Hello all. I'm updating here to let you all know about some developments with my Lilly. I'd previously updated .
To keep track of Lilly's meds, I made a calendar and marked off the 28 days she was supposed to take her medicine. I also kept notes on her condition each day, because I read online that if she didn't improve, or if she worsened, in the first two weeks of medication, to contact the vet about changing the medicine.
In the first few days on meds, Lilly seemed to improve. Then she rapidly got worse. Her very slight head tilt became severe, and she couldn't get in and out of her litterbox. Although she kept eating, she ate less food and ate less enthusiastically than normal. She had a small amount of diahhrea one day, but otherwise her poop was pretty normal, for eating less.
Last Friday night, I picked her up to medicate her. I would always pick her up, then sit in a chair with a pillowcase on my lap, and burrito her with the pillowcase. But that time, I picked her up, her head tilted severely, and her body followed. I held onto her, but she would roll if I hadn't. She did this in my lap, too. Her breathing would get strained, her legs would scramble, and she just couldn't right herself. She also now had discharge from both eyes, which she hadn't had at all the week before. I gave her her meds and carefully set her back in her cage.
The way I always set her back was to leave her in the pillowcase til she was on the ground. Then I'd unwrap her, and she'd hop free. Friday, she took a wobbly step forward and rolled, kicked her legs, and flopped. I was able to steady her, and after a moment, she calmed down and could stand on her own, leaning against the side of the cage. I was terrified, thinking she'd had a stroke or something and that I needed to rush her to the emergency vet. But I sat with her for a while, and she had recovered.
With my vet's office hours, I couldn't get an appointment til Monday. I got to see my usual vet this time, who specializes in exotics, specifically bunnies and chins. (I was told that the vet I saw last time also had experience with exotics.) With the calendar list of progressing symptoms, my vet said that this might still be Pasteurella, but with the quick worsening, it's probably e.cuniculi, a parasite.
I was given the option to do a blood test called a titer to see which it is, or to simply treat her for both. However, one of the medications for e.cuniculi, Panacur, has a side effect of sudden death. I do not want to treat Lilly with something that could kill her, and then find out that she never needed that medicine in the first place. They drew blood for the test, but they had to send it out to a lab, and I won't know the results til this coming Monday. Until then, Lilly is now taking Bene-Bac and liquid Baytril, and she's also getting gel artificial tears three times a day to help her bulging and squinting eyes.
I'm so mad at the first vet I saw, because she never told me there were other things that caused head tilt. If she'd told me on the 3rd when she saw Lilly, I would have done the test then, and we'd know by now what to treat. I think she was distracted by Lilly's sniffle, even though I TOLD her that Lilly has allergies. She's been treated for that sniffle before, and it's an allergy. She never had any discharge, eye or nose, until AFTER being on meds for her supposed Pasteurella infection. (I'm not saying they caused the discharge, only emphasizing it didn't appear before now.) And it offends me if that's why she told me it was Pasteurella, because I know my own bunny. I know if she has discharge.
It's so frustrating, because I drive 40 minutes away to go to my bunny vet. My dog's vet is 15 minutes away, and they have what they call a bunny vet, but he is stupid. He looked for testes on my neutered lop, Cinnamon, who I had before Lilly. So I drive farther, with these gas prices, I pay a higher appointment fee, last Friday I had to pay an emergency fee, and I end up paying MORE, because they couldn't tell me the first time to do this test.
Lilly now dreads me picking her up, because it's always to shove things down her throat. She eats her Bene-Bac off her pellets, and I can put her eye gel in while she's in her cage. I hate picking her up and making her so obviously uncomfortable, so I don't unless I have to. I have found, however, that if I burrito her in the cage, hold her very securely, and just let her head tilt, she's ok. As long as I keep her legs still, her body doesn't follow her head.
So. Has anyone had a bunny with e.cuniculi?