Help - kit with head tilt

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ozemba

ozemba

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I have a two week old kit with severe head tilt and balance issues. Since they are still in the box it can get away with nestling up next to the wall of the box. None of the other litter mates are acting ill so I'm wondering if it's an injury? Maybe falling out of the box? What can I do to help it?

It's been healthy so far, it's not any smaller or skinnier than it's littermates.

It did not present with the head tilt on Tuesday when I was taking pictures.

Do I just keep an eye on it for the time being?
 
I have a buck I am nursing through a head tilt issue. In his case, one of the complications was being too dizzy to eat.

I imagine that for a kit, where dinner comes hopping on 4 feet rather than sitting in a crock, it could be even harder to be properly fed. I think my vote might be seeing if you can successfully supplement that kit with extra food before they lose body condition (because I feel like keeping weight on a critter is easier than trying to regain lost weight). Maybe just adding some nice oatmeal for the little one might help if s/he can't keep up at mealtime.

I have to say I can't really be more helpful with what else to try; in my case the cause of head tilt seems to be a raging ear infection - my buck is looking happier after a week of antibiotics. But with a young kit, it could be an infection or a congenitial issue or any number of things and I am really not qualified to speculate about what is more likely. Watching and waiting is as good a plan as any. Though if it we're a very critical kit or litter, I would personally presume the cause was infectious just to be safe and might early wean/quarantine/treat the impacted kit as appropriate.
 
I had a kit who had wry neck. She only issues with balance from 2-4 weeks old around 4 weeks she learned how to live with it. She never lost weight and was actually fat. I did cull her at 4 months though, just because she wasn't super freindly and there was no way I would keep or sell her for show or breeding.
 
It's not a critical kit for me, just a broken tort out of a nonpedigreed doe. I really don't want to have to separate it from the litter since they are just two weeks and barely eating solid food... Maybe I can bring it in and offer pellets and some critical care...

-- Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:03 pm --

https://barbibrownsbunnies.com/wryneck/

This had a lot of good info about it and E. cuniculi which I hint this kit got since it is the kit that had the scratch, therefore a stressed immune system on top of the stress of being put outside after being shelved full time for the first week. <br /><br /> -- Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:24 pm -- <br /><br /> Ok. So I want to double check dosage, wabbitwiki lists fenbendazole dosage as 20 mg/kg is this what others have used?
 
two weeks old with a head tilt? I'd be culling that kit and then I'd be putting mom in a strictly "PET HOME" only situation or culling her as well.

Treatment options I can't advise you on.
 
Well.

At 3.5 weeks kit is still not eating or drinking on its own, and mom's milk just isn't enough to sustain it anymore. I've been force feeding blended calf manna and critical care in hopes it would start taking care of itself. I'm wondering now if there isn't more significant damage and it can't learn the basics functions of being a rabbit. I will cull the symptomatic kit. The rest of the litter has been healthy, gaining weight normally and acting like baby rabbits should.

I will treat the whole litter and mom again with fenbendazole soon. I really think this kit just had bad luck from the beginning with that big scratch from mom.

If I get the same issue in the next litter from the same doe I will definitely be looking to pet her out of the herd.
 
Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for posting that treatment link.

After reading it, I figured there was little harm in adding Panacur to my buck's treatment regime (It is considered a pretty safe drug for rabbits) and I had it on hand. It seems to have done him some good! While he responded somewhat to the antibiotics, I started seeing more improvements in his mobility and liveliness after I added the Panacur - there may have been two causes for his illness.

So now he's actually fighting me about taking his medicine, hopping with increased agility, and showing interest in head scratches and the doe caged nearby - which is fantastic. At the worst of it, he had been losing a lb a week and had no energy or appetite for anything, which was incredibly frightening.
 
And really the kits head tilt did get much better! After about 4 days of treatment he was back to pretty much vertical but something else was wrong obviously.
 

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