Walking weirdly and breathing heavily

[GoofyKaramell]

My bunny Karamell, roughly 4 years old, started walking weirdly about a month ago.

He doesn't hop and instead uses his hind legs one after the other. He hardly ever runs (which isn't that different from before I guess, he was always kinda inactive) and sometimes it seems like he loses his balance?
He eats and drinks healthily and doesn't appear to have any pain, so the vet said there's no need to worry and it should go away soon.
Well, it didn't go away, it only got worse and now he breathes very loudly and heavily, especially after some activity.

All in all, he doesn't show obvious signs of discomfort but I really don't think he feels well considering how lethargic he has become.:cry1:

We are going to take him to the vet again in a few days hopefully (it's too cold at the moment to transport him) but I'd still like to know if anyone has an idea what could be wrong...

 

[Cookiemonster]

this happened to one of my bunnies and she eventually went paralyzed and we had to put her down..

 

[Blue eyes]

Find a different vet. I wouldn't consider that last one to be rabbit savvy based on what he said.

Clearly something is wrong if he's not hopping with both legs at the same time. Losing balance is also a serious sign of something wrong. Any vet that thinks symptoms like that will just go away on their own just doesn't know what is wrong and doesn't know what to do (and so apparently thinks nothing should be done ullhair: ). I wouldn't trust him/her.

The breathing issues are yet another serious symptom. Is he breathing through his nose as usual or is he opening his mouth in order to breathe?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[JBun]

I think it sounds like your rabbit has a serious health problem and you need to find a rabbit savvy vet right away. What the health problem is, it's hard to know. It could be pneumonia, or vestibular disease, or something else. A vet can do tests to help figure out what is going on. I would also suggest finding a different vet if at all possible, one that is knowledgeable about rabbits.
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/