Head Tilt: Causes and Treatment

[VNess2010]

I know, thanks for your input, Gabby!As I said, though, I have a 24 hour vet less than 15 minutes from myhouse! But it just worries me so much because I have readcountless stories on this forum of people who claim their rabbits are100% healthy one day and so sick the next....

but since I'm out of school right now and still looking for a job, theonly thing I do all day is obsess over Cosmo, I'm constantly cleaninghis cage and adjusting things that he messes up, so I've got a good eyeover him...the first sign of anything, and I'll be at the vets in ajiffy!!

-Vanessa

 

[Gabby]

VNess2010 wrote:

I know, thanks for your input, Gabby! As I said,though, I have a 24 hour vet less than 15 minutes from myhouse! But it just worries me so much because I have readcountless stories on this forum of people who claim their rabbits are100% healthy one day and so sick the next....

but since I'm out of school right now and still looking for a job, theonly thing I do all day is obsess over Cosmo, I'm constantly cleaninghis cage and adjusting things that he messes up, so I've got a good eyeover him...the first sign of anything, and I'll be at the vets in ajiffy!!

-Vanessa

another question it ask, is if your 24 hr vet has someone on who israbbit savvy all 24 hours. we have a place an hour from herethat is 24 however there isn't a rabbit person on at all times. And ina case where your rabbit would or may needemergency care you want the vet working to know what to do.. becausebeing treated by a non rabbit vet can be worse than notseeing the vet at all. And they wont always tell you.. Somealso will take them in not understand the situation and let the rabbitsit till morning when a rabbit vet is availble..

just a few things to prepare for in advance and hopefully you never need to use it.

 

[Carolyn]

Bumping this to see if our newer members have anything to add or if anyone has learned of any new news on this subject.

onder:

-Carolyn

 

[bunnydude]

I think that the 2005 Rabbits USA magazine has an article on it.

 

[littled]

thanks for sharing this informative thread... ihave had 3 buns' in my lifetime and until this thread was ratherunfamiliar with this disease... my only question that i don'tbelieve has been covered is if it affects bun's at a certain age? orcan come about at any point in their lifetime depending on thecircumstances?...

 

[BlueGiants]

My daughter had a little dutch buck thatdeveloped head tilt after having his ear tattooed. It wasimmediately after the tattoo, (no jumping or thrashing, nonoise, he sat perfectly still!) When we were done, he slowly rotatedhis head to about 3:00 and stayed that way. We triedeverything. The vet felt it was trauma induced. Wedid the anti-inflamatories. (Nothing cultured uppositive!) But nothing worked. He was like that forover 8 months, and then he passed away from unknown causes (vetautopsied him and found NOTHING! Still don't understand it.

 

[littled]

forgive my misunderstanding- but why would you have the bun's ear tatooed- are you a breeder?...

 

[BlueGiants]

Yes, We breed and show. In order toshow a rabbit at an ARBA show, the rabbit has to have an identifyingpermanent tattoo in it's left ear. Imagine 14 white FlemishGiant bucks on the table in front of a judge... how would you be sureyou got your rabbit back? They alllook thesame. But that isn't the only reason I tattoo. Ithelps me keep track of every rabbit I breed and sell. I knowwhere almost every rabbit I have bred and raised is or was.Several years ago, one of my Flemish wound up in a dog pound in NewJersey. Thankfully, a fellow breeder recognized my tattooinitials and I was able to get the rabbit back. It alsoindicates to someone that there is usually a pedigree behind theanimal, indicating purebred. And I always take back anyrabbit I've sold/adopted for any reason. The tattoo indicatesit's of my breeding.

The reason I mentioned it, is because when trauma was listed as a causeof tilt head, this was our first experience with it in all the years wehave been keeping rabbits. 99+% of the bunny's handle thetattooing with no problem. We try very hard to keep it asquick and painless as possible.

