Very poorly rabbit

Question
Hi
Our 4 month dwarf lop is very poorly. He is on cage rest at the moment awaiting a second visit to the vet later today. He has , so we believe, a trauma to his back overnight (thursday) in his cage and after a day of not being himself not wanting to come out of his cage and not eating I brought him inside to see that clearly he had a problem with his back leg or legs. We attended the vet yesterday to be told he is very poorly and after a large steroid dose we came home to give him 24 hours and a chance of improvement. He has eaten just a tiny amount overnight and has produced some droppings, but he is grinding his teeth a lot, so I know he is in pain and I feel helpless,,,im almost scared to take him back to the vet in case there isnt an improvement and we would have to take the kindest course of action in lettiung him go to sleep. He is our baby and we are all devastated, Do you think that there would be any chance of a recovery at all?

Answer
Dear Bev,

Is it certain that he suffered trauma to his back?  Because there are other reasons this can happen to a rabbit.  Please read:

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

and if your vet is not a rabbit expert, please find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Twenty four hours is too short a time to know if there will be improvement, unless radiographic evidence suggests massive, untreatable trauma.  I hope you will give this some time and ask for analgesia (not an NSAID, if he's already getting corticosteroids!) such as torbugesic or other drug that will not cause intestinal acid problems.

I hope this helps.

Dana