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Sick Lop/ Vertigo, head tilt, rolling

22 10:20:09

Question
This weekend was sad. Dora my female lop spent the entire weekend at the Vet. She got really sick really fast. We think that it started with a cold a while back, which cleared up, or so we thought.  The vet thinks that it cleared up on the outside (sneezing and runny nose with some white discharge) but on the inside it may have spread.  On Friday around 6am she was acting really weird and not really running normal. Her back legs were acting funny. She was wanting to hide in the bathroom, and she never goes in there because it has tile floor and she knows she slips on that. I called the vet, and by 8am my husband went in to go get her ready to go to the vet and her head was cocked to one side. I know this is head tilt, I have read a lot about it recently. And I noticed that she hadn't been eating much for a few days before that and not pooping much. Sometimes she just goes through stages where she is picky about what shes going to eat, so I didnt think much of it at first.  So we took her in and they think it spread and gave her an inner ear infection, which caused her to become dizzy. They have her on baytril, Fenbendazole (Panacur), Anti-Vert (for motion sickness), and ear drops only in her right ear.  All of this but the ear drops she gets twice a day. I know they are trying to kill the pasturella and E Cuniculi, if it is either one of those things.  Saturday morning I got up and took Roger in to the vet too because he started sneezing and we wanted to kick that before it progressed to what she had. It was the first time I got to see her with the funny neck thing. It was very sad. I instantly started crying, and have been on and off ever since. She is my baby and I want her to get better soon. It was so sad.  When she tries to walk she tips over. She seemed to be able to keep her balance a little bit better at the vet than she does now. Monday night we got her back at home, with not much improvement. She started eating and going to the bathroom again, a little. She wont eat pellets, but she will eat parsley, hay, and alfalfa hay. Her poops are very tiny, strangly shaped and hard. She has a hard time making it to her water dish, so I give her some out of a syringe every once in a while.  She did however find the water on her own last night. Why I think she seems worse is because if she is not leaning up agains the side of her cage now, she falls over and rolls and rolls and rolls.  I cant watch that, so I put her cage right next to my bed lastnight so I could help her if she did that again.  Her cage was a mess in the morning because when she falls over she freaks out. We cant put her and Roger together because he tries so hard to help and groom her that hes been kind of sitting on her head. not on purpose of course. So they are separated for now.  We have our hands full with the medication we have to give them, and we are up to about 1000 bucks in vet bills.  They say they dont know how long it will take to recover, but wouldnt you think that after 5 days of this, and medication she would show some sign of improvement?  The hardest thing is to watch her eye flicker back and forth, over and over and over.  I do pet her a lot and she makes the light crunching noise that she makes when we talk/pet/kiss her.  So I dont think she is in much pain. But it is so hard to watch. I cant stop crying when I think about her. But hopefully she will recover just fine.  I dont think that the anti-vert is working though. Can you reccomend anything else?  And would you expect to see some sort of improvement over 5 days? One other question I have is... do you think it could have somethign to do with the hay I feed her? We got a big bale of timothy/orchard hay recently and I dont know why but I am trying to figure out if anything at all that we did different could be the reason. Also sometimes my husband gives them filtered water instead of tap water like we normally use.  Anything you can tell me would help me out very much.  I just cant lose my baby! She has been with me for almost 4 years now. I have always considered her my best friend.

Answer
Hi Randy,

First off I am so sorry your going thru this I know its hard. when I read this the first thing that comes to mind is Snuffles. Its a nasty little thing and hard to if ever get rid of and is and can be fatal. My thoughts are it never got fully cleared up and if so its gonna be a hard fight. If untreated it can spread and effect the internal organs especially the liver. She does not need the pellets right now hay hay hay is what she needs timothy hay a good premium brand I like oxbow.I would if she cant get to her water give her some every hour to 30 min if she will take it that's probably why her stool is hard cause she is dehighdrated. As for the head tilt I have no idea sorry I have only dealt with this once and it was from something different and cleared on it own so what the vet is doing is probably best. I am sure the hay is not what caused it. Please keep me posted if you need anything else please let me know.