5 year old pet rabbit

Question
Just noticed in the past 2 weeks are older rabbit is not using his back leg like normal. He drags them and does not hop around as much as he use to. We also noticed a patch of fur on his back between his shoulder blades that is losing fur and has white flaky skin underneath. Is this a normal this for older rabbits or should we take him in to our vet?

Answer
Dear Kim,

It's never normal to lose the use of your legs, and at the age of 5 your rabbit is by no means old.  He could have suffered a traumatic injury, but at his age there is also a very good chance that he's now starting to show signs of a central nervous system parasite, E. cuniculi.  The fact that he's also showing signs of fur mites (the flakiness) suggests that his immune system may be suppressed, and this would be a prime time for pathogens to start to cause serious problems.

Please read this for the hind leg problem:

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

and this for the dandruff:

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

but mainly get him to a good rabbit vet ASAP for treatment.

www.rabbit.org/vets

If this is E. cuniculi, the sooner treatment is started, the better his chances for recovery and improvement of movement.  Anything causing hind limb weakness must be treated *promptly* for best chance of recovery.

I hope this helps.

Dana