Two year old Bunny keeps falling over

Question
QUESTION: I cannot get to the vet for a couple days because they do not have weekend hours.  Bunny was acting normal yesterday but I thought I saw him "slip" and fall to his side.  Now he keeps falling over and there is definately something wrong with his left hindquarters.  Otherwise he is feisty and wants out!  Tries to run, does not seem to be in pain and is eating and drinking normally. I have confined him to a smaller cage so he can't run too much and swapped out his sleeping pad (hard surface that is a little slippery) with a soft pad.  Any other recommendations for preventing further injury before I can get him to the vet?

As a side note which may or may not pertain - this happened right after coming back from the vet where we found he has a mild urinary tract infection and slight urine scald.

ANSWER: Hi,

did the vet give you medicine for the infection?  Add padding all around his house (cage) sides in case he falls against the walls he'll land on softer padding.  Roll up soft cotton towels.  Keep him in his house until going to the vet.  If you can hold him without problem (if he likes it) you can do that.  

The infection is affecting his hind leg nerves/spinal cord.  Something affecting his motor nerves.  Teh infection could also be in more than one place, it could be in his head too. He needs to get back into the vet as soon as possible.  If you can ring your vet tell him it's an emergency, or of the emergency vet where you are can treat rabbits I'd consider going there, especially if it gets worse.

Things to check for: back trauma/injury, confirm where the infection is, and if so antibiotics and also pain med for him (metacam also reduces swelling which would help if the infection is putting pressure on nerves). If the vet let you go home without antibiotics after diagnosing a UTI, that isn't a good vet.

If you want to see if there are good rabbit vets around you (you should, for backups) go here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: They did put him on Albon.  I can't call any emergency because their is no rabbit specialist in my area (within one hourish) except the partner of the vet I saw.  He is on a leave for two weeks.  The vet who saw Buns is not a specialist but has a lot of experience.  This clinic has an emergency referral but it is to a clinic that doesn't specialize.

I will be sitting outside the vet's door on Monday morning if something doesn't improve dramatically by tomorrow.  Fortunately he is still eating and drinking and chewing the cage to get out.

Thanks for getting back to me.  But now I am even more scared than I was before!  It is frustrating that we don't have rabbit vets around here.

BTW - your security image is awful!  I had to go out and come back four times to get a legible code

ANSWER: UPDATE

also, you can put some cranberry juice (unsweetened) into his water, or give him a cranberry tablet (probably easier).  Cranberry works to help UTI's in rabbits.

END UPDATE

Hi,

just make sure he keeps eating and drinking.  Watch the water level carefully, you don't want him getting dehydrated.  You can always put a small squirt of grape juice in the water to entice him to drink more if it looks like he's not.

I have no idea what you're talking about with the 'security image'.  That's probably an allexpert site thing, I just answer rabbit questions.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Follow up report:  I used your suggestion of adding grape juice to the water and that solved the problem with not drinking enough!! He loved it and it seemed to help him all around to be better hydrated.  

When I go to the vet the first thing they did was look deep into his ears with a scope looking for mites.  No sign of mites but significant buildup of goo in his ears.  The vet also noticed that he was scratching his ears more than normal.  Of course now that Buns was at the vet the falling over problem did not occur!  But we could see a tilt to the left so he was given a mixture of a ear cleaning solution with a steroid to cool the itch, and a mite medicine mixed in just in case.  I brought him home and by the evening he was anxious to get out and run so I let him for a while and you would never think there had been a problem!

Thanks for your feedback!  I appreciate the time you took to respond.

Answer
Hi,

glad to hear some things were found and treated.  Every yearly exam (or any exam for a problem), the vet should do a thorough ear exam, and will probably need to clean the ears a little and remove wax buildup.  Rabbits are very good at cleaning it out but they can't get everything out sometimes.  

Anytime you see a balance problem it's serious and it's vet time.  

As for the grape juice, if you can reduce it down if you're going to do this normally to encourage drinking, see if you can cut it down maybe half because of the sugars in the grape juice.  Otherwise if you keep it the same, you may need to cut out some higher calorie treats.  Basically just watch this as it can affect weight and throw off gut bacteria balance, so if you can reduce it a bit and he still enjoys drinking more, try to fine tune it and see if you can find a lower amount that still makes him happy to drink.