads. I change it out 3 times a day/night. She urinates a lot, though. They fill up while I'm away at work. She used to kind of move out of the way but now she just sits in the same spot all day long. That's the main reason I'm building her a wheelchair. I'm trying to make it as comfortable as I can, enough so that she can sit in it all day long.
Click to expand...
:cry1::cry1::cry1::pray::pray::pray:
Wow you're such a dedicated bunny parent. *sigh*. so sad that things like this happen. Hopefully a wheelchair will make her more comfortable.

x sending you good vibes x
 
I hope so the vet said she's going to get septic if something doesn't change. I didn't even realize how bad it was because a lot of it was under her fur. He had to cut her skin open, drain the infection, pack it with antibiotics and sew her skin back up. She's back on penicillin again now. Well, back to work making this wheelchair.
 
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