 

[littled]

ahh got'ch'ya- thanks for explaining- i can't believe the dogpound in nj part! :shock:
btw- that pic of you and and one of your giants is adorable!!!!

 

[Carolyn]

BlueGiants wrote:

My daughter had a little dutch buck that developed head tiltafter having his ear tattooed. It was immediately after thetattoo, (no jumping or thrashing, no noise, he sat perfectlystill!) When we were done, he slowly rotated his head to about 3:00 andstayed that way. We tried everything. The vet feltit was trauma induced. We did theanti-inflamatories. (Nothing cultured up positive!)But nothing worked. He was like that for over 8 months, andthen he passed away from unknown causes (vet autopsied him and foundNOTHING! Still don't understand it.

What a horrible story. I'm so sorry! Your daughter must have been heartbroken.

I'm so sorry, BlueGiants. :sad:

-Carolyn

 

[BlueGiants]

Thanks Carolyn. You are verykind. My daughter was very upset. She is 12 andinvolved in 4-H and has tried so hard to do her own breeding andselecting. This was her "pick buck" from the litter(BlackJack). It's so hard for the kids (OK, metoo!) it doesn't matter how many we have... when you lose onefor a dumb thing like this. We do have a great bunny vet,that takes a lot of time with my daughter when she brings in one of herbunnies. And that made it so much easier to have the vetthere to explain everything ('cause she wasn't going to listen tome! I hope she won't blame me for the rest of herlife!) But thanks for the thread and letting me put my 2cents in...

 

[Carolyn]

Will have to ask Rick Stahl what his take onhead tilt treatments. I vaguely remember Buck saying that hehad success with one of his rabbits or one that he knew of withIvermectin, but I could be wrong.

How could my heart not go out to the bunny and your daughter when that happened to your little one.

-Carolyn

 

[BlueGiants]

One of the Flemish breeders, Barbi Brown, hashad some successtreating wry-neck caused by EC, withIvermectin. Her website gives some details that are veryinformative. This is the page on Wry-neck:http://www.barbibrownsbunnies.com/ecuniculi.htm

I passed it on to my vet (and no, at the time, we didn't try it with mydaughter's buck because the onset was different). Barbi hasseen a lot of it and tried varies treatments. And has a greatdeal of success with a single steroid treatment and the Ivermec, basedon the theory that the E.Cuniculi is carried to the brain via aparasite that the Ivermec stops. It's something to keep inmind.

 

[Lazyacre]

Several years ago an ARBA judge/rabbitbreeder/vet, in Maryland, Wendy Feaga observed that a majority of theWry Neck cases she was seeing were due to the cerebral edema caused bymigration of E cuniculi to the rabbit's brain.This wascontrary to the long held belief that Wry Neck was due to a middle orinner ear infection. In 1979 I took a Netherland Dwarf to my vet fortreatment of severe Wry Neck and was given Amoxicillin drops for it.The rabbit was dead two days later. Wendy was prescribing steroids tocounteract the edema, allowing the rabbit's immune system to deal withthe E cunicul infestation. E cuniculi, like Coccidia, are normalparasites in rabbits, at low levels. When a rabbit's sick or it'simmune system is otherwise depressed the parasites can increase innumber and cause problems. Use of Ivermectin can reduce the levels of Ecuniculi but the torticollis (head tilt) will persist until thecerebral edema is alleviated. Steroids such as prednisolone, predisoneand decadron are useful. I believe Wendy prescribed prednisolone at 5mg/kg but can't find her article to check. I have had success giving1%Ivermectin at 400 mcg/kg SubQ weekly until the headstraightens up. I'm currently working on a 3 month old Thrianta buckwith a slight tilt, giving the 2# rabbit 0.1cc SubQ.

 

[Carolyn]

Very interesting, Rick and BlueGiants. Thank you for sharing that.

Rick, please keep us posted on how your little one does that has theslight tilt. Will keep her in my prayers. I hope itworks!!

