Hi Rachel,
I have seen many cases of torticollis (wry neck, head tilt) come into our rescue. It is a difficult situation to treat. With the exception of two cases, each and every case has been directly linked to an infection in the middle and/or inner ear. The other two cases were obvious head trauma.
Here are some of my findings (I am not a vet...but I treat very sick rabbits).
>Most cases of tilt are caused by either an infection of bacteria or yeast....and we have seen both. I have never seen a confirmed viral infection but would never rule it out. The proper way to treat is by performing a "Culture and Sensitivity" on the debris in the ear to find out exactly what pathogen in being dealt with.
>E Cuniculi does not cause head tilt directly. This protozoan infection is another very misunderstood affliction and most vets have never even heard of it much less seen a case or treated one. EC is basically a "worm" that invades the brain. The most common presentation of this affliction is a "lazy" leg usually the left rear. It will also show up as appearing to be a urinary tract infection and the rabbit may be wet from urine and the urine be very concentrated and smelly. This is from EC spores damaging the kidneys. EC stresses the immune system to a point that the immune system will ignore anything other than the EC which it considers primary. With a EC bunny (and we have had our share) there are "roving" bacterial infections all over the body. We have a rabbit named Sparky that was misdiagnosed with EC. He had a major ear infection. He rolls a lot. He will never correct due to the vestibular damage. While fully tilted, we have made proper husbandry modifications for him to have a happy and comfortable life. There have been no really successful treatments available for EC. The current protocol involves using one of the "bendazoles" (dewormers for horses) but I have not seen it to be effective. I do have a new protocol I want to use with a different drug that looks good on paper.
We have another, Snow White, in which her ear infection was properly identified but the Baytril did not work (no culture unfortunately). The vet ramped up the treatment too late as the infection has entered her brain. She is now blind in her left eye and visually impaired in her right....and deaf. While she will never fully recover, she is happy and getting healthier every day.
>I have found that most bacteria that is now causing vestibular infections (and upper respiratory infections too) are becoming resistant to Baytril.....Cipro is basically Baytril for humans. Remember that I am not a vet, but I rarely use the "Floxacins" for primary duty. There are several other antibioitics that would most likely be more appropriate (based on that culture).
>Some rabbits respond well to Meclizine (the active ingredient in human motion sickness meds) to help the vertigo. It might help the roll. Look at her eyes....are they "clicking"? That is nystagmus....she is searching for a focal point. That is difficult for a rabbit since they can focus on one fixed point in front of them like we do with ear infections. Not all rabbits will be helped by this drug.
Read this over and feel free to PM me or post on the forum if you have any questions or comments. I can provide more info in greater detail should you desire to have it. I would also be willing to talk with your vet about some of the "outside the box" treatments I have used (all my treatments I have developedwere presented to and approved by my primary vet...and she is a professor of small animal medicine at a major vet school).
Randy
