Floppy Rabbit Syndrome in Pet Rabbits: A Differential Diagnostic Framework in Light of Recent Clinicopathological Evidence
Abstract
Floppy rabbit syndrome (FRS) has long been regarded as an idiopathic, peracute neurological condition of pet rabbits, with the published record consisting mainly of client-facing case narratives, brief conference proceedings, and passing textbook mentions rather than systematic clinicopathological investigation. A retrospective study published in 2026, building on an antecedent single-institution thesis dataset, provided the first substantive clinicopathological evidence on the condition: affected rabbits show a peracute, symmetric, lower-motor-neuron tetraparesis with markedly elevated serum creatine kinase (and, in the antecedent dataset, aspartate aminotransferase) that normalizes alongside clinical recovery, while hypocalcemia, hypokalemia, and infection with Encephalitozoon cuniculi or Toxoplasma gondii were specifically tested for and found unlikely to explain the syndrome. This narrative review situates that evidence within the broader differential landscape of acute generalized weakness in rabbits, synthesizing the best-supported differential categories — E. cuniculi infection, hypocalcemia/hypokalemia and dietary imbalance, toxicosis (particularly lead), and spinal or traumatic causes — into a single practical diagnostic framework that reflects which of these have already been tested against FRS specifically and which remain reasonable extrapolations. Two etiologies occasionally cited in secondary and tertiary sources, listeriosis and mesenteric vascular events, are…
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Evidence Hub reads this as a preprint, done in animal, not in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.
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