Buck Lop Eared had Stroke or Head Tilt

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GreenAcresHomestead

GreenAcresHomestead

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We have a male lop eared rabbit that's the father of many of our rabbits. Poor guy he lost his doe mate this past summer we think to heat stroke. He was left with their 4 kits back then.
A few days ago I was making my morning routine rounds and found Brownie on his side looking off so I knew something was wrong when I went to pick him up and he wanted to just move on his left side. We brought him in for that day and night to watch him then the next day he seemed a little better laying more sitting right like he should. Then later today right back to his side and his left eye has rolled back in and I just see the white. I put some eye drops in now and then to kept it moist while this is going on. I did get him to eat a little feed earlier today after I got a few droppers of water down him to keep him hydrated. When I had first found him in this state a few days ago he was also breathing hard fast and loud but now he is calmed his breathing down to slower and calmer but steady it and kind of fast a little bit. He's a super good boy he lets me hold him and just call him and and he just lays in my arms and I just hold him or lay on the floor with him and just pet him. We raise rabbits for meat and we did lose a few rabbits to the Texas heat this past summer and it always hurts when we lose our mating rabbits. This poor guy is our closet out of all of them to being a pet. I guess I am just wondering if anyone has had any luck with a rabbit recovering. I feel trouble when I have to put down an animal and it wasn't for feeding my family. We are seniors living on a limited income so going to a vet is out of our income which has us depressed that our hands are tied unless someone knows of something that can help him survive. We have only been raising rabbits now for 2 years so stroke and head tilt is something we are new to.
 
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After I made the post around 2am I checked on him and I took a syringe and he drink a lot of water he was very thirsty. Then I put some romaine lettuce under his nose and he went to eat and he ate about three handfuls out of my hand. Then he ate some of his feet out of my hand. So I gave him more water. I comforted him some more and put drops in his eyes and let him sleep. This morning he was a little more responsive little more active and way more hungrier and thirstier. So we pray he he's going to get better. Till then we're going to keep an eye on him keep him in the house and keep treating my hand and loving him.
 
Human stuff works. Baby/child version for dose and liquid would be easier to get in via mix with the water. Check though what the label says on additives (sweetners and such) and vegan suitable (rabbits being herbivores)
 
GreenAcresHomestead said:
After I made the post around 2am I checked on him and I took a syringe and he drink a lot of water he was very thirsty. Then I put some romaine lettuce under his nose and he went to eat and he ate about three handfuls out of my hand. Then he ate some of his feet out of my hand. So I gave him more water. I comforted him some more and put drops in his eyes and let him sleep. This morning he was a little more responsive little more active and way more hungrier and thirstier. So we pray he he's going to get better. Till then we're going to keep an eye on him keep him in the house and keep treating my hand and loving him.
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** Update ** I have been giving him water with a syringe. But tonight due to he is showing signs of improvement today I thought I would try holding him and putting a small dish under his mouth to see if he would drink and he did. So now I am able to get him to let me hold him where he is calm and kept him from twisting and then he will eat almost a whole carrot, a bush of greens, small of his rabbit feed and water. I have been massaging his muscles and working his legs to give him exercises to try to help.IMG_20230201_194754659.jpg
 
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Oh bless you for all your efforts to see him through this. There are more than one things that can cause head tilt. E. Cuniculi is most common. You can find vitamin B-12 sub-lingual (under the tongue) in a lot of pharmacies. Since it is a liquid it is fairly easy to give to a bunny. Make sure he is upright so it doesn't go into his nose.
My first thought was head tilt... various causes but E. Cuniculi is one. But he should have gotten worse, trying to totally wrench his head upside down if that was the case. Not sure but it did get my attention. If it was a stroke from heat or ? his getting slightly better makes sense.
You are at this point that is very difficult... if he can get better... will he still be able to be a herd sire?
A pet (and I have loved one till he finally made his end of life on his own at 9 years, so I do understand) anyhoo a pet can pull through and have a happy fun life. A herd sire? that is a different criteria. I did choose to keep a beloved buck through his life. And have another sweet one at 8 years that I expect to go one of these days. But you can't do this for every rabbit you have. Not if you are breeding for meat.
This is one of the hard parts of having rabbits. And I keep saying Rabbits are Hard!

You may have to let him go. Hard, very hard stuff. Part and parcel of being a breeder.
 
dizzybumblebee said:
Oh bless you for all your efforts to see him through this. There are more than one things that can cause head tilt. E. Cuniculi is most common. You can find vitamin B-12 sub-lingual (under the tongue) in a lot of pharmacies. Since it is a liquid it is fairly easy to give to a bunny. Make sure he is upright so it doesn't go into his nose.
My first thought was head tilt... various causes but E. Cuniculi is one. But he should have gotten worse, trying to totally wrench his head upside down if that was the case. Not sure but it did get my attention. If it was a stroke from heat or ? his getting slightly better makes sense.
You are at this point that is very difficult... if he can get better... will he still be able to be a herd sire?
A pet (and I have loved one till he finally made his end of life on his own at 9 years, so I do understand) anyhoo a pet can pull through and have a happy fun life. A herd sire? that is a different criteria. I did choose to keep a beloved buck through his life. And have another sweet one at 8 years that I expect to go one of these days. But you can't do this for every rabbit you have. Not if you are breeding for meat.
This is one of the hard parts of having rabbits. And I keep saying Rabbits are Hard!

