Expert: Lee Meyer (Mr.) - 7/3/2009

Question
Hi there,

About a year ago or more, I adopted a bunny from my friend who had her for about two years. Everything has been going well, although she's a fairly moody character. We let her play in the backyard and keep her in the house at night with lots of room to maneuver. In any case, recently, I noticed her right eye seemed a bit different. The pupil seemed to be tilted up, as if she was looking up at something. It also caused her head to turn slightly. It concerned me, as I've read about the head tilt problem, but she didn't seem to be in any pain, her eyes were clear of any discharge, and she still got around just fine and was eating just fine.

But, today, I noticed her walking to be a bit angled. She seemed to have some trouble moving around, and her head was tilted, as if she could only see out of that right eye that looks up. I checked her reactions with my finger, and both eyes closed as I got close, so she can still see, but the head and the turned up eye concerns me.

Again, she doesn't seem in any kind of pain and still eats, drinks, runs around and feels comfortable when I pet her, but I'm getting worried that it might progress into something really bad. I know the obvious thing is to see a vet, but I just wanted to check some other opinions before doing that.

Thanks so much.

Answer
Hi,

get to a good rabbit vet (not jsut any ol vet) immediately.  Tomorrow.  Tell them it's a head tilt case and it is getting worse.

Safest thing they can do is to put her on both antibiotics and antivirals (panacur) because head tilt could be caused by bacterial infections in the inner ear/brain areas or by e cuniculi in the brain.  Often both are present - one being the source of the head tilt, the other being a secondary illness that takes advantage of an already stressed immune system.

You have to get her in tomorrow and get both.  They can give you panacur for e cuniculi, and baytril for a general-purpose antibiotic, but they will need to do a culture and sensitivity test if they can find bacteria in the ears to sample, to do this test and see which antibiotic(s) will be most effective against it.  Baytril may not do anything but it's the safest and it can't really hurt her, it's better than nothing if they find bacteria.  Then in a couple days they will know what's the best antibiotic to give her, you'll have to come back and get it if it isn't baytril.

Don't put it off, get in tomorrow.  The damage from this can be permanent if you let it get worse.