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About Lee Meyer (Mr.)
Expertise
I have 5+ years of experience with House Rabbits, rescue groups, and working with shelter rabbits. I do educational talks about house rabbits. I advise potential adopters, supervise bunny 'dates', fundraising/educational rabbit events, and help rabbit owners with their rabbits. I will answer questions about: general behaviors, body language, housing, toys, bunny-proofing, diet, spaying/neutering issues, nail clips, preventative measures, diet, and health questions. I will not discuss: anything that deals with rabbits for fur, food, factory-style breeding, deliberate or casual breeding by pet owners, or experimentation.

My focus is solely on rabbits as loved pets. It's why I'm a House Rabbit Society member rather than an ARBA member. If you don't view your rabbit the same way you would a pet dog or cat, please ask another expert your question.

I am not a veterinarian and cannot conclusively diagnose your rabbit. My advice does not take the place of a good rabbit vet. IF YOU THINK THERE'S A PROBLEM, DON'T WAIT FOR A REPLY, GET TO A VET IMMEDIATELY!!! Sometimes what appears to be a small problem is life-threatening.

The House Rabbit Society has references on their site for vets they have researched. There are US and international links here for vets all over the world with rabbit experience: www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

I recommend the following resources to all rabbit owners:

House Rabbit Society - online rabbit info (www.rabbit.org)
Book: Rabbit Health in the 21st Century 2nd Ed. by Kathy Smith
Book: House Rabbit Handbook 4th Ed. by Marinell Harriman

Experience
House Rabbit Member since 2004 Discover Your House Rabbit organizer - 2006 Rabbit Adopter since 2004 HAWS Board of Education member (rabbits) since 2005 HAWS Rabbit Volunteer since 2004

Organizations
National House Rabbit Society, Wisconsin House Rabbit Society, Humane Animal Welfare Society (HAWS), Education Board Member for Rabbits, Friends of HAWS

Education/Credentials
BSEE, MSEE (Electrical/Computer Engineering), Marquette University

You are here: Experts > Animals/Pets > Veterinary Medicine > Rabbits > rabbit help.

Rabbits - rabbit help.

Expert: Lee Meyer (Mr.) - 11/7/2009

Question

Snowball, the rabbit.

We gave my about 4 year old netherland dwarf rabbit, Snowball, a bath last night. afterwards she was fine and drying herself, and running around. about an hour later, we put Snowball in her cage and she was fine and we went to sleep. At about 5:30am we saw that she was shaking and breathing hard. I took her with me to warm her up and she slept about 3 hours before trying to move. When she did, she would tumble over. She will not use her legs and tilts her head to the left. She wont drink, and barely eats. We gave her lettuce and she did eat that today. I lightly wrapped the right leg to keep it from moving, in case of a break. My parents refuses taking her to the vet because she says it is not an emergency. Is it? And what should we do?

Answer
Hi,

your rabbit needs to go to the vet. The head tilt signifies an inner ear/brain infection that is affecting her balance. These things don't go away in rabbits. They are medical problems that require antibiotics.

Don't every bathe your rabbit like that again. They are not water animals, they don't like water and don't need bathing. You can kill them doing it. You can't get them dry safely because their skin is so thin, they will catch cold or pneumonia. Don't do that again.

Get her in to the vet. For the ear, and because of putting her in water, they will need to make sure she hasn't developed other problems from that.

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