Rabbit having either seizures or nightmares!!!

[Tony Max Nance]

We have a 2+ yo male half Rex/half wild rabbit. For the second time/two days in a row he has woken up from sleep thrashing about and kind of writhering. It has "passed" after about 2 mins. both times and he's NOT postictal, (in other words, he's not groggy, confused or "out of it"). After a few minutes he seems fine; breathing regularly, responsive, eating a bit, coming when called and responding to touch. The OTHER rabbit, (his sister), is "unaffected", so we doubt if it's any kind of semi-poisoning, etc. Could it be a NIGHTMARE or some sleep problem? If it's a tumor, we can't figure out WHY it doesn't happen at night too?? Someone suggested it might be an ear infection. (NOTE: it has ONLY happened mid-day/early afternoon; at night both nights he did NOT have any such attack!!).
HELP!!!!!

 

[Blue eyes]

I'll leave the medical advice on this one to Jenny (our health moderator). I just wanted to point out that domestic rabbits in the US are unable to successfully breed (produce offspring) with our "wild" rabbits. Domestic rabbits are European and have 22 chromosome pairs while cottontails have 21 pairs.

There are, however, domestic rabbits that 'appear' similar to our cottontails. The brownish one in my avatar is an example.

Hopefully Jenny will soon see your question and offer some possible options to help solve the issue.

 

[JBun]

It does sound like a seizure. You can look at the video in the link below to compare, though there are different types of seizures and it may not be the type of seizure your rabbit is experiencing. Does your rabbit happen to be white with blue eyes? The reason it is happening during the day and not at night could be something like photosensitive seizures triggered by light or patterns. Or it could be audiogenic seizures triggered by sound. Stress, excitement, even being petted can also be triggers. So there are things that typically occur during the day and not at night, that could be triggering them.

There are lots of possible causes of seizures in rabbits. Tumor, infections/abscess, genetics(blue eyed white rabbits), head trauma, and heat stroke are common causes. If anyone in your house has cold sores, that can also be a cause(herpes simplex virus), as can toxoplasmosis from cat feces. But the most common cause is a protozoal/fungal parasite called e. cuniculi(encephalitozoonosis). It's a pretty common parasite for rabbits to be carriers of, and it's spores can end up in a rabbits brain/cns and cause a variety of symptoms. Head tilt is the most common, but seizures are also a common symptom.

I would suggest taking your bun to be seen by an experienced rabbit vet right away. Seizure meds can be given if the seizures are more severe. The vet is also likely to prescribe an anti inflammatory, possibly an antibiotic like baytril to cover the possibility of an infection, and fenbendazole(safeguard or panacur) to treat the possibility of e. cuniculi. The vet may want to do a blood titer to test for EC and a blood panel to check for infection and liver/kidney function.
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/

Here's some info on seizures in rabbits.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/seizure.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Metabolic/Seizures_en.pdf
http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Miscellaneous/Epilepsy_Bears.htm