Sunny Bunny Troubles...

Sunny the Funny Bunny has not had a good 2006 so far. Last Sunday (1/8) he stopped eating. This continued until Wednesday... we could not figure out what was going on. We took him to the vet. Sometimes rabbits stop eating for various reasons, so we received some medication to help his digestive system get back on track as well as some special food-paste that Sunny DID NOT enjoy eating (especially since we had to squirt it in his mouth with a syringe!

He slowly started back eating on his own again, under our watchful eye. On Saturday we were watching him and he mysteriously fell over on his right side! He quickly righted himself, but we were definitely concerned! Sunny has always been very sure-footed, and it's not like him to just fall over! As Sunday came and went his appetite slowly got better, but we noticed that he fell yet again!

On Monday evening, we came home from work only to notice that Sunny had a very pronounced limp, his head tilted to the right (like he was looking at us out of his left eye), and his coordination was almost shot. I tried to get him to move around his pen, and when he tried to move quickly he fell over! Poor Sunny!

Today we took him back to the vet and he was preliminarily diagnosed with E. Cuniculi. A parasite that is passed from mother to offspring that has resided in his body all his life and then suddenly attacks the brain and other organs. We believe that he has E. Cuniculi, due to his symptoms of wry neck, loss of apetite (we think that last week's episode was related), and his loss of balance. The vet took a blood sample to get a conclusive test back (it takes 3 weeks) and started him on Oxibendazole, which should attack the parasite. (It's used in many animal specials to kill roundworm, tapeworm, and other parasites. He gets to take his tasty treat for the next 4 months to completely eradicate the bug.

Sunny is a fighter. Despite his balance issues, he still is moving about his cage. Although climbing upstairs in his Bunny Palace is off limits, he still is moving around carefully. The vet believes that he can make a full recovery, over time regain his balance and straighten his head out. We believe if any bunny can do it, Sunny can!

Sunny gets some attention on Bunny Banter.
More on E. Cuniculi

Some pictures of a healthy Sunny (he won't let us take pictures when he is under the weather), and to show how special he is to us:

Sunny as a baby

Sunny at Christmas, 2003

Sunny in late October, 2005

Sunny gets some attention on Bunny Banter.
More on E. Cuniculi