Monday, January 18, 2010

How to cure my one eye-injured tilt head rabbit?

One day when i went home to see my dear rabbit, her head was tilted and her left eye was swollen and closed. Now is already the second week since that happened and my rabbit looks ok except for her tilted head.She can eat and drink well as she has strong will in getting well but she can not walk properly as she always loses her balance. No vet can be visited in our small old town. Can anyone help me?please!!!How to cure my one eye-injured tilt head rabbit?
It takes long-term antibiotics, usually over a period of several months, but take heart - it CAN be cured. The reason I know a bit about it, is because we suspected our first rabbit of having it, so I researched it. Because this is such a common condition, it is fortunately well-recognised and well-understood, and so can readily be treated. As long as your bunn is eating and drinking - eating and drinking are the key signs of wellbeing in a rabbit - she's not suffering as much as you are with your seeing her this way.





I've personally known several people whose bunns had wry neck, and they are each better now. One of them had such severe head tilt that her head was sideways and her eye was literally touching the ground, and she couldn't stand up at all without falling over - she needed intensive nursing for a couple of months, during which her humans kept her in her hutch/cage surrounded by towels so that she wouldn't fall over as easily ... and now she's cured, and since then has been healthy enough to become a mother bunn.





I'll quote to you from one of my favoured rabbit health books, ';Rabbitlopaedia: A Complete Guide to Rabbit Care'; by Meg Brown and Virginia Richardson:





';HEAD TILT or WRY NECK





';The sudden onset of a head tilt is a quite common occurrence in rabbits.





';Signs: The rabbit suddenly develops a tilt of its head to one side. The twist may be so dramatic that the eye on the downward side might touch the ground. The rabbit will lose its sense of balance and may twist and spin if picked up.





';Cause: There are various causes, but infections of the middle and inner ear are most common. Head trauma from a fight or fall can also cause a head tilt. Bacteria or a parasite ';Encephalitozoon cuniculi'; can migrate from the inner ear to the brain and cause various neurological symptoms.





';Treatment: Whatever the cause, treatment is symptomatic. This usually involves a long course of antibiotics if infection is suspected, and corticosteroids if swelling of the brain is suspected. Recovery is slow, but if the rabbit is able to eat and drink, it should be given plenty of time to recover with long-term antibiotics. The rabbit should be kept in a confined and comfortable area and handled as little as possible, because as soon as it is picked up and its feet leave the floor, it will lose its balance and start spinning. The down-side eye may need special care, bathing and eye cream, if it is touching the ground.';





The good news is that, because this is such a common condition, it is well-recognised and well-understood, and so can readily be treated.





However, you definitely do need to visit a rabbit-savvy vet -


I've also got lists of reputed rabbit-savvy vets that I've collected -


http://au.geocities.com/leaswebsite/link鈥?/a>


Check out all these links - just click on your country/state -


http://www.3bunnies.org/vets.htm


http://www.3bunnies.org/vets.htm#pets911鈥?/a>


http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/P鈥?/a>


http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/RabbitVe鈥?/a>


http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/Australi鈥?/a>


http://www.rabbit.org/care/vets.html


and I suggest telephoning them and asking them lots of questions - http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.h鈥?/a>





Very very best of luck to you and your bunn, and don't hesitate to email me if you want to talk more.How to cure my one eye-injured tilt head rabbit?
I'm sorry to tell you, but it sounds like your rabbit had/has wry neck. I used to raise rabbits and was formerly in a rabbit 4-H club as the vice president. One of my rabbits had this. You have a decision to make. You can try to get her to a vet to see if any antibiotics will help, even if it means going to another town. You can wait it out and see how she does. However, if she gets worse, there is no cure and you will have to decide how to deal with this. Often the head of the rabbit will continue to tilt, even after other symptoms are gone. We had to put my best-in-show doe down because of this. I'm terribly sorry, and I hope your rabbit fares well.
take her to a vet
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