Well, this isn't a very happy update, unfortunately. Yesterday, I took Sammi to the vet. I had her out for playtime, and I noticed that she was losing her balance more than before. I don't think I posted it here, but she had some "minor" balance issues from earlier in fall. I don't remember when, exactly, but it has been going on since late August (at the earliest).
To make a long story short: She had been running around for her playtime in the bedroom and Toby got out somehow. When I went into the room (for whatever random reason) I saw Toby out. I hurried and got Toby back to his cage. Then, Sammi hopped out from under the bed and fell over. I checked and double-checked both of them for bites, scratches or hunks of skin missing. Nothing on either of them. Sammi just kept falling over like she was drunk. I called Will at work (I was hysterical with guilt at this point) and he said he would check her out when he got home. When he got home, she wasn't doing it as much anymore. Being that she is his bunny, it was his call as to what to do. He wanted to leave her alone and see how she was in the morning. She still would fall over on occasion, but overall she was doing well. She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and still ate, drank, and used the litter box just fine.
A little after that, I had her out for run time in the apartment. This would have been around November 9-11, when I posted the last pictures of her. I also took some videos of her, but never got around to posting them. They showed how bad her balance was at certain points. I only have one clip uploaded, and I will attach it to this post. She would hop around, then list to the side and fall. It was like a "plopping" motion, but she would do it while she was mid-run. She would thrash around to right herself, and then she would be fine.
Getting back to yesterday, I took her out for some run time, and she fell over more-frequently than she did the last time. I couldn't get a hold of Will while he was at work, so I did what any good bunny co-parent would do: Skipped out of a study group and took her to the vet. The vet that was available isn't an exotics specialist, per se, but he does see rabbits (and he's the owner of the clinic). Sammi was probably 75% worse at the vet. I don't know how it happened, but she wasn't hopping anymore. She just scooted herself around with her back legs. He looked in her ears, and they were fine. He could see her tympanum (eardrum) OK, and they were not inflamed. He checked for
nystagmus (involuntary eye movement) by rolling her on her side and watching her eyes while she was lying and once she righted herself. She had no recent history (or any history of) nasal discharge or weepy eyes (minus the corneal ulcers that she had). So, other than the balance issues, she has been healthy. He said that it didn't sound like E. cuniculi, head-tilt, or an ear infection based on the exam. To him, it looked more like a spinal cord injury.
Being that she is almost seven, I did not want to do any more testing, for the moment. He was kind enough to prescribe some Baytril and Panacur for her. I am supposed to give her both of those twice a day for two weeks. If symptoms improve, he will give us a refill to finish the full course of the antibiotics/dewormers. I am also supposed to give her Metacam twice a day. Her dosages are as follows:
Baytril: 1.0ml (15mg/ml suspension) \
Panacur: 0.3ml (100mg/ml suspension) ---> All medications are twice a day.
Metacam: 0.3ml (1.5mg/ml suspension) *** /
*** I had leftover Metacam from before, and the suspension is probably different than the one that this vet would have prescribed. I am following the dose that is on the old bottle, which is 0.17ml.
Luckily, she likes the flavoring of all three medications, so I just have to put it on her evening salad. I don't think she would eat soggy pellets, so now she gets a little piece of lettuce in the morning instead of just the pellets.
As of right now, it looks like her front legs are not really working. Her back legs work fine, and she can "hop" with them, but the front legs do not work well. She can hold weight on them, groom with them, and hop into her little box, but she can't hop in a line with them, if that makes sense. The toes on her left front paw are somewhat contracted into a little "bunny fist". When at rest on a smooth surface, her front legs slide away from her. She sticks her right front leg out straight in front of her, but she keeps the left closer. When she falls, it is usually to her right. I've seen her fall both ways, but 90% of the time, it's towards the right. I will try to post more videos to let you guys get a better feel for what is happening.
Will and I are shopping for things to make her cage more "handicap-friendly" tonight, so we will be picking up some of that lambswool-like fleece to pad her cage with (mostly around the wire pen so she doesn't fall and hurt her eye or head) as well as a lower litter box. We are also planning on moving her cage around so it is not as long and narrow. If she's having mobility issues, I would think a pen with a more evenly-distributed floor plan would be better. (Example: Instead of a 2-4 NIC panel pen, a 3x3 panel pen.) That way, there would be less turning around to get to things. If anyone has any other ideas as to how to fix-up a bunny pen for a rabbit with mobility issues, I would love to read about them!
Here is that video I mentioned before. This is the kind of loss-of-balance that she has. Unfortunately, it's worse now (her front feet are not working as well as they did in this video). I will try to get more video later to show how she's moving now.