-Carolyn

 

[Gabby]

Lazyacre wrote:

In 1979 I took a Netherland Dwarf to my vet fortreatment of severe Wry Neck and was given Amoxicillin drops for it.The rabbit was dead two days later.

well of course the rabbitdied, as a single dose of amoxi can and often does kill a rabbit nevermind repeted dose after dose.. course not sure what was known aboutantibiotic use in 79, but things have come futher on since.

 

[Lazyacre]

It may be "of course" to you now, it wasn'tthen, or even 10 years later. The wide spread ignorance among vetsconcerning rabbits and their medical needs prompted my 26 year quest tomake sure my rabbits receive better care. Even while studying for myBSN I was studying everything I could glean on rabbits' needs, whichwas real scarce in those pre-internet days. But I do have a room fullof rabbit health related books now.Now that I've retiredfromcaring forhuman patients most of my attentionis on caring for my rabbits.

 

[Carolyn]

Lazyacre wrote:

It may be "of course" to you now, it wasn't then, or even 10years later. The wide spread ignorance among vets concerning rabbitsand their medical needs prompted my 26 year quest to make sure myrabbits receive better care. Even while studying for my BSN I wasstudying everything I could glean on rabbits' needs, which was realscarce in those pre-internet days. But I do have a room full of rabbithealth related books now.Now that I've retiredfromcaring forhuman patients most of my attentionis on caring for my rabbits.

Thank God youandothers didn't giveup.We wouldn't be where we are today without thestruggles and lessons of the past. I look forward to hearingnews that the one rabbit with the slight tilt straightensup.

Can't thank you enough for sharing what you know and taking the time toteach us. You have taught me a tremendous amount ofinformation about the care and biology of my charges.

Respectfully,
-Carolyn

 

[Gabby]

there was still alot of stupidy in even treatingdogs in the 70's. And I grew up in an area where the nearests vet wasnot to be trusted, you only saw him for vaccines and then generally youtried to go to the clinic they set up at the local fire station so youcould get it cheaper..

we've more or less had rabbits in our family since about 1957..give ortake a couple years, course i wasn't born till the 70's but Ido recall finding info on rabbit health was extreamly hard and limited..

there will always be things for us to grow and learn on, and i don'tthink we will ever have all the answers.. but I am glad that more of aneffort is being made now to study animal health, and not justthe most popular ones either.

 

Lazyacre wrote:

Several years ago an ARBA judge/rabbit breeder/vet, inMaryland, Wendy Feaga observed that a majority of the Wry Neck casesshe was seeing were due to the cerebral edema caused by migration of Ecuniculi to the rabbit's brain.This was contrary to the longheld belief that Wry Neck was due to a middle or inner ear infection.In 1979 I took a Netherland Dwarf to my vet for treatment of severe WryNeck and was given Amoxicillin drops for it. The rabbit was dead twodays later. Wendy was prescribing steroids to counteract the edema,allowing the rabbit's immune system to deal with the E cuniculinfestation. E cuniculi, like Coccidia, are normal parasites inrabbits, at low levels. When a rabbit's sick or it's immune system isotherwise depressed the parasites can increase in number and causeproblems. Use of Ivermectin can reduce the levels of E cuniculi but thetorticollis (head tilt) will persist until the cerebral edema isalleviated. Steroids such as prednisolone, predisone and decadron areuseful. I believe Wendy prescribed prednisolone at 5 mg/kg but can'tfind her article to check. I have had success giving1%Ivermectin at 400 mcg/kg SubQ weekly until the headstraightens up. I'm currently working on a 3 month old Thrianta buckwith a slight tilt, giving the 2# rabbit 0.1ccSubQ.

This is very veryinteresting , I wouldnt havegiven A Stroke athought to be connected withHead Tilt. I have to askastupid question , I realize theparasites will invade as soonasthe system is weakened, but with all theproblems with the Ivermectrin of late, what is the benifit/ down side of using it . Canit create more problems than itcan fix , Canit make the HeadTilt worse or is italways a sucess ?