Rolling/flailing in otherwise normal rabbit

Question
Dear Dana -

This question is actually from a friend.  She emailed me at 2:30 this morning, in something of a panic.  I know very little about rabbits - my experience is largely with dogs, cats, and birds.  I'm sending you the text of her email as she wrote it - if you have any guesses about what might be wrong, I would very much appreciate your thoughts!  The rabbit is a young (less than 1 year old) neutered male; I'm unsure of his breed, other than to know he's not a lop.
Thank you,
Anne

"Hugh was in his cage, acting normally (he's
been perfectly fine and happy all day). Suddenly he started what appeared to be a seizure. It was so bizarre I can't describe it, but basically he was rolling ... but rolling is far too mild a word, as this was very intense flailing and basically in midair. We're not talking lolling about. We're talking back-breaking struggling, much as a rabbit will do when you're picking him up and have not stabilized him to make him feel safe ... but with a sort of midair rolling motion that flipped him over and over again.
As soon as we touched him, he stopped, which to me again says "not a seizure, but some sort of panic/loss of balance response."

Since then we've been sick with worry and have been watching him. He's begun to do it again several times, but only slightly, and as soon as I touch him, he stops. He doesn't do it at all if he's being held or is otherwise held motionless. Again, it's as if, when
he starts moving around, he thinks he's falling or out of balance, and as soon as we're touching him reassuringly, he feels fine and is all happy normal rabbit again, complete with contented tooth grinding when he's petted. He doesn't seem remotely alarmed--no scared bunny behavior at all, no loud grinding or balling up. No signs of pain or even fear.
He doesn't appear to have head tilt; in fact he looks and acts COMPLETELY physically normal, even a little energized. So my guess right now is ear infection or something that would make him feel a loss of balance. (Or for all I know he could have a giant brain tumor. I'm pretty clueless here and really just trying to
reach for things that sound decently curable.)


Answer
Dear Anne,

Wow, scary!

An inner or middle ear infection can cause symptoms like this (and so can several other things) without causing a full-blown head tilt.  It really does sound like a balance problem, and the sooner the bun is seen by a good rabbit vet, the better.  Please find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

You can also send this to your friend, since head tilt information is probably *very* relevant to Hugh's condition, even if his head isn't (yet) tilted:

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

The most common causes of things like this are ear infection and E. cuniculi, but each has a different appropriate treatment, as described in the article.  I hope your friend will get Hugh to a good rabbit vet for full exam, diagnosis and treatment.

Hope this helps.

Dana