Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone

Just one thing to know if you have a rabbit(s). If he/she/ they are acting strange, i mean not normal behavior, have a thermometer handy and take their temperature from their butt. I wish someone would have told me that before.

My bunnies sometime would act weird, eat just a tiny bit and then next day they would go back to normal. Last week end one of my bunny was acting strange, she was eating thought. But sunday she was acting even more strange so we went to the Emergency room. The vet there took Xrays and said she had gas and it would pass. He also gave her some anti flamatory etc.... next day (monday) as soon as we got up we went to my reg. Rabbit doctor and she said that it was not gas but her kidney looked like they were failing. Finally turns out her kidney was not failing but it was an infection. She spent 4 days at the vet.

When the vet called us to tell us to come see her, we went and I was very shocked. My bunny couldn't stand/walk or hop. She just sat there with her front legs on the side (Kind of like a penguin on its belly) The Vet said it is probably the fever that damaged her brain (she was doing 107. Normal is 101-103)

I almost lost her, now she is home. Just sitting in the same spot all day. Not being able to walk, hop etc.. when she pees she just sit in it too (well i move her out of there as soon as i notice). It's so hard

So by checking the temperature of your rabbit if they are acting strange u could save the life of your bunny. IF the bunny has a fever, u can bring the temperature down with some ice (not direclty on the rabbit) look online for complete instructions. Apparently what the not very knowledgable vet at the ER gave her, kept her alive because of her fever.

Im kind of upset because that ER place has my vet's number and since they do not specialize in rabbit, they usually call her to tell her of anything. The vet we had was and mean to us and didn';t call her. The next day she sure called him back to tell him of his wrong diagnosis and not calling her.

Now i need some help. We are considering putting her down since she doesn't know what's going on, she can't walk, she just sit in the same corner all day (well we move her around) I mean being in that situation i think i would like to go too. I doubt she's happy, my vet suggested that we try takin her home and try to have it work out. My vet says she could snap out of it but she really doubt she will and all the other vets too. I love her to death and I do not want her to go, but if it happened to your pet would you put them to sleep.

I really don't know what to do. We'll try for 2 weeks to see if she snaps out of it (i didn't want to put her down and not give her a chance) She also has her boyfriend, he doesn't seem to notice what's going on, sometime he kinda of wonder why she's not running after him etc... She was a very active and agile rabbit. So she would be leaving him too

Im so sad. Everyday i cry, i don't know what to do, i don't know what she wants.

Sorry for the long post

Thanks for ur help

Hi, Geesh I'm so very sorry about your bunny. Sad, it would kind of make me angry that they did not diognose her properly in the first place.

Are you sure she has not had a stroke? Just wondering since shes not moving much. I'm not really a good person to ask this question as I am a softy who tries until there is no possible shread of hope left.

I understand your hurt, and sadness, I just lost my beloved dogie to cancer it went into infection, and had to be put to sleep it ripped my guts out doing it.

So my heart hurts for you and your bunny but I can not make that decision or suggest what you should do.

If it were me I would hang in there and give her some time. I can't help but think they were wrong a few times with what they told you, so I would hope maybe they were wrong about this and wait it out and see if there is any improvements with her.

Is she eating/ drinking?
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PHEve/ Eve

Contact PHEve

well the 1st vet at the Emergency clinic took Xrays, but he doesn't know anything about rabbits, that's why vets at that office have the personal phone number of my Rabbit vet.

Monday morning, my rabbit doctor looked at the Xrays and saw inflammated kidneys and thought they had failed. Did a pee test and found out that they had not failed, but the kidneys need to fail 2/3 to show up on a test. She sent the test to a laboratory. They said her immune system probably got low and a normal bacteria that a rabbit would fight, well she didn't. What i do not get, is that there was no change in the diet or anything else.

She's not really eating, she eats a little tiny bit so we have to force feed her. She's really skinny, u can feel her bones. (she use to be a bit overweight) When i give her a treat, she'll grab it and hold it in her mouth and then few seconds later she will drop it on the ground, like she forgot it's there or she doesn't know what to do with it. She'll eat and then stop and leave the food haning out of her mouth. I think she forgets it's there.

I will certainly give her a chance, she'll be on medication for the next 10 days. I'll try to have her gain weight. I would wonder all my life is i wouldn't give her that chance. Everyday i hope to see her back to normal.

One thing that is funny, she would always grunt or "growl" at us . Every morning when we pick her up to force feed her, she grunts at us. U know, for the 1st time of my life, im really happy to hear her grunt

I will keep u posted. thanks for reading, or not!!! it feels good to write about it. (I could write a whole book about her)

Thanks

Meg

ALso i hope she's wrong too. but she's one of the best bunny vet. She's a rabbit freak

Im really mad at the emergency room vet which should have called my bunny vet, he was really condescending. My vet called him and told him about it too. I want to make a complaint thought and get a refund. Even thought he saved her life by giving her antibiotics.

