Slightly Tilt Head and Nystagmus Eyes

[Maureen Las]

Sorry we posted at the same time. I forget that we are in another time zone.

 

[the fluffies]

I gave him water thru syringe feed about 30-50ml yestesday and make him munch on coriancer and mints. But i dont dare to give him more water before he is urinating again, i am afraid i impacting the bladder.

 

[Kipcha]

If possible, I would get him to a vet that can relieve his bladder for him.

 

[the fluffies]

I gave the 3rd dose on simethicone (3rd hour), in an hour ago. He already urinating (a lot!) and no more distended tummy but i can still hear a gurgling sound. Wrap him in towel to prevent him from rolling and feed him a lot of water.

What a relief. Hope there is no more panic alarm. Thanks guys!

 

[Gezellige_Poes]

i'm sorry to read about maxie and hope there is some improvement. all the posts about medications, interactions, dosing, etc., are dizzying! i can only imagine how poorly his little tummy must feel!! your mention of smaller stool sounds the liberty bell alarm! i am not familiar with all the medication names. i had a bun, sabine, who i found on her side about 18 months ago. she received two steroid injections, was on baytril for 2 weeks, and some meds inc. probiotics to help gastric motility. she, too, started having very small to no stool. other than the baytril, i stopped all other meds and started her on oxbow hay critical care with baby food and syringe fed her. she was also in rehab to learn how to deal with her head tilt, starting with a small crate and slowly increasing her habitat size. she championed beautifully! she recently had a bad case of snuffles. again, the smaller stool. along with baytril, i gave her a few days of simethicone, then oxbow critical care, baby food, perfect berry (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005P0RNPA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20), and gently massaged her tummy. she is fine now. my point of all this is, please go light on the meds and heavy on supplemental support to keep his gut going and ensure hydration. the oxbow critical care and perfect berrry will make hir tummy feel better and rebalance the microbial environment in his gut.

 

[JBun]

I hope that Maxie is feeling better today. That's great news that he finally urinated. You'll probably just have to be really careful to keep him hydrated. He may have just got dehydrated from having a hard time drinking.

You mentioned having benebac probioitcs? If you aren't already giving him some each day, you may want to start doing that. They are often helpful to give when a rabbit is also getting antibiotics, to help keep good bacteria in the gut, and hopefully it will get the gurgling tummy under control. Usually you give once a day, at least 1-2 hours after the dose of antibiotics.

 

[the fluffies]

Hi

Took Maxie to the vet for his 3rd day *** today (the *** is now every alternate days). I have to bunny-burrito him to prevent him from rolling during the journey.
Vet said today he doesnt need his Trixone antibiotic. He just gave the Tolfine anti-inflamatory and Prednikel 01 steroid, and a little dosage of injectable sedative.

Maxie didnt roll during our 2 hours journey home. The sedation makes him calm and relax. I unwrapped him and put him in a padded cage. He is now (after 7 hours taking the jabs), standing on his feet. No more vertigo.

I did asked the vet about Valium, if is safe to use on Maxie for his vertigo. But my vet said it is not powerful enough. Instead, he advised to take injectable sedative (cant see the bottle. Will check again next visit).

 

[carlysoup]

Wow, he sounds like he is doing better - if he is able to stand? I am praying for Maxie, he has been through so much.

 

[the fluffies]

Maxie was having a distended and loud gurgling tummy again, in the midnite.
I assumed, must be the jabs he received causing disturbance in his intestine.

We will stop the jabs (anti-inflamatory + steroid) temporary and see if it makes a change.
I am thinking about start over the fenbendazole again even my vet thinks my rabbit is having EC problem.

 

[Maureen Las]

I don't understand the 3 day antibiotic protocol at all unless they were high doses and even then I don't understand the rationale behind it.
I ,too would consider the Panacur at this point if the antibiotics have been stopped. It is difficult to discern your vets plan. ????

I feel sad for you that you are going through this ; your love for Maxie shines through all your effort. :imsorry: that this this is so very hard !

Maureen

 

[JBun]

It's most likely the antibiotic that is causing your rabbits digestive upset. So it's probably a good thing that the vet is stopping it. Though I agree that it's a little strange to be stopping the antibiotic after only a few doses. Some rabbits with head tilt due to an ear infection, can be on antibiotics for a month or more, depending on how bad it is. But certainly they shouldn't be stopped before your rabbit is showing consistent improvement, or stopped while still giving steroid injections. Though I don't think continuing with that particular antibiotic is a good idea with the digestive problems it's causing. You'll need to keep a really close eye on the gurgling stomach, and continue to give probiotics to try and get the gut flora balanced again. If the gurgling and distended stomach continue, you may need to have a fecal float test done to check for the clostridium bacteria, and get the antibiotic flagyl (metronidazole) to get it under control. It can really be very dangerous to your rabbit, for an overgrowth of this bacteria to occur.

I agree that starting up the fenbendazole is probably a good idea. I would also continue with some meloxicam as well, to keep the inflammation down.

