Head tilt

[sakurapompom]

Hi All!

On this morning, my rabbit, named Piew Piew, was all fine, jumping, eating, binking everywhere. However when I checked on him this afternoon I found that his head is tilted. Of course I rushed to the near by VET immediately and managed to secure a booking with a more rabbit savvy VET tomorrow. My questions are

1. Does rabbit just get wry neck out of nowhere?
2. What would be a possible reason for it?
3. What's his chance of recovery?

Piew piew's back ground: He's a 4+ years old male rabbit. He is pretty healthy and is an indoor bunny. I clean his cage once a week and litter box twice a week. He is groomed regularly with fleas spray and treated with anti-parasite drops. I cannot bring myself to believe that he might carry e.cuniculi virus as he lives up to this age and never had any major health issue.

Does anyone here have a success story of treating wry neck that you would like to share. Thanks!

 

[surf_storm]

It might just be an ear infection but there could be meany possible courses for it. You did the right thing getting him to the vet, I hope it all goes well for you and your bun

 

[JBun]

There are several causes of head tilt/wry neck in rabbits. It's possible your bun was running around and hit his head, and that is the cause. Other common causes are ear infection and e. cuniculi. With e. cuniculi, it really doesn't matter how old a rabbit is, it can strike at any time, as the parasite can either lay dormant in the rabbit until it surfaces usually from a stress or trauma in the rabbits life, or it can pick it up from outside sources such as hay, or even just getting tracked in on our feet.

The vet will need to check the ears for an ear infection. They may need to do xrays to rule out spinal/head injury, and it can also help in determining an inner ear infection. And a blood titer may be done to check for e. cuniculi.

For whatever the cause, your rabbit will need to be on an anti inflammatory, usually meloxicam. If head injury is ruled out as the cause, usually both an antibiotic and the antiparasitic fenbendazole, are also prescribed to cover the possibility of ear infection and EC.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/tilt.html