Rabbit-severe sudden head tilt

[DarcyParty]

My 4 year old netherland dwarf has come on with a very severe and sudden head tilt this morning. Her head seems to be glued to her right shoulder and is rolling her eyes. She can move a little, but goes into a complete tail spin and just curles up in the end.

I'm so distressed, she was fine when I saw them last night. (She lives with a husbun, and he's completey fine)

I've given her a spoonful of water, which she licked at since she can't reach her bowl and she's had a small piece of kale, but has no interest now.

We have a vet appointment at 11.20, but only have about £200 to spare until my parter and I get paid again at the end of the month.

Any advice or suggestions on the cause? A handhold would be appreciated too, I'm 5 months pregnant and she means the world to me, I'm so distressed.

Oh no! I hope the vet could help? I took my guinea pigs in with heatstroke on Sunday morning and they said it would cost £100-£150 to rehydrate and stabilise them luckily they rallied and I picked them up in the evening so they didn't need to overnight and they only charged me the £35 consultation fee thank goodness! I hope you have similar luck xx

hi @Fauxfox I'm glad your little pigs are ok! It's terrible when animals are ill and can't tell you what's wrong isnt it :(

Well the vet said it could be Vestibular syndrome, which is a kind of bacterial infection of the ear. He gave her two injections and she should start to recover within 48 hours.

Failing that, it's probably e-cunicul, which is a parasite I think? He gave us a syringe medicine for once a day for 28 days. If neither of those work, there's not much else they can do :(

On the plus side, they only charged us 40 odd quid, which we were happy with! We both must have good vets :)

Brain parasite.

My bun had it. Almost killed her.

You need a vet ASAP.

Fingers crossed she picks up quickly - poor bunny!

Ooo, read title and responded without reading your actual post.

Get well soon, little bun!!
< dandilions

Oh dear op - poor you - it is so stressful when your pets are ill [flower]

This could be e cuniculi here or possibly a severe ear infection - look under common illnesses here.

Try and get to a rabbit friendly vet if yours is not already.

And consider pet insurance for the future perhaps? (Rabbits sometimes have to have very costly dental work.)

Hope all goes well for your furry x

Oh sorry - made the same mistake as pp and didn't read your update!

So glad you got away with £40 payment.

Hope your bun recovers very soon x

And intended to send you [

Thanks guys and it looks like you were spot on haha.

She's home and calmed down a bit now, and I'm glad-it was so distressing seeing her thrash about. Ive been syringing her water and mushed up pellets in water and she's taken them well.

If she makes it through this, I am getting them both insured. It was always something I meant to do but never got round to :(

Thanks for the well wishes, I'll keep you all updated x

When current bun was ill and eating mushed food she still wolfed down dandilions.

Bunnies love dandilions. Anywhere near you can pick some.

Oh your poor bunny! I hope she recovers soon.

I saw this and recognised it, one of my cats had it. Lost all balance and direction for some days, I was so upset by seeing her thrash around and unable to walk I nearly had her pts it seemed so bad. Once her ear drum burst poor baby all the gunk drained and she recovered quite fast. Hope your bun is doing better soon.

*saw your thread title even!

A lot of insurers won't take on a previously uninsured 5yo bun so if you want insurance get it quick.

I was going to say brain paracite, presume she's been diagnosed panacur?

If she's taking smushed pellets and drinking and you can get the medicine in then it sounds hopeful. Good luck!

If it's a paste-like medicine and you struggle to get it into her, you can try squirting it onto a quite strongly flavoured leaf (basil was always a favourite here) and then roll it into a sausage for them to munch.

(I got so fed up of fighting to get panacur into them and getting it all in their chin fluff instead)

@MissHavishamsleftdaffodil brilliant, we live next to a flippin big park so I'll get round there before they cut the grass :D

@Lostinaseaofbubbles panacur, that's the one she was given! I'm feeling a lot more hopeful too :) thanks guys!

@Lostinaseaofbubbles I had to wipe some pellet mush off her chin too, and I'm sitting here grinding pellets for the next feed. Feels like I'm in training for the baby come November!

She's took the panacur alright though, so there's that :)

I'm sure I didn't grind them, I put the water in with them whole and let them soak and you can smush them with a fork.

@Lostinaseaofbubbles That sounds so much easier, I'm ashamed I didn't think of it! I blame baby brain haha

sounded exactly like vestibular disease to me too - my old dog got this. it can be caused by ear infection or it could be idiopathic (no real cause).

takes a few days for them to recover. they need good light so they have the best possible optic feed (to help with seeing where they're going). and best to keep him/her confined to a smaller area, so they don't hurt themselves running around.

my dog was up and walking within about 3 days (we had to use a sling to take him out for his business), and then about 2-3 weeks was walking but with a slight lean still. he still has a slight head tilt and sometimes falls over.

vet told me it's one of those things that looks bad, but isn't really unless they don't recover, which is more rare.

An update! Marcie is so much better this morning! She's up on all fours and walking around.

She still has her head tilt, but it's nowhere near as dramatic ( I dare say it's a tiny bit cute) Her eyes aren't rolling either, and she deffinitely knows where she's going :)

She lapped up 3 whole syringes of water, 1 of pellet mush and a whole handful of leafy greens.

It looks like it was the bacterial inner ear thing, since the vet said she would feel better after 48 hours. I'm still going to finish her panacur just in case though.

Pic attached, as I couldn't bear to take one when she was really bad ❤

She's so cute!! Love the quizzical headtilt.

Just so you're aware, my old bun never quite recovered from her head tilt and was always slightly lopsided.

Current bun also lost an ear to infection. I feel I'm destined to only own a-symetrical bunnies.

@KingJoffreysRestingCuntface the vet said the same thing. Did your tilted bun adapt alright with the tilt?

I wouldn't mind, I used to foster buns for a charity and I've looked after all sorts ( one had no teeth poor guy!)

Awww you have some very unique buns!

My vets recommends panacur every year or so anyway to ward of any nasties. So no harm finishing the course.

So pleased she's feeling a bit better!

Animals adapt to anything. They lose limbs and just crack on with it. Sadly I lost her at 3 to an impacted bowel.

This is my current bun.