 

[the fluffies]

The new vets said he has been given Maxie a strong antibiotic, and after seeing maxie having a downturn, he stopped the antibiotic (Trixone), but continue with the anti inflamatory and steroid. He said, 12 days on Baytril, Metronidazole and Trixone jabs is more than enough to kill what ever parasite that caused the inner ear infection. And at this point, he thinks it is not an inner ear infection but something with the neuro problem or brain inflamation. But even we stopped taking the antibiotic, and only took the anti-inflamatory and steroid jabs, Maxie still having a few gas episodes.

His condition was really bad. He was twisting, rolling and flipping non stop :bigtears:. So vet has to give him a low dose of sedative to keep him relax and calm. But after 12 hours, he started to roll again.

The vet told me to let him rolls and said he will later find his way to adapt to his new disability. So i this morning i let him rolled in his padded cage. I am aware about his down eye. The lid is folded out. I drop some artificial tears and apply fucitalmic ointment i have. And today when i got home during lunch hour, i saw him stood on his feet and gained his balance. He falled over and rolled again, but with a help, he tried to keep himself balance. It is so heart-wrenching to see him in that situation.

He was not eating the hay i left for him this morning. So i feed him some CC with pumpkin puree and water.

before i left to the office again, i put a slice on apple and bokchoy leaves in his cage. He moved and hide himself at the darkest corner of the cage and stay quiet

 

[the fluffies]

I have to leave Maxie to my boyfriend for 3 days (Wednesday - Friday) because i have to go back to my hometown by flight and cant fly maxie with me.

I am thinking to start the Fenbendazole, Metacam and Meclizine soon after i reach home on Friday. I managed to get those drugs from the local pharmacy and i am not sure if they can be use on Maxie.
- Fenbendazole 10% 100ml/L
- Meloxicam tablets 7.5mg per tablet
- Meclozine HCl 25mg + Pyridoxine HCl 50mg per tablet

What is the dosage of Meloxicam for 3lbs bunny?
For Meclozine 25mg, i can just give half tablet rite?

Can Fenben, Meloxicam and Meclozine taken together?

 

[the fluffies]

maxie is on Benebac, Simethicone and Metoclopramide. Can these things taken together with above drugs as well?

 

[Maureen Las]

This medi-rabbit chart has the dosage of meloxicam(metacam) but with that size tab you are going to need to cut it up.



http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm


I could not paste Dr. Charks Drug dose calculator for rabbit but you can google it for the range of fenbendazole


Here is the Q&A with Dana Krempels response so you will also need to cut the meclizine
I cannot figure out exact dosages at this time (need to leave house) but will attempt to get back at this later; in the interim period maybe someone else will figure it.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/Dosage-Meclizine-Wryneck.htm

 

[JellyBean16]

I am thinking he may have Wry Neck. One of my bunnies got Wry Neck from somehow damaging an organ in her ear causing her head to tilt.

 

[the fluffies]

Hi Jellybean,
Wry neck and heat tilt is different? The signs are almost the same.

Maureen,
i tried Meclizine following the dosage given by dana, but it didnt work. I heard from other forumers and other members of Disabled Rabbits on Facebook, some of them are using whole 25mg (not the 12.5mg) tablets for 3lbs rabbits and there is a bunny who has been using Meclizine daily for years! :confused2:

 

[the fluffies]

This is maxie at his worst condition.

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTePTJOIPI

 

[JellyBean16]

I am starting to think he may have 'head down disease'. If not I have no clue. Head Down Disease or Asclepias Eriocarpa Poisoning causes a rabbit to have no control of the head and very unsteady movement, and it makes a bunny eventually have paralysis. I sure hope Maxie will get better. I am so sorry that Maxie is not well!

 

[Maureen Las]

First of all I want to let you know that I have never personally treated a rabbit with either head tilt caused by a bacterial infection or head tilt caused by EC. My info, therefore, is from reading from reliable sources but not first hand info. I would recommend that you run all info through your vet , the disabled rabbit website and/or possibly PM our mod JadeIcing who has treated many head tilt rabbits or other members who have successfully treated headtilt

I do not know if all of these meds can be given safely concurrently . I do know that if you are giving Benebac do not give it at the same time as you are giving Reglan, meloxicam etc. Since it is a probiotic I do not know what medications may affect its viability
I Do know that at this point you are pretty much on your own being in another country whose Drs. have differing views than here in the West.

The Metacam tablet you have is either for a cat/dog. The dose your rabbit should have approx. is 0.1- 0.2 mg /kg. Your rabbit at 3 lbs =1.36 kg This is going to require that you either crush the tablet and then divide it up equally into 7 little equal piles ( and an 8th pile which would be 0.5 mg) and use a small amount of 1 pile . You could also break off a tiny piece of 1 tab but this is basically guesswork. You may want to ask at a pharmacy if someone could help you with this or better yet find a compounding pharmacy who could take those tablets and compound them into a suspension . Also check your other website re. the dose . I am quoting Medi-rabbit but some owners may be using a stronger dose.
Since the fenbendazole is 100 mg/ml and your rabbit is 3lb. the dose would be 0.27 ml per day according to Dr. Chark's.
In terms of the meclizine/pyridoxine hydrochloride
I would listen carefully to your friends on disabled rabbit and use the dosage that they have effectively used on their rabbit. The pyridoxine is Vitamin B6

I give the best info when I have done the treatment myself so this is the best that I can do but I am hoping that you will receive other assistance from other Mods and memebers