facial paralysis?

Question
Hi Dana,
2 weeks ago I took my girl to her bunny savvy vet for a re culture for a light growth pseudomonas in her nose. while there, Vet checked her ears, she had a scratch inside one ear. I brought her back this past Thursday to recheck that scratch. she did not want him looking in the ear and was really objecting. To see the ear, he had to keep re positioning the otoscope and then I had to look, so it was a lot of looking and in and out with the scope.. He did not like that the scratch was not gone so he cut her nail very short {hoping she couldn't reach the area} and wanted her on ear drops fearing that although he saw nothing, something in that ear was making her itch enough to injury herself. so he put 3 drops of "keg otic" 10ml {he told me the name of the 2 antibiotics in it, but I forgot what they are}. that night, I was supposed to do the drops but I called him and asked," could we wait to see if now that her nails are so short maybe it would heal on its own and I don;t have to freak her out with drops?", he agreed and we planned a recheck for this Tuesday. Here's the problem; since we came home on Thursday she is NOT herself. she is staying in a house she has, I have to serve her food in there, she only comes out to use the hay. her ear has been way back, her eye on the same side is running and Saturday morning I was watching her mouth while she ate, she was having trouble picking up food and chewing very animated. so I took her in right away, when we got there I noticed that her mouth looked crooked too. he checked her thoroughly and immediately thought: the ear drops?  so he started looking up all of the ingredients and couldn't; find anything that would cause all of this. then he started talking about cranial nerves {he lost me} and felt that maybe be irritated a nerve because it was so difficult to look in her ear on Thursday. so he blamed his pesistence for this possile nerve irritation. does any of this sound plausible? he said he definitely believes its either the drops or the nerve thing b/c the symptoms came on immediately after her Thursday visit. He said he doesn't believe in coincidences and  he checked and palpated every inch of her and finds  no other areas of sensitivity or abnormalities whatsoever {BTW the scratch in her ear is WAY better almost gone} He wants to wait and see if this resolves without doing anything at this point. she is eating well, but her ears is way back, her eye is tearing, her 3rd eyelid comes out a little, she is chewing animated, her mouth is crooked and she is still staying inside  the house, only coming out to use the potty .
I am getting nervous, have you ever seen anything like this and did it go away???
thanks
Jeanine

Answer
Dear Jeanine,

It sounds as if you have a very good vet who is not only thorough, but also honest about the possibility that he might have irritated your bunny enough to cause a temporary discomfort and reaction like this.  But I wonder if he's not being a bit hard on himself.

Your bunny was scratching before.  Hard enough to hurt her ear.  So there is *something* going on there.  The fact that her eye is running *and* she's holding her ear back *and* she's having a bit of trouble chewing makes me wonder if she might not have an incipient molar root abscess or even just a very nasty molar spur causing enough pain to inflame a cranial or facial nerve to the degree that it is causing these problems.

Has the vet given your bunny any anti-inflammatory medications (I'm a fan of Banamine, though most vets are using metacam these days; I just don't see any obvious signs of pain relief with metacam in rabbits!) to see if this helps the condition resolve?  I'm not sure I'd go so far as to suggest corticosteroids, especially if there's a chance this is an infection.  But if an NSAID can improve the condition, this will provide evidence that the signs your bunny is showing are due to inflammation.  If the condition returns when the meds are stopped, that would suggest to me that this might be something chronic (nascent ear infection; molar problem, etc.), not something the vet caused by probing too hard.

If this is an infection that can't be easily seen or found, but the vet suspects this might be the case, then you might ask if he thinks it would be a good idea to try dual-acting injectible Penicillin (Pen-G Procaine plus Benzathine), which is often quite effective against the most common bacteria populating infections of the head.  We've also have had good results with Zeniquin (marbofloxacin), and have even combined bicillin with Zeniquin in some cases.  The two drugs worked well together with no evidence of adverse side effects.

These are just some things to consider.  Observe and be vigilant, and if she's not improved in a few days, I'd ask the vet about some of the things above.

Hope this helps.

Dana