Questions on Stokes in rabbits

[Vlahota]

I have a question and am hoping someone can help.

My bunny had pasturella since I bought him at the pet store. He recently passed away at the age of five years and two months. We tried medication on six different occasions, but it never went away. He always ate and was healthy other than his cough. In the last month of his life I notice he was eating less and sleeping more. He was also pooping outside of his litter box more and going into it less. He hid under my bet more frequently. At this point his cough had completely stopped. I also noticed he was licking his fur out on his sides which shows he was in distress. I also thought he might have mites and rinsed him with a shower head for less than 20 seconds. Not long after that, I noticed him tripping on ocassion. He was still trying to hop around, but was confused by the fact that one of his paws wasn't working. By the second week out of the blue, his whole body wouldn't work anymore. I had no choice but to put him to sleep. My heart was and still is broken into pieces.

My vet says it was an abcess on the central nervous system which was caused by pasturella. Over time Baytril doesn't work anymore (in fact I don't think it ever worked b'c it never went away - it would just come and go) I've read about other medications that could have been used, but at this point I can't change the advise I was given by the vet.

I just wanted to rule out stroke. He didn't like being wet, could a severe stress have caused him to have a stroke. I know a stroke occurs when blood flow is interrupted or when a blood vessel ruptures in the brain. I don't know how stress could cause that to happen. I was told stroke is very uncommon in rabbits, but I wanted to know if anyone had any insight.

Thanks for listening.

 

[tonyshuman]

Did your vet do a necropsy?

I would say from the symptoms that it was not a stroke but probably an abscess as your vet suggested, or a degenerative disease like EC. The reason I say this is that the problems got progressively worse over time. With a stroke, things get really bad very quickly, and sometimes there is some recovery of function after time. Since your bunny got worse and worse in the same way (in terms of paralysis), I would say it was not a stroke. Here's some info about paralysis
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Differentials/paresis.htm

It is quite common for pasturella to become resistant to Baytril.

 

[Vlahota]

Thanks so much for your response.

No necropsy was done. I took him to the vet right after the paralysis started and they checked his ears to see if there was an infection, but did not do anything. If it was EC I'm wondering if it could have been corrected. He didn't have a head tilt it was just his paw to start which would cause him to fall over sometimes. Ten days after the first visit I took him back again, they prescribed Batryl and by the time I brought him home he couldn't move his little body at all. I put him down right after that b'c I couldn't bear to see him live like that and they said that it wouldnt get better. I thought that the stress of the vet visit could have caused a second stoke, but it seems more likely that it was the abcess or EC. Could the stress of being wet contributed to this by bringing out the EC? He was my only child and not exposed to other rabbits. He only went outside in a patio area - how could he have contracted EC?

I'm so confused and am blaming myself. I should have noticed these things sooner. I should have pushed more meds for his pasturella, but I did not know it could lead to abcesses on the brain etc. He's had it on and off forever and it never caused him issues other than some sneezing or coughing. (brought him to the vet six times in five years for meds)I also should never have wet him, but it was a long weekend, the vet was closed and I believed he had fur mites that were causing him a lot of distress. He hated being wet! The vet says these symptoms (stopped eating pellets, licking his fur out and hopping around less) were signs that the abcess was pushing on his central nervous system which ultimately caused this paralysis.

I want to rest my heart about this, but I just feel like I didn't do the right things. I just loved him so much!

Thanks to anyone who read this

 

[missyscove]

He could have had EC when you got him and it could have just gotten worse later in life or been brought out by a stressful incident.
It sounds like you took excellent care of him. Taking him to the vet was definitely the right choice and from your description it sounds like you and your vet spent a lot of time working on a solution.
Without a necropsy there's no way to say for sure what caused his symptoms (and even with a necropsy you might not have known).

 

[Vlahota]

Thank you for your response, I appreciate you reading such a long email. I just wonder why EC was never mentioned when the vet saw him right after the paralysis had started. I read that there are medications that can stop the parasite before the full paralysis came about. Bunny's are tricky when it comes to their health - they hide their illness so well, often only exhibit small signs of illness, you can't tell if their in pain, they stress out so easily and too often there's such little time. This is a hard grieving process - Peanut was my angel