Could it be cuniculi?

Question
Dear Dr. Krempels,

I foster for a rabbit rescue. A month ago I rescued 2 baby bunnies from a feed shop. They looked to be about a month old. One was smaller than the other, both were girls, one named Cookie and the other Jello. Last week I noticed Cookie was eating slightly less than Jello and wasn't moving with the same speed as in prior weeks. I observed her during the afternoon in my living room and she had trouble hopping and seemed to wobble a bit. She was still eating, drinking, pooping, cleaning herself - so there was nothing I could see that was wrong except a little lethargy in her back legs and wobbliness. I gave her a little gel protein supplement by syringe that a doctor had prescribed for another rabbit a year ago, the medicine was still good. The next day I checked on her and she looked better, more alert. The next day when I came home from work in the morning she was dead in her cage beside her sister Jello. It still hurts to remember this.

When I found Cookie lying on her side in her bed of oat hay, her eye facing up was black. When I turned her over her other eye looked fine. I thought maybe she had a black undereyelid I never noticed, which closed, but for some reason the upper eyeylid did not. I buried her that afternoon and since her 10 week old sister Jello was so distraught, I placed her with a bonded pair of rabbits that got along well when playing with Jello and Cookie before, so she wouldn't be so sad and lonely.

It has been a week exactly since Cookie died. Cristal, one of the bonded pair of rabbits Jello has been rooming with, is starting to show paralysis in her back legs, starting last night. She's still eating well and showing no other signs of weirdness other than she's acting a little drunk. She insists on hopping around the living room and up and down an inclined blanketed path to the couch, but when she tries to sit still she wobbles and loses her balance with her back legs. When she's not hopping up and down, she has this kind of delayed reaction time in her response movements. She's usually a really sharp rabbit with quick movements. Cristal is about 4 years old and she's a keeper of mine.

I gave Cristal a 0.2 mL dose of Metacam in case she was in any pain. But she hasn't done anything to attain an injury. She has been licking me all afternoon which is also something she NEVER does, but that's ok, I hope.

I'm alarmed that she's rapidly losing control of her hind legs, and ever since Cookie passed away I'm really scared that there might be something contagious in my bunny's room. The day that I brought the rescued baby bunnies home I had a rabbit that was recovering from torticollis a week after her spay surgery. This tilt bunny (Sugar) had her head tilt resolved in 3 days with corticosteroid SQ injections. Her condo was located beside Cookie and Jello's.

Is there any connection between these symptoms?

I am fostering six other rabbits at the time and none others are showing symptoms. They all live seperately and do not interact closely with the rabbits with symptoms. But as I mentioned, the baby bunny Jello has been rooming with a bonded pair. Cristal, of the pair, is now wobbling, but Nickel (Cristal's partner) is not showing any symptoms at all. Healthy as an ox.

Can you give me any helpful information as to how I should proceed and what sort of state of vigilance I should be in? Over the past month it has been very scary in my bunny foster home with all these new issues. Since I introduced Jello into my personal pair of home rabbits, I can't ask the rescue to sponser a vet exam for Cristal. Cookie died so suddenly, I put her in the ground before I considered a necropsy and I think it's probably better that way. When Sugar got headtilt we couldn't get a good sample from her ear to see exactly what was causing it. Afterwards, she was being treated along with my other house rabbits with a weekly dose of Ivermectin just in case.

That is just about all the information I can give you. Please let me know if there's anything else you need me to tell you which I may not have included, and please tell me, when you can, what idea you have of my situation. Thank you for your time, your expertise, and your attention to our problem. We're really sad and worried!

Amber

Answer
Dear Amber,

I'm very sorry about this terrible loss.  

Hind limb paresis can  be caused by a very wide variety of things, and you can get an overview here:

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

Be SURE to read the linked article by Dr. Susan Brown, a rabbit expert vet.

Whatever the cause, I would get any rabbit showing these signs to a good rabbit vet immediately.  This could be infection, E. cuniculi (unusual for signs to show up in rabbits so young, but not impossible), or other things, and a vet will be better able to help you, especially with bloodwork.

In the meantime, take temperatures and make sure they are normal:

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

Is there a possibility that they got into something toxic?  Lead paint?  Heavy metal wire?  Anything that could cause poisoning?  Pesticides?  Frontline used to treat mites or fleas?  This almost sounds like that.

I hope this helps, and that no one else dies.  



Dana