older pet rabbit drinking lots, pooping all over, back leg not working exactly right, sneezing

Question
We've had our house rabbit for almost 10 years. He (neutered# was found as a stray, so is estimated at 11-12 years old. In the last few months he seems like he has been drinking a lot more than he usually does, his normally wonderful litter box habits have gone downhill, he was sneezing a lot #though now this is much better#, and it seems like his hind leg and his front paw #both on the same side of the body# are not working quite normally.  He seems a little thinner than normal #he wasn't eating really well back when he was sneezing a lot# though that has picked up.  He always seemed in good spirits and would eat treats just fine #bananas, lettuce, carrots, raisins#.  Also, a few weeks before we started noticing a lot of this, we moved to another house. He used to have free reign of our sunroom in the morning and evening, but now we just have a fence set up around his cage so he has a little less space than before.

So... my questions.  1# is he just getting old?  2) are any of these symptoms possibly related or is it just coincidence?  3) Any idea what might be going on?  4) is there likely something that could be done for him #if there's really something seriously wrong# if we took him to the vet?  Rabbits don't live forever, so we don't necessarily want to spend tons of $$ just to prolong his life a few months, and he does seem happy enough, #he has absolutely none of those warning signs - and I really don't think his legs were broken because he never minded if I touched or moved them) he's just not the same as he used to be.

Just age or possibly a treatable illness? Any guesses?

Thanks much for your time!

Answer
Dear Kate,

Excessive drinking and excessive urination can be a sign of renal disease.  This is not curable, but it can be treated palliatively with subcutaneous fluid therapy.  A good rabbit vet can determine how his kidneys are via blood test, and then prescribe appropriate treatment, as necessary.  You can find a vet here:

http://www.rabbit.org/vets

His difficulty moving could be due to any number of things, from a stroke (unilateral paresis would be consistent with a stroke) to arthritis, to the effects of a parasite, Encephalitozoon cuniculi.  The parasite can be treated with Panacur (fenbendazole) and/or ponazuril, but neurological damage already done cannot be repaired.

As we age, our immune systems don't fight off pathogens as well as when we're young.  The same is true for bunnies.  So his sniffles could be due to that, plus the effects of tooth root elongation and intrusion into the sinuses, where they cause partial blockage and set up a nice place for opportunistic bacteria to grow.

All of these problems can be treated to make your bunny more comfortable.  He's a senior bunny, but not necessarily on death's door with a little extra TLC and a visit to the vet to see just what can be done to make him more comfortable, even if it's just pain medication for arthritis, and antibiotics to knock back the upper respiratory bacterial overgrowth.

I hope this helps you provide him with the loving care he'll need to live another half decade!

Take care,

Dana