You may have to let him go. Hard, very hard stuff. Part and parcel of being a breeder.
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We at first thought it was a stroke because of the symptoms but then it's not hot out and we ruled that out when we started reading about head tilt and it made more sense that it could be head tilt. When I say he's getting better it's things like his breathing where it first it was super fast and sporadic and now is calm and it first he didn't want to do anything I had to feed him water with a dropper or a syringe. Now he lets me hold him in my arms and I put a little dish up under his mouth just enough where he realizes his water under his mouth and he drinks water then like last night peed all over me. Lol plus he will once he smells what's under his nose he'll eat it like carrots he loves or greens like romaine lettuce or something like that. We have him right now in our personal bathroom in our bedroom on the floor where we can keep an eye on him and hear him and nothing's in his way because he doesn't have use of one whole side and his eye is closed he rolls he wants to hop by rolling to the right side hopping rolling sort of that makes sense. His head is still tilted to one side but it's not as hard of a tilt as it was. My wife had been reading and did see that some animal or some rabbits May survive or may not some rabbits next may never come back straight and may always be tilted. I saw where one lady her survived and it was blind she got it from a zoo. We we also raise quail and we have one special Quail out of our flock that we never will put down and he is the only one out of all of our quail that we know by name and his name is crooked neck because he was born when we hatched him with a very bad crooked neck and he would get build up from feed and poop on his eye and one side of his face and I would have to clean him and get it off of his feathers to see if he could survive and give him a life because I just didn't want to put him down I feel sorry for him. So we kept him in a special cage for a long time then crooked neck grew tall enough to where his face wouldn't drag the floor and he could walk normal so I put him in a special cage with some other quail that I was taking care of before I put them in with the main cage with all of our other quail. Then finally crooked neck was able to go into our large walk in quill pin with all the females. Now crooked neck is one of the only males in that pen with all those females. And he's loving it. So anyway I'm in my 60s now retired and not the same as I used to be in my young age and I seem to just add more compassion for life than I used to and yes we raise our animals quail rabbits chickens ducks etc for meat etc. But it sure has gotten hard in my old age to put them down. We lost a doe this past summer that was special to us right after she gave birth to four beautiful kits and that was a new experience for us to try to hand raise them and we wasn't prepared so we didn't have it well we needed to give them that that they needed to get a Kickstart in life being how they didn't have the mother's milk. So after a week of hand feeding them with a dropper three times a day by day five they started passing away one by one and by day five the poor little eyes were opening and they could see me. I was so sad I tried to save their lives all four of them. Then two days later another doe had four babies but lost one so now we have those three that are doing good with their mama. Anyway sorry I got long. We're praying that he will be able to get back to where he can hop if only going to be able to just roll then I'll have to put him down and that's going to be very super hard but I really love this rabbit. His fur is so beautiful as you can see in the picture he sheds none. And he just lets me hold him and love on him. So he's a good pet animal compared to the other ones were a little bit more skittish. I have a rooster that's like that he lets me pick him up then I have two geese that are like that they're bonded to me.
 
Sapphire16 said:
bless you, I pray he gets better.
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Thank you,
🙏
 
* Update as of Feb 6th *
We are still fighting to save poor little Brownie life. He is still in our bedroom bathroom sleeping on the floor so we can be close and hear him and know he is safe during this. About his first two or three days due to this illness and how he can't sit up, his neck is turned to the right and his left eye is closed from infection and he had white mucus a few times come out his nose. When this first started the first day his breathing was very bad and loud. Those two or three days it seemed as if when he got startled he would throw himself into a spin in the air on his side to the left. As if that was his way is trying to hop but this was on his side. He is still not trying to use his front legs or his back legs to move around. He does look at me with his right eye and blank though his that eye is weak. I do have a pint size bottle like their water bottles on their cage that I hold and he realizes it's by him and he will drink while I hold it to him. So he drinks a lot of water. He loves to eat carrots, romaine lettuce and I get him to eat some of his rabbit feed and hay but not as much as I would like him to eat. But the main thing to us is that he's getting food. But we can tell he has lost a lot of weight. His breathing is totally back to normal he is totally calm. When I hold him and his legs hanging straight down he doesn't try to kick it all. He acts like he knows that we are trying to get him healed and take care of him. So he lays there like a little baby and just lets us do whatever we have to do. He gets a lot of rest and sleeps a lot but I go in there and still give him water every few hours or so. Our biggest concern is we are praying that we're not fighting a losing battle. I don't want to dispatch him and then only to have put him down and not have known that maybe he could have been better tomorrow and I had not known that. So this is hard not knowing to keep fighting or to put the poor guy down. He's such a wonderful little rabbit.
 
Well we are sad to report that poor Brownie had to be put down this afternoon. We tried for right at 3 weeks and prayed the little guy would make it but he just couldn't seem to get on his feet and feed himself. I had to feed him every several hours by hand. Then if he urinated he sometimes couldn't get away from it and get soaked. He really was a fighter and came a long way but had to far to go to survive. So with my wife having surgery this Friday to have the two wires to her pacemaker / defibrillator ICD replaced we decided it was time. So his suffering is over we will miss him. Thank you to everyone for you comments and help in trying to save his life.
 

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