Spondylosis of the lumbar spine?

[goneforbaroque]

My 3 year old extra large rabbit has been having difficulty controlling his hind end (specifically the left side) and recently it's become more noticeable. Has anyone had any dealings with Spondylosis? He has a large pen to move in as well as outside play time and is fed an excellent diet. I'm just trying to keep this from causing him pain. The websites I've read mentioned acupuncture and massage. How difficult would it be to find someone qualified to do that? He isn't exhibiting any signs of pain yet, just general clumsiness and continued inability to groom his hind end.

 

[MikeScone]

My last rabbit, Scone MacBunny, suffered from spondylosis during his last year (probably longer than that, but it took a while for the vets to diagnose the problem). He didn't appear to be in pain - rabbits are very good at hiding that - but he'd stopped jumping up on things, wasn't eating right, and started showing a reluctance to hop into his litter box. Here's a link to Scone's 2009 blog where he started showing the symptoms, and follow on with the treatment.

They had me giving him injections of Adequan, and it made a huge difference. Within a little more than a week Scone was back to his normal activity, and remained there the rest of his life. I started with daily shots, then cut back to a few times a week, then weekly, and finally down to one shot every other week.

Adequan's basically the same stuff I take for my joints - chondroitin - only in injectable form.

 

[tonyshuman]

There have been a few bunnies with this condition. It was great to see how much Adequan helped Scone. Another thing that is sometimes done is to give daily metacam, as spondylosis has some similar characteristics as arthritis. However, the kidney damage that metacam can do is a concern, and I wouldn't do long-term metacam therapy in a bunny that was otherwise expected to live a long time, i.e. a 3 yr old bunny. Long-term narcotic therapy probably isn't the best choice for a bunny his age either, so the supplements would be good. If you are concerned it is spondylosis, it would be good to get some x-rays done to make sure, and so that you can keep track of how badly affected he is.

I personally would want to think a little bit about E cuniculi. It's a myth that the first sign of EC is a head tilt; in fact that's often one of the last signs. It often first appears as weakness in the hind quarters, more pronounced in one side than the other. Another early sign is urinary tract problems. You might want to look into getting an EC titer done and some treatment with ponazuril. It is early enough that aggressive treatment may keep the infection from being as devastating as it can be.

Here's some info for you.

Spondylosis/arthritis/bone spurs:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Bone_diseases/Osteo/arthritis.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Bone_diseases/Osteo/osteophyte.htm
http://www.hrschicago.org/rabbit3fr.html
Normal spinal x-ray
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Bone_diseases/Radio/Hip/Spine_hip.htm
Spondylosis x-ray
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?241867-Spineproblems


EC:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Signs/Cuniculi_signs.html
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/cuniculi/pyrimethamine.htm

 

[MikeScone]

tonyshuman wrote:

There have been a few bunnies with this condition. It was great to see how much Adequan helped Scone. ... I personally would want to think a little bit about E cuniculi.

The vet told me that they'd had a number of patients respond to Adequan the way Scone did - "like a new rabbit" is what they were told, and it certainly worked out that way for us.

Interestingly, when the vets at Cornell did Scone's necropsy, he did have E cuniculi, which might have contributed to his other problems. His x-ray did show spondylosis pretty clearly, though.