I will research on stroke for rabbits, see if I can find anything. She's moving but her front legs are on the side. (like a penguin on its belly)

I am really sorry to hear about your dog. But one thing, u know he's not suffering anymore, he is restored to health. He probably also thank u for the wonderful life u gave him

Everyday i see my little bunny like that and it hurts me and i hope she's comfortable. But i never thought that losing a pet could be so hard. Probably because their love is unconditional.

thanks again

Yeah, your right is is so hurtful when our pets get sick or we lose them, no matter what it is, even a fish.

I can only hope your bunny can beat this thing, and you can talk about her all ya want, it does help.
I'm here, I will listen. I know how heavey your heart is like i said I have been through it.

Hang in there
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PHEve/ Eve

Contact PHEve

I'm so sorry to hear about your baby. I recently lost one of my rats to cancer and agonized over the desicion of when to let go. I pm'ed you as well. Good luck to you both.

Thanks for your support.

But how do you check your private messages. I sent some a while ago and I can't check mine, so i don't know if anybody wrote me back. GRRR

Thanks meg

OH NO
Hopefully we don't receive the PM by email cause i had the wrong address email in there. I've updated it. Can u send it again to me.

What an idiot

Thanks

MEg

There is my baby

Look at her front leg on the side. Both of them are like that. she can move them but she doesn't seem to realize that they don't belong there. It seems her brain is telling her it goes like that. We went to the vet today ans she still had fever. The vet said she never seen that before.

They also gave me 3 extra medicine for a total of 6. My poor bunny is going to be high with all those drugs

These are the drugs that the vet gave me:

Meloxicam
Val Syrup
Baytril
Bicillin (Like penicilin)
Propulsid
Reglan

Meg

like shes in a drug induced stupor. Thats alot fo drugs fo rone little rabbit. No wonder she does not think her legs belong to her.
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PHEve/ Eve

Contact PHEve

aww the poor thing! I'm so sorry, that must be so hard!

How's she doing now?

Well she's doing better now.

When we got her back, the vet said she was brain damaged, she just sat in the corner all day. We kept on force feeding etc... 2 days later, when i went to pick her up, she grunted at me (She was always grunting before).

Also before, we would shake her box of treats and she came at us like a bull, nothing could have stopped her. After she got sick we would give her a treat and she just kept it in her mouth and let it drop few seconds later. NOw she's all there, we shake the box of treat and she try to run, and she usually makes it halfway to me by crawling and today she was so exited that she almost bit me, (like before)

She's totally back to herself, but her front legs are still not there. IF I put her legs straight, she'll stand there and then as soon as she tries to move it goes right back on the side. She "crawled" around so much that her back paws rubs against the carpet and started bleeding a little bit the other day. It's really sad to see her not being able to make it to me for the treats.

Hopefully she gets back to normal, i hope her she'll keep on getting better once we stop the medecine. She stills on 6 of them but next week we are stopping. I'm going to see my vet tuesday, i'll check with her if it couldn't be E.Cuniculi. Seems like it could be that, if it is, i got to get my other bunny check

Thanks for your concern

Meg

Glad she's feeling a bit better and slowly getting back to being herself! Hopefully she'll make a full recovery!

Hi Everyone

We went to the vet tonight. She was really impressed with Dédé's improvement, really happy.

She took her off of her meds. (YEAAHH) we'll see how it goes without it, i hope she'll keep on getting better. She gave us creams and other stuffs cause she "crawls" around and it has scabed her chest and back of the rear paws.

This morning i found her in her little box, which is like a cat litter box so the sides are pretty high. The vet told us to do physical therapy on her, so it might get back close to normal. She's doing really good.

For the E.Cuniculi, she said she doesn't think she had that because of the high fever, she's sending blood test of my 2 bunnies as a sample for new ways of testing E.Cuniculi, something like that (but we will also find out if they are positive or negative)

So hopefully in a month she;ll be able to jump on the bed and run everywhere. Her Vet bills total is now $1200.00. OUCH!!! but i do not care at all

So i'll keep u posted

The vet almost had tears of joy in her eyes (Last time she saw her she was like a vegetable, and now she's all there)

Thanks

Aww congrats on her improvement! I hope she continues to improve! That's awesome that she's finally off the meds Hopefully all your other bunnies are just fine. That sucks that the vet bill is so high but she is certaintly worth it! You should take more pictures of her if you can, she's such a cutie and I'd love to see them!

Hi, I just read about your bunny today, I'm glad she is okay. The one thing I noticed though is that the vet was giving her a penicillin based antibiotic, that can kill a bunny. I had my male bunny neutered by an "exotic" vet, he gave me amoxicillin to give him at home. They had given it to him there and that night I forced it into him. He wouldn't eat at all, I tried giving him the med again but couldn't get him to take it, a friend suggested that I stop giving it to him, after 2 days of not eating he finally started again. I looked at different web sites and found out amoxicillin can kill bunnies (and guinea pigs). After a few days he was doing great, I would have been really mad at myself if he would have died because of the meds, because I hadn't checked it out before. Needless to say I have found another more knowledgeable vet that said he never gives bunnies antibiotics after being altered unless there is a problem. I hope this helps others who might read this.