Head tilt?

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Haru the Lionhead

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
450
Reaction score
73
Location
Middle east
Hello guys, is there an early sign of head tilts or does it just happen suddenly?
Haru has been with me for a year now, and ever since I got her, her left ear is a bit to the left as you can see in my profile picture, a vet told me that she could be half lop, other vet told me that she has a nerve problem, I thought that it might be a body language thing, because sometimes it goes back up, it didn’t seem to bother her so I didn’t do anything about it.
Two months ago she got fur mites, the vet gave her doramectin, after two weeks when I took her for the second dose, he told me that the mites was still there, he gave her the second dose and sprayed her with ivermectin spray, I decided to not take her for a third dose because she gets very stressed and stops eating and everything.
After that I noticed that she’s also itching her ear so i put olive oil for three days, and she stopped itching.
After two weeks she started itching again, i applied revolution on her neck but I haven’t seen any improvements.
After that I took her to the groomer and he hurt her above her tail and she got stitches, she’s waring a scarf on her back so she doesn’t eat the stitches, she’s been over grooming/itching due to stress from the scarf and us chasing her around to watch her closely.
I noticed that when she sleeps, her head tilts to the left (witch is the side of the flopped-ish ear) it’s always the left side, and her eye starts flickering
I’m sorry for the long post, but when I looked head tilts up, it says that it could be from ear mites, and it also says that the eyes would flicker
My question is, could it be an early sign that her head is tilting when she sleeps and when it gets worse it wouldn't go back even when she gets up?
 
Head tilt/leaning while sleeping can be a normal behavior for rabbits-- Like humans, things get relaxed when asleep, so that can naturally lead to leaning the head one direction or the other. It is possible that simply because that one ear is leaning over, gravity always leads to her leaning that direction. Eyes "flickering", if you are referring to perhaps blinking or moving around, can also be a normal behavior in sleeping rabbits. I personally would focus more on what you are observing when she's awake.

It sounds like there is an issue considering she is itching and you are not seeing improvements. I would recommend going to a rabbit-experienced (exotic) vet and having it assessed. While it is a stressful experience for her, it is important to thoroughly treat medical issues so they do not get worse and cause more significant distress/damage. A rabbit's head tilting can be a symptom of an ear infection, and in some cases, yes, can be a permanent consequence, but not always.

Has your rabbit's ear canal specifically been looked at and assessed for any sort of infection recently?
 
Eyes flickering while sleeping is probably from bunny dreams, and a drooping head from being relaxed. The ear lopping to the side on occasion, just means she doesn't have as good ear control with that ear. And that usually has to do with the shape of the crown(top of head).

Are you sure you're not over thinking the itching? Your rabbit has been on all the mite medications, so if your rabbit actually had mites then it would be cleared up now. Rabbits will scratch, their bodies and their ears, occasionally throughout the day. That's normal. They get wax in their ears that they use their hind feet to scratch at and help remove the ear wax. It's when the scratching is happening a lot throughout the day and/or you also see signs of fur loss, dandruff, lesions, and or crusting on the skin, that would indicate there's a problem.
 
Eyes flickering while sleeping is probably from bunny dreams, and a drooping head from being relaxed. The ear lopping to the side on occasion, just means she doesn't have as good ear control with that ear. And that usually has to do with the shape of the crown(top of head).

Are you sure you're not over thinking the itching? Your rabbit has been on all the mite medications, so if your rabbit actually had mites then it would be cleared up now. Rabbits will scratch, their bodies and their ears, occasionally throughout the day. That's normal. They get wax in their ears that they use their hind feet to scratch at and help remove the ear wax. It's when the scratching is happening a lot throughout the day and/or you also see signs of fur loss, dandruff, lesions, and or crusting on the skin, that would indicate there's a problem.
Yes! She itches nonstop, and there are a little bit of flakes, also the bald spot is still there
I’ll try to fix it after her stitches heal since this is the bigger problem now that she chewed open her stitches twice
After two weeks it will be a month since I gave her the revolution, so I will give her a second dose
 

Latest posts

Back
Top