Rabbit recovery from head tilt / Neuter?

Question
Hi,
My rabbit Bello is 1 year old and over the past 4 months struggled with head tilt. He was treated with penicillin shots and is self sufficient now, doing binkies even, but his head is still tilted (maybe about 15%). His vet assumes he will have a head tilt for the rest of his life since it took so long to recover. Since he was so young when this all developed, he was never neutered.

I was just wondering if it was safe or possible to neuter a rabbit that still has a head tilt? I obviously don't want a relapse but he has begun to spray occasionally and I know having him neutered will fix this.

Any insight on this issue would be very helpful. I just want to be informed before talking to his vet about it.
-Jessica

Answer
Dear Jessica,

We have had rabbits with head tilt undergo surgery, and the worst that has happened is that they have a short, temporary "relapse", probably from the anesthesia.  In every case that we've had, the condition resolves in a few days (less than a week), especially if the bunny is allowed to exercise in a large area where he can run in straight lines (i.e., not in a pen where he must run in circles).

If your vet thinks that Bello is otherwise healthy, then it might be worth having him neutered (no surgery is 100% risk free, but a head tilt that's residual from an infection that's no longer active doesn't really contribute to being a particularly poor surgical risk, in my opinion).  I doubt there's a consensus on this. But if you want to get more opinions, you could join EtherBun, a free listserve with more than 6000 members, to see if others have experience with head tilt bunnies going under surgery (for other reasons) and having good outcomes.  You can find more information and join here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/etherbun.html

Hope that helps!

Dana