New Bunny

[Keyarnah]

About 2 weeks ago I got a pet rabbit his name is Marshmallow (typical I know hahah). As soon as I picked him up I noticed he had a very small amount of matted furr around his eye, I assumed it must be a bit weepy so I let him settle in for a few days and kept a close eye on it. I cleaned around his eye with warm salty water to release some of the furr. It also seems like he has a lazy back foot but is getting around and moving fine, I have even watched him scratch and clean the foot. I am currently waiting to get paid and then we’re off to the vets but I thought I’d jump in here first. As other than those two things he seems like a very happy rabbit. He’s eating, drinking, having regular bowel movements and they aren’t runny. He’s also running around in circles and jumping around. I’m concerned but I also don’t want to stress him out any more than needed as he seems happy but I’m so lost haha I have tried changing his bedding in case it’s a allergy thing but nothing helped.
He is around 10 weeks, I’ve got him on a mixture of pallets and hay as well as his unlimited hay. Please help me !!

 

[squidpop]

If the eye has a clear watery discharge that could just be a blocked tear duct which usually clears up on its own. But if it is a cloudy discharge that could be an eye infection and the vet will probably give an eyedrop with antibiotics for that.

The lazy foot to me is more of a worry. Lazy foot could be something not so serious like a spine injury or bruise from playing to rough with litter mates— and in that case it could clear on its own. But any kind of paralysis in a bunny could also be a sign of a protazoa parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi (also called e.cuniculi or EC) which is a fairly common thing for rabbits to catch. The e.cuniculi protazoa is transfered through urine and water and lives in the kidneys/bladder —but can sometimes travel through the body and make it to the spine. If it travels, depending on which part of the spine it makes it to—it causes paralysis- sometimes in legs, and sometimes it also causes head tilt.

The cure for e.cuniculi is to give the rabbit fenbendazole/Panacur. So my advice is to give the rabbit the full dose of Panacur encase it has e.cuniculi. Some vets will want to do a test for e.cuniculi first, the test for e.cuniculi only tests to see if there are antibodies in the rabbits blood that show it has been exposed. If your rabbit came from a rabbitry and was exposed to lots of other rabbits in the pet store I think I would just go ahead and start treating with the Panacur/fenbendazole without the test. Panacur is very safe. It can be given to young rabbits. I just got a new rabbit that came from a big rabbitry and the breeder said she escaped for a week and was running free range— and since I have other rabbits I don't want her to spread any parasites to my other rabbits so I am keeping her separate for a month and treating her with Panacur/fenbendazole as a routine precaution.

Here is more information on reasons for paralysis in rabbits— http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/paresis.html
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"......There are many possible reasons a rabbit can lose the use of the back legs, including, but not limited to

• • trauma to the spine, pelvis, or limbs
  • spondylosis/osteoarthritis of the spine or pelvis
  • degenerated, damaged, or ruptured vertebral discs
  • the microsporidian parasite, Encephalitozoon cuniculi
  • bacterial infection
  • the roundworm parasite Baylisascaris procyoni
  • general weakness associated with illness

 

[Keyarnah]

Thanks for getting back to me ! As I live in a small town Rabbits are very scarce to come by as the pet shops don’t sell them because of the lack of breeders. I got him of a friend who had a litter. And there is no colour or Cloudyness to the liquid around the eye so the blocked tear duct sounds right.
I am waiting on the test results from the vet as they just wanted to make sure. His foot really only has a very small limp when he is sniffing around things. I am guessing it could possibly be an injury as he is very active and enjoys jumping on and over things.