Possible paralysis, any suggestion welcome!

[Mini Lop Mama]

I have a older buck who was spooked by my puppy yesterday evening. They are generally quite used to the dogs, but something set them off, and my older buck ran head first into the cage wall. He's in a 8 x 8 with two other young bucks.
He can move his back feet some, and his front, but for the most part he lies on his side, unable to do anything. He shows no sign of pain, he watches me with moving eyes, and I've been syringing him food.
Is there a certain way I can tell if he's paralyzed?
He eats everything I syringe him very well, very active in that aspect. He can't hold himself up, and will fall over.
Any suggestions? He's such a sweet old man, and the whole accident is so unfortunate. He's quite determental to my breeding stock.
I'm good culling him if I must. I'm thinking of giving it a week before I come to a decision and see if there is any improvement.
But suggestions would be great. Tia.

 

[Cindy in SD]

It really does sound like you're right. I suppose you might try to treat the inflammation. Willow bark may take that down a bit, since it's high in natural salicilates (the active factor in aspirin). You could make a tea of it and feed him that. Some cayenne in the tea (to improve circulation and thus oxygenate his tissues) may help.

I'm not an expert on rabbits, but from your description, it sounds like he's had some nerve damage due to his injury, and nerves are notoriously slow to heal, if at all. TBH, I would cull him if he were mine, to minimize his suffering. He might be okay for a little while, but he's going to be having trouble with elimination if this goes on much longer, and that will lead to all sorts of other issues. That said, you have to do what you believe to be best for your old friend, in your own timing.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I still don't know exactly what happened to them, but three of my rabbits from my starting litters would randomly be paralyzed and couldn't move. We'd set them up in a travel cage propped up with folded/rolled towels, pellets laid in front of them and a water bottle near their mouth and they would drink from a syringe if we offered it to them. They were completely fine after a few days

 

[Bunnies4me]

I've just had a buck that I thought was paralyzed at first, found out later he was just in shock, but he was definitely more dead than alive. I sort of thought it was hypothermia and treated it as such. Took him to the vet yesterday as he's my only unrelated buck I have, turns out it was nerve damage. Today was the first time I let him out of my sight during the day, and tomorrow it will be a week since I found him curled up to die in his cage. He had gone cold and I surrounded him with hot packs, sounds like your buck isn't in such bad shape so he stands a better chance of pulling through. My buck is almost back to himself, except still a bit weak when he hops around outside in the grass - it's almost like he's had to learn to walk again. I thought many times that I would have to put him down, which I did not want to do as he's my original and only unrelated buck, so thankful that he's come back to being himself. Rabbits are creatures of prey, and if they think something is so terrible they will just curl up to die, often when it's actually something that a human would say 'I'll be right in a few weeks'. Obviously I brought him in, it's human love and he knew that we cared for him - he decided he could live and turned the corner about 3.30 am. Bring your buck inside and care for him, and he'll likely come around if he's assured you're there for him. Here's how I treated my stud buck:
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/sick-rabbit-help.35908/post-356193Do what you think is best, but give him a good chance. I found the Electrolyte drink was the magic answer for my buck, seemed to really get him going.
The worst that happens is that you will nurse him and he will still die on you, or else you nurse him to find that he actually IS paralyzed, and is unable to feel his feet, in which case he'll probably need to be put down....but usually this would have another internal injury that would also cause a huge amount of pain (such as some internal bleeding or a broken bone that is causing internal bleeding or damage, and this would be painful).

 

[Mini Lop Mama]

I ended up culling this morning. It's hard, but it's my responsibility. Thanks for the help, friends.

 

[CedarRidge]

We had a nursing doe go lame in her back end. Had feeling but could not support herself. Vet put her on meloxicam for 10 days. It eased her pain and allowed us to at least clean her and try some therapy. But, once the meds ran out, she wouldn't tolerate us working with her legs. Biggest issue was keeping her hind end clean and dry from the urine that would soak into her fur. After the 10 days we couldn't keep it from scalding her, no matter what we tried. So. We had to make the tough choice. We were daily encouraged, as she ate, drank, and eliminated well, even pulling herself around the cage on her front legs to eat and meet us. But we couldn't keep her on antiinflammatories forever, and even if we could, the urine issue was insurmountable.

 

[CedarRidge]

Just saw your post. So sorry. I know it hurts.

 

[Mini Lop Mama]

Just saw your post. So sorry. I know it hurts.

Thank you

 

[Cindy in SD]

I still don't know exactly what happened to them, but three of my rabbits from my starting litters would randomly be paralyzed and couldn't move. We'd set them up in a travel cage propped up with folded/rolled towels, pellets laid in front of them and a water bottle near their mouth and they would drink from a syringe if we offered it to them. They were completely fine after a few days

I'm thinking that breeding any of the bunnies in these litters or their parents is likely a bad idea. But I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I'm thinking that breeding any of the bunnies in these litters or their parents is likely a bad idea. But I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that.

One of them was a Buck that never got bred anyway, and one of the others is the mother of the two
Out of all their descendents, surprisingly none of them have had any problems like that