Encephalitozoonosis - or What Made Me Ill, by Larry
Hello again from Larry. Last night was the first time I didn't have to take my medicine. I was excited and enjoyed exploring the house and being interested in things. Yesterday I left you dangling over a cliff, and my little brain fighting off a nasty parasite. Let's pick up the story:
The morning after we went to the vet's I was in a terrible state. My eyes were twitching, my head was tilting and I was completely off my food. I've always been smaller than Rita but today she seemed like a giant compared to me. Rebecca collected me from the hutch and I sat on her lap while she gave me my first dose of medicine. Next, to make me eat, she put a syringe in my mouth and squirted in mashed up carrot! Normally I'd hate that because everybody knows that carrots are meant to be crunchy, but today I didn't have the energy to put up a fuss. She also squirted water in my mouth which was good because my wonky head made reaching the drinking spout very difficult!
The parasite that was in my brain was called Encephalitozoon Cuniculi, or E Cuniculi for short. I didn't like having it in my brain. The medicine that I took was called Panacur. It is a 'wormer' and it kills the parasite. I had to take it every day for one month. As you can imagine, it didn't taste very nice and I often tried to get away. Jared and Rebecca wrapped me in a towel to stop me from struggling. Look at me! I look ridiculous!
Well, as bad as it tasted, the Panacur seemed to start doing the trick quite quickly, because a day later my eyes had stopped twitching and I was a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately because my head was droopy it made my eye very sore and I had to have human eye drops. But I quite enjoyed that.
Over the next two weeks I was fed and watered by syringe every three hours during the day. But after a week I was able to eat some things by myself again. At one point I ate a whole celery stick! My tilting head improved and I began to be comfortable walking around by myself. Things were much better and Dr B was very pleased with my progress.
Now I am a very different rabbit. I'll always have a slight tilt in my head to remind me of my brush with death, but hopefully the parasite won't come back and I'll be fighting fit for a long time to come. I'm just lucky that Jared, Rebecca and Rita are here to look after me!
Larry
The morning after we went to the vet's I was in a terrible state. My eyes were twitching, my head was tilting and I was completely off my food. I've always been smaller than Rita but today she seemed like a giant compared to me. Rebecca collected me from the hutch and I sat on her lap while she gave me my first dose of medicine. Next, to make me eat, she put a syringe in my mouth and squirted in mashed up carrot! Normally I'd hate that because everybody knows that carrots are meant to be crunchy, but today I didn't have the energy to put up a fuss. She also squirted water in my mouth which was good because my wonky head made reaching the drinking spout very difficult!
The parasite that was in my brain was called Encephalitozoon Cuniculi, or E Cuniculi for short. I didn't like having it in my brain. The medicine that I took was called Panacur. It is a 'wormer' and it kills the parasite. I had to take it every day for one month. As you can imagine, it didn't taste very nice and I often tried to get away. Jared and Rebecca wrapped me in a towel to stop me from struggling. Look at me! I look ridiculous!
Well, as bad as it tasted, the Panacur seemed to start doing the trick quite quickly, because a day later my eyes had stopped twitching and I was a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately because my head was droopy it made my eye very sore and I had to have human eye drops. But I quite enjoyed that.
Over the next two weeks I was fed and watered by syringe every three hours during the day. But after a week I was able to eat some things by myself again. At one point I ate a whole celery stick! My tilting head improved and I began to be comfortable walking around by myself. Things were much better and Dr B was very pleased with my progress.
Now I am a very different rabbit. I'll always have a slight tilt in my head to remind me of my brush with death, but hopefully the parasite won't come back and I'll be fighting fit for a long time to come. I'm just lucky that Jared, Rebecca and Rita are here to look after me!
Larry
posted by Larry and Rita at 1:52 pm
2 Comments:
Wow! You sound like a brave rabbit. I am a 2 year old dutch rabbit and I'm not as brave as you. I once had a scratch on my nose and I didn't leave my hutch for a week!
Could you say 'hi' to your sister from me. I think she is very pretty. Am not sure if you are a boy or a girl so I don't know if I think you are pretty or not!
Hope you carry on feeling better.
Larry,
Being sick sucks, doesn't it? SweetPea just had earmites, which were not only gross but apparently pretty painful. She stopped eating for 4 days and is still recovering not from the mites, but from the fast.
Anyway, I'm glad your E Cuniculi went away. That gets lots of bunnies and it's very, very sad when the medicine doesn't work.
Head scritches and nose rubs to you, my new little buddy.
--Dana
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