EEEM
Well-Known Member
Many of you may remember one of the first weeksI was on the forum my little blue eyed harlequin mix, Harold, startedhaving seizures. In the first spell we saw him have two seizures, butall in all he seemed fairly unaffected and the vet said there wasn'tmuch we could do at this point.
Last night I went down to the basement room that is now the dedicatedbunny room to see how Harold and Judy were doing and spend my nighttimecuddle time with them. I walked down to see the floor covered in pooppellets. They're both very immaculate with their litter box habits sothis was really odd. And there weren't even just a few here and therethat might've gotten kicked out of the box, they were EVERYWHERE. andnot in little clumps, but spread out across the entire room... And it'sa big room.
Judy came bounding up to me as usual, but Harold was out of sight. Thisis normal since Harold is deaf he has to catch sight of me before he'llapproach. So I went to find him behind one of his many favorite boxesand tubes. I did find him in a corner with his legs splayed and hishead turned up at a weird angle looking fairly frightened. He was justvery still. I immediately picked him up, and he didn't kick or strugglewhich is strange for him. He relaxed his head a little and wentslightly limp in my hands. i decided to confine them to their cage forthe rest of the night and keep a close eye on him. once he was in thecage he seemed to calm down. He hopped around a bit, drank some water,ate some hay. He still looked disoriented, but he was eating anddrinking and the poop, though spread all over the floor, looked normal.
But this morning I came in to find Harold cowered in the corner of hiscage. Even as I approached him he didn't budge. I decided to leave himbe momentarily and fill the water bottle, food bowl, get hay and freshlitter... All the morning routine. Once all that was done and Judy waschowing down, Harold still hadn't moved. I reached my hand down, makingsure to pass it by his face so he could see me, but when I touched himhe was very startled and started to hop about the cage. He bumped intoeverything. He spilled the bowl of greens, bumped into the litter box,the walls... It was as if he couldn't see anything. I held him for amoment and then put him down with his nose right in the food bowl andhe began to eat.
Basically I'm worried that he's been seizuring again and now possiblymay be going blind. When I took him to the vet for his first round ofseizures she said that sometimes Blue-eyed whites are prone to geneticdisorders, including those that cause seizures and sometimes blindness.She didn't know if deafness was linked. She also said there wasn't alotshe could do for him other than make sure he was comfortable andgetting around ok. And so far that hasn't been a problem.
I didn't get to spend much time with him this morning trying to figureout what's happening because I was already late for work. I called thevet and she said I could bring him in this afternoon, so I should knowmore then.
If any of you have suggestions on what to do if he is going blind, Iwould really appreciate it. I know some of you have blind bunnies andthey're doing very well, so that's very encouraging. Anyone ever dealtwith a blind and deaf bun? I hope it doesn't come to that and perhapshe's just having another spell of seizures that are causing him to bedisoriented. Neither option is great, but I hope he doesn't havepermanent vision loss.
Please keep Harold in your thoughts. He and I would both really appreciate it.
Here's my sweet boy standing up for a treat:
Last night I went down to the basement room that is now the dedicatedbunny room to see how Harold and Judy were doing and spend my nighttimecuddle time with them. I walked down to see the floor covered in pooppellets. They're both very immaculate with their litter box habits sothis was really odd. And there weren't even just a few here and therethat might've gotten kicked out of the box, they were EVERYWHERE. andnot in little clumps, but spread out across the entire room... And it'sa big room.
Judy came bounding up to me as usual, but Harold was out of sight. Thisis normal since Harold is deaf he has to catch sight of me before he'llapproach. So I went to find him behind one of his many favorite boxesand tubes. I did find him in a corner with his legs splayed and hishead turned up at a weird angle looking fairly frightened. He was justvery still. I immediately picked him up, and he didn't kick or strugglewhich is strange for him. He relaxed his head a little and wentslightly limp in my hands. i decided to confine them to their cage forthe rest of the night and keep a close eye on him. once he was in thecage he seemed to calm down. He hopped around a bit, drank some water,ate some hay. He still looked disoriented, but he was eating anddrinking and the poop, though spread all over the floor, looked normal.
But this morning I came in to find Harold cowered in the corner of hiscage. Even as I approached him he didn't budge. I decided to leave himbe momentarily and fill the water bottle, food bowl, get hay and freshlitter... All the morning routine. Once all that was done and Judy waschowing down, Harold still hadn't moved. I reached my hand down, makingsure to pass it by his face so he could see me, but when I touched himhe was very startled and started to hop about the cage. He bumped intoeverything. He spilled the bowl of greens, bumped into the litter box,the walls... It was as if he couldn't see anything. I held him for amoment and then put him down with his nose right in the food bowl andhe began to eat.
Basically I'm worried that he's been seizuring again and now possiblymay be going blind. When I took him to the vet for his first round ofseizures she said that sometimes Blue-eyed whites are prone to geneticdisorders, including those that cause seizures and sometimes blindness.She didn't know if deafness was linked. She also said there wasn't alotshe could do for him other than make sure he was comfortable andgetting around ok. And so far that hasn't been a problem.
I didn't get to spend much time with him this morning trying to figureout what's happening because I was already late for work. I called thevet and she said I could bring him in this afternoon, so I should knowmore then.
If any of you have suggestions on what to do if he is going blind, Iwould really appreciate it. I know some of you have blind bunnies andthey're doing very well, so that's very encouraging. Anyone ever dealtwith a blind and deaf bun? I hope it doesn't come to that and perhapshe's just having another spell of seizures that are causing him to bedisoriented. Neither option is great, but I hope he doesn't havepermanent vision loss.
Please keep Harold in your thoughts. He and I would both really appreciate it.
Here's my sweet boy standing up for a treat:
ray:
