posted 10 hours ago
so I just got two young giant-mix bunnies a few weeks ago, they were 45 days old, super healthy, active, great breeder with great stock.
brought them home and it's been about a month. One rabbit had a weird slow side-to-side scan of her head type gaze, which we noticed at first, but they're both albino and a vet friend told me that kind of scanning is not uncommon in light-eyed animals since their vision isn't great. Otherwise they were super active, great eaters, so I didn't worry.
Then one day last week we noticed one bunny had stopped moving her hind legs (the other is totally normal). She's still eating, super active, and even though she's dragging her butt she still tries to escape her quarantine cage and gets around well enough. At this point they're about 2.5 months old (and the little rabbit is just over 1kg already, the normal one is certainly fatter).
I messaged the breeder, who of course said he had never heard of such a thing, and said the bunny must have hurt itself. But it has range of motion and if I support its weight it *can* pull the feet back, so I don't think it's broken its back.
Our vets here don't work with rabbits, so it's not like the dog where I can just bring it to a vet-- there is a wildlife vet (where I took a guinea pig once) but we're talking big money.
There is a parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi that causes renal and neurological symptoms (generally head tilt, but sometimes limb paralysis) and is ubiquitous here, I read that over 80% of tested rabbits in my region have it (although it generally doesn't cause symptoms). Sometimes a month-long course of dewormer can improve things, so I've decided to try it. She also had stinky diarrhea the other day, so I washed her up and am keeping her in a different cage with a floor that's better for her (tiny bars, no chance of her feet getting stuck, she can slide around easily). I switched her to totally dry alfalfa and she's drinking a LOT of water (as opposed to none before- her urine was very milky), so at least excreting wise she seems a bit better.
I figure I'll do this every day (meds and clean off her hind end) for a month and see if she improves. I suppose it could also be something entirely different, maybe just 'one of those things' where there's not much to do. I don't see her being able to live long term with a paralyzed hind end- eventually she will get some sort of sores, I think.
I don't think the prognosis looks too good for her. And the first sign that she's hurting I think I'll put her down. So far though she is just as energetic as the healthy one; I'll reevaluate every day.
I guess I have been lucky so far but I forgot the cardinal rule of animals: when you have livestock you occasionally have deadstock or sick stock. I've focused so much on nutrition and ear infections but didn't consider other options (and there really isn't much to do about this parasite-- it's passed from mother to offspring and it's everywhere). I guess I still have a lot to learn.
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