Last night my mum went to check on our 10/11 month rabbit and panicked as she didn't seem to be moving properly but when I went to check she seemed OK. This morning my brother came in to the living room saying that she couldn't move her back legs, which sent my mum into a panic. I've tried to tell her to calm down and it's probably not that serious (although looking online the outcome does not seem good ) and she's taken her to the vet.

The rabbit lives alone in a medium sized cage, I can't see how she could of injured herself. Should I expect the worst ? I brought the rabbit home from a student house as nobody could give her the attention she deserved, my brother is very good with her. I feel very guilty as I had quite a go at my mum but she was hysterical and talking about it being dead in front of my younger brother, now she thinks I don't care about the poor thing. Any advice or suggestions much appreciated thank you.

sounds pretty strange...

what breed rabbit and how big a cage?
tall enough that she could sit up straight? (similar to how a meerkat would when observing)
does she get exercise outside of it regularly?

i'm afraid something like this doesn't ring as treatable to me, at least not without a very large vet bill, sorry hon

thing about rabbits too is that they don't tend to have much fight in them when something is wrong and unfortunately, they just seem to give up.
my lecturer told me this just after i'd lost my first rabbit, and i have to say i'm inclined to agree with her

I heard of this being caused by a lack of something in their diet but I don't think it can be reversed

Rabbits need to be handled very carefully as they have very fragile backs and can actually break their backs just by jumping back into their hutch badly (so should always be returned to their hutch rear end first to prevent them jumping in), or by kicking out hard when being held, e.g for nail clipping. Hopefully this isn't the case with your bun but not much that can be done for them if this happens

I'm not too sure what breed she is. She's been kept in over night, the vet said it could be a parasite which is treatable if caught early. Will find out tomorrow what (if anything) can be done. Can't actually think of any way she could of broken her back, she's very tame, never kicked out or been overly-active. Thanks for everything so far.

I have known rabbits that have broken their backs by binkying (when they jump about all happy)

I hope this isn't the case with this rabbit.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. The vet phoned last night and said there was no improvement after the medication given to her, my mum will be going there later when she will probably be put down. We're all feeling pretty crap, my little brother is heartbroken, she's such a lovely little thing . Thank you again for your help.

I'm really sorry for your little pet and you. Sadly, this hapened to a rabbit of mine a few years ago. It was a chocolate and white Dutch, so not very big, and it had broken it's back but we didn't know how. The vet said it can just happen when it's jumping and we had to have him put to sleep, but it was better for him than just lying there.

I'm sorry to hear about your little bun. Maybe you could get another one for your little brother since he is so fond of this one..

*hugs*