Partially Paralyzed bunny.....

Question
I have a rabbit, Finchey, who is approximately five or six years old.  He recently seems to have suffered a possible stroke or some other malady that has affected the right side of his body.  He can use his front right paw a little and does not seem to be able to use his rear right leg at all.  He has just been laying on his right side and kind of pulls himself around by his front legs.  He does not seem to be in pain.  I have moved his leg around and it does not hurt him, but yet he just cannot seem to stay on his feet.  If you set him upright, he just falls to his side.  This happened a little over a week ago.  He is drinking water, eating hay and his regular food.  In fact nothing has changed except for his movement.  I can deal with a rabbit in this condition, however, I am starting to get worried as he urinates on himself and though we try to keep him dry, he ends up wet often enough to cause irritation on his skin.  I have been bathing him with a very mild baby shampoo/water solution and rinse him very thouroughly.  And I try to dry him as much as he will let me.  He has been so patient.  But he is starting to get some redness between his hind legs.  I have noticed some sort of build up starting to form, i think it may be some scabbing.  I tried to soak him tonight in just plain water to loosen it up and it worked a little bit.  I am very worried that these red spots will get out of hand and that he will develop some sores.  I just do not want him to experience any pain.  I have put him in a cage that, though I hate there cages, has the wire bottom.  Just so he is not sitting on a flat surface in his urine.  Normally we keep him in a cage with his little bunny mate with lots of wood shavings and hay and such.  But, he was geting too wet.  I don't know what else to do.  Any advice you could give me would be awesome.  Any recommendations as to a product I may treat these spots with or just anything at all.  Thanks for your time...  

Answer
Dear Lisa,

Is it possible Finchley suffered some sort of trauma to his back or pelvis?  I would ask the vet to do radiographs, if this were my bunny.  It's not impossible for such a young bunny to suffer hind limb paresis from a stroke or E. cuniculi, but it's fairly unusual.

Please read:

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

and find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I hope that will help with some ideas.

Dana