Broken back?

[hoodat]

One of my recent litters (4 weeks old) was dragging its hind legs behind it the other morning. I assumed mama had accidentally jumped on it and broken its back. It seemed in perfect health in every other way except for the paralyzed hind quarters. OK, one of the hazards of rabbit raising but now the confusing part. When you shoot a rabbit it will, of course kick even after it is brain dead and in this case the hind legs kicked along with the front ones. What the heck? How can a rabbits legs be paralyzed when it is alive and kick after death?

 

[squidpop]

Maybe it wasn't completely paralyzed- but if it was dragging its back legs its probably a good thing it was culled- poor bunny

 

[HareyHounds]

Are you sure it was an injury and not something like splay leg? When mine first splayed, it happened literally overnight (at roughly 2 weeks of age) with no sign beforehand that anything was wrong. Worse still, the legs did seem paralyzed and he appeared to be soiling himself. Almost culled and then decided to give him a shot (on the understanding that he had until 8 weeks and then he'd be culled if there was no serious improvement).
In his case, he does also have a bit of a twist to his back (from how he drags) so to someone who didn't know better, a broken back would be the first suspicion.

 

[ottersatin]

It is not the brain ,
it is just nerves forcing the leg movement.
You did the right thing by putting the poor thing
out of it's misery!
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Dood]

:yeahthat: kicking out from shock is an involuntary movement while walking in a certain direction is voluntary.

The nerves causing the muscle twitching were reacting to fight or flight hormones and not from any brain or spinal signal.

It was a hard choice but the right one, sorry you lost the little guy.

 

[Bad Habit]

It could be that the back(and thus nerves) were not actually broken, but bruised and swollen. That would allow the nerves to fire still after death, even though the signals from the brain weren't making it down.

I think you did the right thing for the little one, though.