Ear Infections And How To Cure Head Tilt

Ear infections suck. But they’re curable!

A few weeks ago I noticed that Oliver wasn’t quite himself, and his little head appeared to be tilted slightly to the right. I knew right away this could mean an ear infection, so I kept a close eye on him for 24 hours. The tilt was even more noticeable the next day, so I made an appointment to see our bunny-savvy vet right away.

We had an appointment for the next morning; I knew that the sooner the better for something like this, and it’s best if you can catch these things early!

Our bunny vet is great. She is so knowledgeable and always has great tips for how I can take the best possible care of my buns whenever we come in for a check up.

This time she took a look at Oliver’s ears and determined quickly that he had an ear infection in his left ear (hence the head tilt to the right) and showed me through the ear scope how there was puss and even a little blood in that ear. My poor boy! :( The other ear had a little something in it TOO, so she told me I should treat that one as well.

She prescribed an anti-inflammatory/pain med, an antibiotic and Baytril (ear drops) that I was to give to him for two weeks and then come back in for a checkup. She also showed me how to correct his head tilt, which I cover in more detail below.

How to administer oral medication to a bun

Let me just start out by saying some rabbits will not fight you the way Oliver fights me when it comes to giving them medicine. It really does depend on the rabbit and their level of stubbornness (lol).

Administering the oral medicines (with a syringe feeder) has been a ride, let me tell you. Even though the medicines are sweet and Oliver (who has a major sweet tooth) has not minded taking them in the past, this time he would take about half of his antibiotic and then proceed to let it dribble out of his mouth! It was like force feeding a toddler.

To give him his medicine, I situate him between my legs with his head facing away from me; I press his body firmly between my legs. I lift up his upper body with my left hand and press the syringe feeder into the side of his mouth until he takes it. Sometimes this takes longer than it should if he refuses to open his mouth.

Now, if there are two people doing this (oral meds and ear drops), I would recommend elevating your rabbit onto a table to make this easier, but because it’s just me, I don’t want to risk Oliver jumping off a table and hurting himself since I only have so many hands.

How to administer ear drops to a bun

For ear drops, I hold Oliver in the same position between my legs, but another option is to either place your rabbit on a table (if you have two people) or securely wrap your bun in a blanket like a burrito to administer meds and/or ear drops.

I try to watch how many drops I get in his ear and make sure I react fast when/if he starts to try to escape or shake his head (a natural response). The moment you get the drops in, you want to gently rub the base of the ear to make sure the drops are securely in the ear canal so that he doesn’t shake the the medicine out.

Be prepared for your rabbit to thump at you in disapproval as he hops off to sulk and clean his ears.

How to fix a head tilt

This was so incredibly effective that I just had to share here! My vet showed me how to administer physical therapy to Oliver so that his head tilt would not be permanent. She explained to me that the reason a rabbit’s head tilts when they have an ear infection is because they’re trying to escape the pain in the infected ear. That kind of broke my heart when I heard that!

Head tilt will remain if PT isn’t done because the muscles start to shorten on the side the head is tilting toward. So we gently stretch them out like we would any muscle!

Rabbits with severe head tilts can also start rolling in the direction of their head tilt uncontrollably, which is upsetting to watch. So to avoid this, here is a video of how I did physical therapy on Oliver 2-3 times per day for 2 weeks. His head tilt wasn’t even noticeable after a week, but I kept doing it anyway just to be safe.

https://youtu.be/MaVriCWjW_Y

Oliver’s followup visit

We went back to the vet last week to get his ears re-checked, and he still actually had a little bit of infection in his one ear, so we are on two more weeks of ear drops right now, but I was really encouraged by how much better they looked! Apparently these things can take a while to go away completely

What causes ear infections in rabbits?

This was the exact question I asked my vet because I did not want poor Oliver to go through this again.

One factor is probably more obvious: bacteria exposure - if a rabbit lives in an unclean environment or simply gets the wrong kind of bacteria in his ear somehow, this can lead to an ear infection.

My vet said that another factor is that sometimes it can be caused by a protozoa parasite (she had a specific name for it, but it has eluded me at this time). In any living being, parasites can compromise the immune system, so that is one possibility.

Since I already keep their space extremely clean, I suspected parasites may be the culprit here. They can be on veggies - even organic, so it’s important to always rinse fresh veggies before giving them to a rabbit (or anyone!).

I also decided to put a little colloidal silver in their water. My vet said it’s perfectly safe if it’s good quality, and it helps kill bacteria. It’s also great for dogs and cats!

The last precaution I took here was putting parasite drops in their water. I take them daily, but now I also give them to my pets. I use Standard Enzyme’s Vermatox, which you can get through a natural doctor.

Was this helpful?

If you suspect your rabbit has an ear infection, get him or her to the vet ASAP! Sooner is better, but even if you have noticed a head tilt for a while, there is always hope for full recovery and healing with the right treatment!

If you have any questions, leave a comment, I’m happy to help!

Kristin